INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES ISSUE 4. 2017 The Moon Dies in Northern Bekasi: Development, Impoverishment and the Irony of the Paddy Granary Khaerul Umam Noer Biodata: Khaerul Umam Noer is a lecturer at Department of Public Administration of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Muhammadiyah Jakarta Univerity (UMJ).,He is also Managing Director of the Center of Women and Gender Studies, University of Indonesia. His research interests are gender and public policy. The author can be contacted on the email address:
[email protected] Abstract The issues of development in Indonesia is always interesting to be studied, especially the impact of development on the society. This article tries to picture how development in the Bekasi regency has changed the face of Bekasi fundamentally, from an agricultural area to an industrial area, as well as its impact on the society. Specifically, this article shall explore the northern region of Bekasi. The regency of Bekasi, which is very strategic due to its direct shared border with Jakarta, in addition to the fact that the land area is extensive, has made Bekasi the target of industrial development, especially in the southern area of Bekasi. This has had a real and viable impact on Bekasi’s PDRB (Produk Domestik Regional Bruto/Regional Gross Domestic Product). However, the industrial development has left behind one serious issue, the industrial waste that flows from the south to the north, which ends in the Sea of Java. On the other hand, the needs of housing from the workers in the eastern area of Jakarta and Bekasi as well as the price of the land that is still cheap, has made the northern region of Bekasi a favorite option for housing.