Boot Camp for Minangkabau Gold Traders

Jewelry shops lining up at Blok M Square in South Jakarta are the perfect training ground for potential gold traders from West Sumatra. Discipline, honesty and willingness to work hard are tested inside these shops.

KOMPAS/INSAN ALFAJRI

Gold shops stand side by side in Blok M Square, South Jakarta, on Tuesday (10/3/2020).

Upon visiting the Blok M Square shopping arcade in South Jakarta, you will immediately see lines of jewelry shops. Most of the owners hail from Minangkabau in West Sumatra. Other than serving as spots for customers to buy gold jewelry, the shops are also the perfect training ground for new gold traders.

Azwar Wahid or Haji Sagi, 70, is among the jewelry shop owners in the shopping arcade. The owner of Singgalang and Sumbar Riau gold shops hails from Pariaman, West Sumatra. In a phone interview on Wednesday (11/3/2020), Haji Sagi told Kompas about his success story in Jakarta. Sagi said that, when he was little, he often tagged along with his parents to West Sumatra’s capital Padang on school holidays. Observing lines of gold shops at the Padang main market, Sagi said that he was amazed by the gold traders.

“I was amazed. I wanted to be like them. The shops are neat and well-managed. The owners just counted money every day. I was motivated to be like them,” said Sagi, who was born to a couple of salted fish and cattle sellers.

At the time, there was no urang awak [Minangkabau people] selling gold in Jakarta

He then migrated to Jakarta in 1975. He hopped on a ship at Teluk Bayur harbor, or Emma Haven as it was known during the colonial era. The youngest boy of nine siblings was single and 25 years old at the time. Along with his older brother, he opened a shop at Mayestik market in Jakarta. “At the time, there was no urang awak [Minangkabau people] selling gold in Jakarta,” he said.

Before departing to Jakarta, Sagi had learned about selling gold from another older sibling in Padang. He went to Jakarta with the dream of developing a business in a new town.

Karatau madang di hulu

Babuah babungo belum (not yet bearing flowers or fruits)

Marantau bujang dahulu (singles go far away from home)

Di rumah baguno belum (as there is no use for him at home)

KOMPAS/ALIF ICHWAN

Gold jewelry is displayed at the Permata Cikini department store in Jakarta on Tuesday (31/12/2019).

Sagi held this traditional saying close to his heart. “It felt true way back when,” Sagi said, while reminiscing about his time living in a rented home and selling gold in Mayestik market. At the time, his bathroom was 200 meters away from his home.

Three years went by and his business began to flourish. He then moved to Blok M. Here, he recruited people from home as his employees. “In essence, merantau [going away] is about how useful you can be for your hometown,” he said.

Sagi’s requirements for his employees: diligent, obedient and not going out after dark. “My ban to go out after dark is because so many bad things can happen at night. You can pass a drunken man who stabs you and you die needlessly. You can also be influenced by youth promiscuity,” he explained.

Furthermore, he also allows his employees to travel back home only after working for him for three to five years. Before this is achieved, they must be willing to celebrate holidays in Jakarta. “Except if there is an emergency, like a parent dying. [If such things happen], they can go home,” he continued.

All of this, Sagi said, was to train his potential employees to be disciplined and focused with their goals in Jakarta. For him, they will not always be his employees. In time, they will open their own shops.

Sagi said that, other than monthly salary, his employees also got an annual bonus. Employees can save this bonus for setting up their own shops. The bonus ranges between five and 10 percent of the shop’s net profit.

ERIKA KURNIA UNTUK KOMPAS

Gold jewelry and bullion is offered for sale at a shop at Senen Market, Central Jakarta, Monday (16/7/2018).

According to Sagi, he has recruited 700 employees throughout the decades he spent in Jakarta. Hundreds of his former employees had resigned to open their own shops. They scatter in various places. Some stay with Sagi. Others choose to quit.

“Those who quit surely think that my rules are too strict. But, just ask the successful ones. All the rules exist for their own benefit. People have good and bad sides. It’s just how we choose to perceive them,” he said.

Sagi also strives to bring progress to his hometown. “What is the use of success here if you leave behind your hometown? In essence, merantau is about developing your hometown,” he said.

This is what he does in his hometown of IV Koto Aur Malintang district in Padang Pariaman regency. He initiated several schools, including SMKN I IV Koto Aur Malintang vocational high school. Sagi’s zakat (religious alms) ahead of the Ramadan fasting month is also awaited by many people in his hometown. He can donate billions of rupiah.

Kompas

Ajisman, 30, runs a gold shop at Blok M Square, Jakarta.

Sagi’s opinion that all of his employees must have discipline is deeply felt by Ajisman, 30. He manages a gold shop owned by a relative in Blok M Square. He joined the gold shop after completing high school in 2009. With a monthly salary of only Rp 600,000 (US$40.96) at the time, he worked at the shop from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. He only get one day off a month.

“If we follow civil servants’ lifestyle, that amount of salary would not have been enough. But, with our lifestyle, it was. I lived in my boss’ house, who covered my meals,” he said.

In his first year, Ajisman learnt how to measure gold purity. In his second year, he was allowed to serve customers. That year, he began to receive bonus. It was Rp 15 million and was distributed several days ahead of Ramadan.

The net profit here, after shop rent and other fees are deducted, is around 700 grams per year.

In 2018, he was appointed as shop manager. Apart from getting a daily salary of Rp 150,000, he also get a 15-percet bonus of the shop’s net profit. “The net profit here, after shop rent and other fees are deducted, is around 700 grams per year,” said the father of one.

He said that, if living alone, the annual bonus is enough to set up a shop. However, the essence of working far away from home for him is not to pile up personal wealth. Instead, it is to be shared with people back home. This was why he has not yet decided to set up his own shop.

KOMPAS/INSAN ALFAJRI

Customers visit the Romi Putra gold shop in Kreo, Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday (10/3/2020).

Romi Putra, 30, the owner of three gold shops in Kreo, South Tangerang, has another story. He has never received any education at established gold shops. He said he was sure he would not be able to bear the strict discipline. “I love to be out and about. I would not have made it,” he said.

However, he still wished to become a gold trader in Java. “Just think. How can you change your fate if you just stay home?” he said.

In 2009, he went to Jakarta and stayed at the place of a relative who had gone to the city before him. In his first year, he sold clothes at night markets in Tangerang. At the same time, many of his friends “go to school” at gold shops.

At one time, he passed by his friends’ gold shops on the way back from a night market on his old Vespa scooter. On the Vespa’s back seat was his goods. He covered his head with a headwear and a helmet. “I would be so ashamed if they saw me,” he said.

How can you change your fate if you just stay home?

His fate changed for the better when his brother-in-law offered him to sell silver. Starting to silver, he then moved to gold. That was his story.

He borrowed money from his friend to buy a display cabinet. He also borrowed money from his sibling to rent a shop. He also borrowed silvers from his friend who was a silver distributor.

As a silver trader, the agate phenomenon of 2015 boosted his business. He gambled in selling agate and struck a fortune. He was overwhelmed by orders. “I bought sacks of agate at the Rawabening Market [in Jakarta] at the time. Here [in Kreo], I sold it as large as ring agates. One ring with a silver bind can get me Rp 400,000 in profits,” he said.

From every rupiah that he gathered, He bought gold. Since 2014, his shops have sold not only silver but also gold. Now, in the first quarter of 2020, the father of one has three shops selling 10 kilograms of gold in various jewelry forms.

All the three shops are in Kreo Market. The largest of them is on the corner of Jl. Wahid Hasyim in Tangerang. On Tuesday (10/3/2020), the shop was quite crowded. “On average, we sell 150 grams and buy 100 grams a day,” he said.

Romi has eight employees, including two shop managers and two workers. They all live in his house. The shop managers earn Rp 70,000 a day while the workers Rp 40,000 a day.

KOMPAS/INSAN ALFAJRI

Jewelry is on display at the Romi Putra gold shop in Kreo, Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday (10/3/2020)

They all get an annual bonus. Romi said that the annual bonus did not have a fixed percentage from profit. Last year, each shop manager got 200 grams of gold. Workers who had been employed for one year got 100 grams. New employees got cash.

Aside from the eight employees, Romi also has a former employee who manages his own shop now. The employee resigned in 2018 after working for him for four years. “If I remember correctly, he got a total bonus of 500 grams of gold,” he said.

All of his employees are from his hometown, Pariaman. They usually apply for the job accompanied by their parents when Romi travels back home during Idul Fitri holiday. For him, the most important thing is his employees’ honesty. He always emphasizes to his employees the importance of maintaining trust.

“If I cannot trust them, I will get headaches all the time. Here in this [Permata Kreo] shop alone, I have eight kilograms of gold in hundreds of necklaces and rings. They can just take one and I will have no idea. When I travel to my hometown, I leave the shop and all the gold with them,” he said.

Long history

Throughout history, gold was never a foreign commodity for Minangkabau people. In his 2013 book Merantau: Migration Pattern of Minangkabau People, Mochtar Naim wrote that Minangkabau people was the main supplier of gold and pepper in the height of trade in Malaka in the 15th and 16th centuries.

On the other hand, gold remains a medium of exchange for some Minangkabau people, such as in pawning personal belongings. For instance, a plot of rice field can be pawned for 10 golds, with “one gold” being equal to 2.5 grams of gold. Gold is also often used for transactions of coconut trees in Pariaman. One tree is priced at one gold.