Before going further on this short article I would like to tell you a place which becomes the setting on this article. It is Banjar Belanjong, a small area in Sanur. If you ever heard about Mertasari Beach, it is belong to Banjar Belanjong’s area and for the archaeologist or the historian maybe knows about the Belanjong Inscription in Belanjong Temple, well Banjar Belanjong is next to it on the west side. Banjar itself is a social-traditional organization based on mutual needs (in good and bad times, such as events involving marriage and death rituals) and the building or hall for the meetings of this group is also called banjar. That’s a little bit about the setting; let’s go to the point of this article which is about borrowing money.

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In Sanur, there are some good places for borrowing money. They are bank, LPD (Lembaga Perkreditan Desa/the Village’s Credit System Institution) – it is actually like a bank but it is built in a village by the villagers’ agreement. The aim of the institution is to make the members of the village prosperous by giving higher interest than the bank when people save their money. It also gives a lot of ease and facilities to the members of the village when borrowing money because if they save money for a certain amount they can use it as a guarantee to lend money, so they don’t need to use their car, house, or land as the guarantee — and another good place for borrowing money is Banjar.

For the members of Banjar Belanjong, banjar is their favorite place to lend some money. Why? Because they don’t have to give any wala (guarantee) at all like the normal requirement needed when borrowing money from the bank or LPD. And this ease makes borrowing money become their preference.

The prerequisite to lend money in Banjar Belanjong is so simple. The first one is the person must be the member of the banjar and then he/she must return their debt in six months. If the person cannot return it on the given period of time, he/she is not allowed to lend again until he/she returns it back.

How the members of Banjar Belanjong solve the “six months” problem? Well, their way is just as simple as the banjar’s. If they still don’t have money to return their loan, so before the D-day they will find another loan from their neighbors or their family. After returning it to banjar they are allowed to borrow money again and this money is used to return their debt at their neighbors or their family. It’s amazing due to it happens regularly. Like the Indonesian proverb said: “Digging and burying hole” which means paying a debt while creating another one.

People who borrow money from the banjar do not derive from the middle or lower class only, but they also come from the higher class. So the question, what makes those rich people loan some money from the banjar? Some of them answered, “Well, we are allowed and given chance to loan some money, so we just use it as good as we can.”

Well, the members of Banjar Belanjong prefer borrowing money to saving it at their banjar. But hopefully their preference of borrowing money will turn into preference of saving money with the passing of the time.

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