Indonesians in Focus: J. Irwan Hidayat

By Barrie | August 20th, 2007 | No Comments

Irwan Hidayat, 60, is happy to hear that four of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country are manufacturing cold medicine, kunyit asem (turmeric-tamarind) anti-obesity preparations and herbal tonics — three major products of his jamu (herbal medicine) firm, PT Sidomuncul.

“Their production of drugs for the common cold means solid recognition of jamu by the medical community,” he said last week at his South Jakarta office.

Now Irwan has every reason to be delighted, because on previous occasions when jamu and its effectiveness were discussed, he was dismayed by the prevailing attitude that trivialized traditional remedies.

Even the very mention of the word jamu triggered prejudice, let alone such jamu-related terms for ailments such as panas dalam (slight fever), masuk angin (catching cold) and circulatory disorders requiring thinning the blood.

For many years, local pharmaceutical companies were unwilling to produce herbal drugs as a result of their deep-rooted orientation to Western medicine and rational considerations.

“Today, they have manufactured these drugs and recognized their effectiveness. While they once questioned the rationality of masuk angin, now they produce its remedies, thus acknowledging herbal cures,” added the businessman, who was born in Yogyakarta on April 23, 1947.

Irwan thus hoped that the government would make a prompt response and give serious attention to the jamu industry, for instance by opening medicinal herbs programs at medical and pharmaceutical schools, and providing public health services oriented to both allopathic, or mainstream, medicines and agropathic, or herbal-based, medicines.

Born and raised in a family of jamu makers, Irwan’s life has been inseparable from the world of traditional herbal medicine. He is one of the third-generation successors taking the helm of the family business. Sidomuncul, currently on a par with pharmaceutical firms, is ready to market its clinically tested products worldwide.

In 2000, the government granted the standard drug manufacturing (CPOB) certificate to the jamu company, which was founded by Mrs. Rakhmat Sulistyo, Irwan’s grandmother, in November 1951.

When Irwan and his four younger brothers inherited the family business in 1972, it was still facing unfavorable conditions, which forced the brothers to work hard in making improvements.

In his search to uncover operational weaknesses, Irwan received an accidental reminder from a mentally disturbed man who said that Sidomuncul’s jamu products were bitter and foul-tasting.

The remark made Irwan anxious, and compelled him to rack his brains to turn out palatable yet effective herbal concoctions. After undertaking various experiments with his team, they made significant progress.

In 1997, he set up a modern jamu factory under a pharmaceutical business license, during a time when many such firms were closing down. Sidomuncul’s laboratory also complied with pharmaceutical standards.

These efforts led to the company’s CPOB certification in 2000, which elevated its jamu products to equal status with pharmaceutical drugs. It meant a big leap forward, because previously jamu firms could only obtain the standard traditional drug manufacturing (CPOTB) certificate.

Sidomuncul’s success has also been a result of concrete proof.

“I’m just making drugs with efficacy as claimed,” Irwan said, citing his tolak angin, or cold medicine, as example.

Research has shown that this jamu can increase the body’s resistance to colds by raising the lymphocyte count in white blood cells, which boosts the growth of interferon that prevents viral infections.

To prove its safety for consumption, in 1999 Irwan took the step of subjecting this particularly product — already circulating in the 1930s and mass-manufactured since 1951 — to a toxicity test, to ascertain it did not have harmful effects in long-term use. The company would have had to reevaluate or withdraw the remedy if it had failed the test.

The risky move Irwan had taken was meant to show his firm’s moral responsibility and prevent negative consequences resulting from declining quality.

“We would (rather) choose to discontinue business if any product goes wrong, instead of pretending to be ignorant. It’s our concept that all products should be safe, rational and honestly presented,” Irwan stressed.

In running his business, Irwan adopts an unconventional approach. For example, with regard to his elderly employees, instead of following the legal retirement age of 60 years, he follows his conscience.

The company still employs those above 60 years of age, and one of their employees is a 70-year-old who had suffered a stroke.

“I won’t let him retire… By staying at home, his condition may worsen,” Irwan said of 70-year-old Sugiarto. “I never dismiss ailing people, let alone elderly ones. I know that without work, one could lose the will to live,” he argued.

Irwan is well aware that the productivity of elderly and ailing employees is questionable.

“But I think it’s our contribution,” said Irwan. “While we make donations to others, why don’t we (also) help our own workers? They have served this company. If we just consider profit-making, we can do nothing.”

It is in accordance with this line of thought that he presented Rp 100 million (US$10,230) in appreciation to boxer M. Rachman, despite his July 7 loss to the Philippines’ Florante Condes.

Likewise, Irwan produced a jamu commercial by casting physically disabled artists, pedicab drivers and tire repairers, even though product commercials generally star successful and attractive actors.

“I chose the disadvantaged, poor and paralyzed to appear in my infomercial. They turned out to boost the corporate turnover remarkably,” said Irwan, a recipient of the Bung Hatta Award and Kehati Award for his green and populist business achievements.

But in the eyes of this admirer of the late Mother Theresa, the real appreciation should go to those who have made serious endeavors, rather than accomplished ones.

Emanuel Dapa Loka