Building a moral force within our current political life<\/p>\n
By Mochtar Buchori<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): To be a visible member of a big political party
\nand a not-so visible member of the House of Representatives (DPR)
\nis a privilege that should make one feel proud and content.<\/p>\n
Yet, this is not the case with me. I have become increasingly
\nuneasy and uncomfortable with my present status. I often ask
\nmyself these days whether being a politician is the right thing
\nfor me at this advanced age.<\/p>\n
Every time I enter the gates of the DPR compound I feel
\nrestless, haunted by the question, \"What am I doing here?\"<\/p>\n
It is my burning desire that when the time comes for me to go,
\nI will be remembered as a good columnist, and not as a member of
\nthe House.<\/p>\n
And I think that it is only through writing good columns that
\nI will be able -- to borrow Longfellow's words -- to contribute
\nsomething to \"make our lives sublime\/And, departing, leave behind
\nus\/Footprints on the sands of time\".<\/p>\n
I will never become a good columnist if I continue spending so
\nmuch of my time thinking politically about issues that I either
\ndo not really understand or in which I have no real interest. I
\ncan be a good columnist only if I spend enough time reading,
\ncontemplating and writing.<\/p>\n
I realize that a good House is an absolute must in our present
\ntransition to a democratic system. But are we really fighting for
\ndemocracy?<\/p>\n
Looking at how our political leaders argue with one another, I
\nsincerely doubt their commitment to democracy. Scoring political
\npoints for their respective parties and groups seems to be their
\nprimary goal. The expressed desire to improve the people's lives
\nseems to be only lip service, aimed primarily at promoting one's
\npolitical group.<\/p>\n
My negative feelings are reinforced by what I daily witness
\nand experience on the street. Every time my car stops at a
\ntraffic light or in a traffic jam, hordes of young kids approach
\nasking for a miserable Rp 100.<\/p>\n
I automatically look at my windshield, and the DPR\/MPR parking
\npermit that is plastered on my windshield makes me feel guilty. I
\nask myself, \"What have we done thus far to pressure the
\ngovernment to do something immediately to reduce these heart-
\nrending social conditions?\"<\/p>\n
Certainly this is a serious problem to which education can
\nprovide a long-term solution.<\/p>\n
I am by training an \"educationist\" and by calling a teacher.
\nMy long experience in this area enables me to see the horrible
\nstate of our educational system today. What have we done to
\nremedy this situation?<\/p>\n
We have been endlessly engaged in debates about revising the
\ncurriculum and the yearly final examinations (Ebtanas), as if
\nthese two issues were the most important problems besetting our
\neducational system.<\/p>\n
We have thus far never seriously discussed, for instance, the
\nissue of fundamental educational reform that will make the
\nyounger generations capable of leading the country out of our
\ncurrent economic and political chaos, and out of our current
\n\"technological backwater\" status.<\/p>\n
It is against this mental backdrop that I read Professor
\nJeffrey Sachs' article A new map of the world, in the latest
\nissue of The Economist (June 24, 2000).<\/p>\n
Prof. Sachs states the world is divided today by technology,
\nand no longer by ideology. Technology has divided the world's
\npopulation into three categories.<\/p>\n
First, \"those providing nearly all of the world's technology
\ninnovation\", roughly comprising 15 percent of the world's
\npopulation.<\/p>\n
Second, those who have acquired the capability to adopt
\ntechnological innovations in production and consumption, which
\nincludes roughly half of the world's population.<\/p>\n
And third are those who live in the \"technologically
\ndisconnected\" regions of the world, comprising about one third of
\nthe world's population.<\/p>\n
Technologically disconnected regions do not always conform to
\nnational borders, and many of them are in fact pockets within
\nnations.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has such pockets. West Irian, for instance, contains
\nregions where the population is entirely disconnected from
\ntechnological innovations.<\/p>\n
And along the southern coast of Java there are many
\ncommunities that are technologically excluded regions. According
\nto Prof. Sachs, the sad thing about this condition is that
\n\"societies that do not keep up with global technology often
\ncollapse\", unable even to maintain their standards of living.<\/p>\n
Viewed in this perspective, educational reform that will
\nenhance the technological capacity of the younger generations is
\nan urgent matter.<\/p>\n
If we want to rid ourselves of the poverty that has plagued
\nthis nation since independence, we must make parts of our
\npopulation highly innovative technologically, while the rest of
\nthe population must be made increasingly more capable of adopting
\ntechnological innovations.<\/p>\n
Achieving capability in technological innovation, even if only
\nfor a limited portion of our population, is a must. This is
\nbecause technological innovation shows \"increasing returns to
\nscale\", meaning that regions or populations with advanced
\ntechnologies will be more innovative.<\/p>\n
Thus the task that lies ahead is twofold: creating
\ntechnologically advanced pockets in our society, and erasing the
\ntechnology-excluded pockets from our national map.<\/p>\n
This takes time, of course, but if we start now there is still
\nhope that one day in the foreseeable future we will see our
\ncountry emerge from its present poverty.<\/p>\n
But if we continuously delay such action, then it is
\nimpossible to see the light at the end of this dark tunnel; or to
\nsee \"the silver tint in the clouds of doubt\", as one poet put it.<\/p>\n
Why can't we change the focus of our deliberations about
\neducation from Ebtanas and curriculum reform to issues that
\naffect the future of the nation?<\/p>\n
Why do we in the DPR always react to government policies,
\ninstead of asking the government to direct its attention and
\nthinking to more strategic questions?<\/p>\n
When it comes to this question, I am beginning to doubt
\nwhether our politicians today really understand that education as
\nan issue is no less important than the economy and politics.<\/p>\n
My impression is that our current politicians do not
\nunderstand that education is anticipatory and preparatory in
\nnature. Indeed, education can do nothing to improve our present
\neconomic and political conditions, but it can prepare the nation
\nfor better economic and political conditions in the future.<\/p>\n
Educational policies that do not provide sufficient attention
\nto the future of the nation result in the deterioration of the
\nnation's capacity to govern itself. This is bad politics. We can
\nchange this situation only if there is sufficient moral force in
\nhow we conduct politics.<\/p>\n
This nation once had a political culture in which morality was
\nheld in sufficiently high esteem. This political culture slowly
\ndisappeared and was replaced by one that was more or less
\nhedonistic-egotistic.<\/p>\n
Shall we ever be able to retrieve and revive our lost
\nhumanistic-nationalistic political culture?<\/p>\n
As usual, I think this is a question to be answered by
\npoliticians of the younger generations. Each generation has the
\nhistoric duty of shaping its own political culture.<\/p>\n
The older generations cannot, and should not, impose its aging
\npolitical culture on the young. The younger generations are not
\nan \"ego-extension\" of the old.<\/p>\n
The writer is an observer of social and cultural issues.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/building-a-moral-force-within-our-current-political-life-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }