Modern Indonesia fast losing traditional values<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Noted social scientist Mohamad Sobary says
\nsocial norms, in particular as they inform the political
\nintegrity of state officials, have been eroded in the rapid
\nprocess of modernization in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said
\nthe nation had lost many of its traditional values which had, in
\nthe past, been essential in maintaining the national character
\nand the integrity of its leaders.<\/p>\n
The decay of values had created a state of \"mass hypocrisy\",
\nhe said, which condoned acts lacking in virtue, such as
\ncorruption. Sobary made the remarks on Tuesday during a seminar
\nentitled \"Reflections and Projections Regarding Nation- and
\nCharacter-Building in Indonesia\".<\/p>\n
The modernization process had transformed the old village-
\nbased norms into the cosmopolitan standards, lacking in any
\nvirtue and capable of ensuring only a mild degree of social
\ncontrol.<\/p>\n
\"Corruption in our society began with the corruption of
\nvalues,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A weakened system of social control had further weakened the
\npotency of social sanctions and allowed the degradation of
\nstandards, he said.<\/p>\n
\"So when a high-ranking state official is found embezzling
\none, two or even three trillion (rupiah), he isn't worried about
\nhaving insults rain down upon him, because what is the potency of
\ninsults?\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sobary said that the demise of traditional values had made
\npeople insensitive to manipulation to which, he said, they were
\nsubject. That was because, he said, the new \"cosmopolitan\"
\nstandards were based more on materialistic-physical realities.<\/p>\n
\"There's a sense of social solidarity prevailing in a certain
\nsocial class such that, when someone falls off his chair, his
\nfriends quickly help him up,\" he said. He added: \"Important
\npeople are not to be shamed.\"<\/p>\n
It had been traditional norms that led Mohammad Hatta to
\nresign as vice-president of Indonesia in 1951 because of
\npolitical differences with then President Sukarno, Sobary said,
\nadding that today's political culture was blind to such levels of
\npolitical integrity.<\/p>\n
\"Every time a moral voice calls for the resignation of a
\ncorrupt official, with great proficiency people near the
\npolitician defend him, arguing that resigning from one's position
\nis not part of our culture,\" Sobary said.<\/p>\n
Not a single senior government official had resigned from his
\npost in the last 30 years, he noted.<\/p>\n
\"This is the joy, for those in power, living in an age of
\ninsanity, an age devoid of set local norms,\" Sobary said.<\/p>\n
In confronting this malaise, Sobary called for close
\nreflection on the traditional values of the past.<\/p>\n
\"We have built everything for the sake of an 'Indonesia of
\ntomorrow', except character and self-respect. In heading towards
\nthe Indonesia of the future, we have broken the roots of our own
\npast,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sobary said one of the forces that could save society was
\nreligion. \"I sincerely long for religion, so that religion can
\nbecome an effective moral standard,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sobary expressed doubts, however, about the recent rise of
\nreligious reverence.<\/p>\n
He said that certain much-lauded religious activities that had
\nbecome popular in the past few years, such as the breaking the
\nfast in luxurious hotels during the Moslem fasting month of
\nRamadhan, might be mere external gestures rather than any
\nprofound religious submission.<\/p>\n
He said that religion was often exploited for various
\nobjectives, including social or political advantages.<\/p>\n
\"It is as if we are all in a common state of national
\nhypocrisy. And the strange thing is that we are proud of it,\" he
\nsaid. (mds)<\/p>",
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