Stuffy air in Indonesia's public world<\/p>\n
Indonesian Images -- The Culture of the Public World;
\nBy Niels Mulder; Kanisius Publishing House, 2000; 249 pp;
\nRp 25,000<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP) Vociferous protests are heard loud and clear.
\nGroups of people can easily turn into a mob, sometimes rowdy,
\nsometimes orderly. A small issue can spark a heated debate.<\/p>\n
Headlines capture attention not for their content, but for
\ntheir sheer vulgarity. Goodbye politeness and farewell propriety,
\nit seems. This is Indonesia of today, its public world enjoying
\nseemingly complete freedom of speech, expression and assembly.<\/p>\n
When Soeharto stepped down in May 1998, the door to freedom
\nwas opened at a greater speed. When Soeharto's successor, B.J.
\nHabibie, was replaced by the most democratically elected
\npresident, Abdurrahman \"Gus Dur\" Wahid, freedom seemed to be let
\nloose. Indonesia's public world is deliriously absorbed in its
\nlong-lost freedom. For 32 years Soeharto and his New Order regime
\nmuzzled critical mouths and stunted creative minds. For 32 years,
\nIndonesia's public world was tightly wrapped in the blanket of
\ndarkness that was authoritarianism.<\/p>\n
Mulder's book is interesting as it traces the development of
\npublic discourse in Indonesia until just before the 1997 monetary
\ncrisis, and considering that this Dutch anthropologist with a
\nspecial interest in Southeast Asian affairs has written a few
\nbooks about Indonesia (for example his Mysticism In Java\/Ideology
\nin Indonesia). This crisis sounded the death knell for the New
\nOrder regime, which collapsed following mass rallies by students
\nand laymen alike.<\/p>\n
Reading the book through will allow a mosaic of events and
\npublic figures to evolve before you, presenting a dark picture,
\nalbeit with some optimism, of the country's public world in the
\nyears preceding the collapse of the Soeharto regime.<\/p>\n
The book is divided into seven chapters and discusses the
\ntopics from what Mulder believes forms the basis of prevailing
\nideas among Indonesians. So the book begins with a discussion of
\nsocial studies in elementary schools and senior secondary
\nschools. In these two chapters, Mulder critically looks at the
\ntextbooks on social studies used in the schools. These books,
\nMulder maintains, shape students' awareness of the outside world,
\nthe world beyond schools and homes. Social studies introduces
\nstudents to ways of maintaining social contact and later placing
\nthemselves in society.<\/p>\n
Mulder notices the government's strong attempt in the books to
\nstress only ideal things: harmony and togetherness. Society must
\nbe construed as a big family and harmony must be pursued in
\nsocial relations (including relations among different religions).
\nThe state's principle of Pancasila has been considered a sacred
\nlegacy, close to being made an amulet for the entire nation. It
\nhas, according to Mulder, been made a shield against everything
\nthat the state considers harmful to the people, or rather to its
\nown interest.<\/p>\n
Persatuan and kesatuan (unity and integrity) are repeated much
\ntoo often, and \"Society is not a field of contending interests
\nand values\" with the result that one's place in society and
\npublic life is unclear. The result is that \"One had better go
\none's own way -- unburdened by responsibility. Lu lu, gue gue.
\n(You for yourself, I for myself). It may follow that once the
\ndoor to openness is open, acts manifesting excessive freedom will
\nabound. This lack of social responsibility is behind such acts.
\nSchools which are expected to lay the foundation for the
\nstudents' social consciousness merely inculcate into their minds
\nslogans empty of significance.<\/p>\n
In the next chapter Mulder dwells on Islam, the intelligentsia
\nand the state. In his opinion, there are two great camps in the
\nIslamic movement in Indonesia. One camp believes in promoting
\nIslam as a cultural activity while to the other camp, Muslims
\nmust strive to place themselves among the country's political
\nelite so that they will have important sway in state matters and,
\nit follows, benefit Muslims in general. The first camp is
\nrepresented by Indonesia's President, and the other by Amien
\nRais, the present speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly.
\nInterestingly, Abdurrahman is identified with Nahdlatul Ulama
\n(NU) and Amien with Muhammadiyah, both being the country's
\nlargest Muslim organizations. In between these two camps are
\nother groups of Muslims in different degrees of proximity to the
\nstate.<\/p>\n
In the next three chapters, Mulder concentrates on the public
\nworld and how it is manifested in mass media and novels. The mass
\nmedia, in Mulder's observation, cleverly made use of the little
\nroom allowed by the ruling New Order regime; exposing the
\nregime's corrupt face without causing much offense.<\/p>\n
When newspapers quote the words of one public figure and then
\nanother public figure at different places, the criticism voiced
\nwill not form a concerted public opinion and will therefore not
\nbe harmful to the interest of the state.<\/p>\n
In the chapter on \"Images in Fiction\", Mulder briefly
\ndiscusses five contemporary novels, each by Arswendo Atmowiloto,
\nYB Mangunwijaya, Sindhunata, Seno Gumira Ajidarma and Leila S.
\nChudori. Although the novels are set differently and have their
\nown plots, Mulder can find a common theme: stifling of the mind
\nand the way to come to terms with it in order to survive. What
\nway is offered? Escape from reality, as Seno Gumira Ajidarma
\nadvises in his Jazz, Parfum & Insiden or live in your own world,
\nas Sindhunata suggests in his Semar Mencari Raga. Or it can be
\npasrah, resigning yourself to fate in the traditional way, as
\nsuggested by Arswendo in his Canting or in the new style as Leila
\nproposes in her Malam Terakhir. In short, the public world Mulder
\nstudies is one of gloom and stuffiness that one can only live in
\nas long as one can create one's own world and resign oneself to
\nfate.<\/p>\n
The book concludes with a chapter on \"Constructing the Public
\nWorld: the Discourse of the 1990s\", which dwells on the public
\ndiscourse during the New Order regime. It was the time when minds
\nwere stunted with the drone of Pancasila at schools and Pancasila
\nindoctrination at all levels of society.<\/p>\n
Or in Mulder's words, \"The thirty-two years since the coming
\nto power of the Generation of 1945 (there was) an attempt to
\nestablish a corporate state that is at war with civil society\".
\nThat explains the gloomy public world that the New Order created
\nof Indonesia. It is in this light that Mulder's book is
\nilluminating for our understanding of present-day Indonesia.<\/p>\n
-- Lie Hua<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/stuffy-air-in-indonesias-public-world-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }