The private capture of common good<\/p>\n
B. Herry-Priyono
\nDriyarkara
\nSchool of Philosophy
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
The year 2002 began with torrential floods battering Jakarta and
\nmany other cities. Nature cares nothing for our logic; she has
\nher own, which we do not acknowledge until we are crushed under
\nher wheel. By the end of 2002, it is clear that the way we were
\ncrushed has less to do with nature than with our disregard for
\nhow nature needs nurture.<\/p>\n
The attempt to conquer Mother Nature began long before 2002.
\nHow many parks, swamps and lakes have been completely wiped out?!
\nIn the past ten years, for example, 20,074 hectares of the great
\nwater conservation area in Bopunjur (Bogor, Puncak and Cianjur)
\nhave been turned into hotels, restaurants and villas. So are
\nother support systems for the ecology of Jakarta, like areas now
\nknown as Sunter, Taman Anggrek Industrial Zone, Hotel Mulia in
\nSouth Jakarta and the 831.6 hectares of the Pantai Indah Kapuk
\nestate. Pantai Indah Kapuk used to be 1,144 hectares of virgin
\nmangrove forest serving as a nine million cubic meter water
\nreservoir.<\/p>\n
No doubt, the list of the looted areas elsewhere is much
\nlonger, like environmental disasters in Timika, Minahasa, North
\nTapanuli, or Nusa Tenggara. The year 2002 has witnessed the
\nintensification of such pillaging. The ongoing financial crisis
\nthat puts the government in a revenue quandary has pushed further
\nthe selling-out of many public areas into private hands.
\nDocumenting the disappearance of these ecological jewels, the
\nJakarta Social Institute concludes that most cases involve
\nquestionable transfers to business groups.<\/p>\n
What concerns us is less about nature than about the way the
\nprerequisite for our shared life is being squeezed out by the
\nmost unenlightened pursuits of short-term profit. This, in fact,
\nis what happens to the other \"material bases\" for our Republic.
\nThe capture of the provision of public health, water or
\nelectricity by private businesses poses a crisis in the survival
\nof public interest. The state of public transportation is a case
\nin point. Of the total 3,870,758 units of vehicles in Jakarta in
\n2002, for example, 97.5 percent are private and only 2.5 percent
\nfor public transportation. There are 16 million daily trips
\nwithin Jakarta, 42.8 percent of which are by private cars and
\n57.2 percent from public transportation; a very high level of
\nconsumerism of space.<\/p>\n
Not so long ago there was an oft-repeated agreement that the
\nprovision of our daily necessities such as water, electricity,
\nhealth, public transportation - as distinguished from perfume or
\ndiamonds - has to be safeguarded by the utmost concern for the
\ngeneral public. State-run enterprises, that dying economic
\nspecies, was the incarnate form of public ownership in the
\nideological battle up until the second half of the 1970s. Gone
\nwas that era. The ensuing neo-liberal revolution has shattered
\nthe myth of the public-spirited state.<\/p>\n
Enter the tidal wave of de-regulation and privatization.
\nIndeed, privatization has its virtues. It has pumped up the
\nmoribund state enterprises with the ethos of productivity and
\nefficiency. The daring new world now belongs to the entrepreneurs
\nof private profit. Both efficiency and profit, however, are a
\nmeans begging an end. It is this question of 'end' that gradually
\npushes the revolution to the other extreme.<\/p>\n
In place of public goods, accumulation of private wealth is
\nheralded as the term of celebration. In place of the patrician
\nliberal virtue of Smith's The Wealth of Nations, we are advancing
\nthe neo-liberal vice of Friedman's The Wealth of Individuals.
\nIndeed, we seem to have a penchant for the extreme, perhaps
\nbecause balance is a virtue that exists only in sermons; it is
\nthe site of boredom.<\/p>\n
In this ideological trap lies the banal argument about private
\nversus state ownership, market versus command political-economy.<\/p>\n
This is a thoughtless binary for understanding the issue that,
\nalas, ultimately lies in neither one. The real issue is about
\npublic interest. Is the common good better served by state-run
\nenterprises or by private ones?<\/p>\n
Once the angle is shifted in this direction, the unfruitful
\nbinary loses its force. \"Public interest\" and \"common good\"
\nshould not be understood simply in terms of the availability of
\npublic services, but also the extent to which the wider public -
\nas distinct from a coterie of shareholders - have a say over the
\nway public services are being distributed.<\/p>\n
After the fall of the State-led economies led us to a belief
\nthat the state is a nemesis to efficient economics, the derring-
\ndo of the 1980s onward has been the pursuit of homo privatus, or
\nindividual needs. Then, at the end of the 20th century, the rot
\nat the heart of the homo privatus economy began to surface.
\nUnfortunately, the ensuing battle remains couched in the binary
\nlanguage of privatization versus state ownership. The problem is,
\nthe neo-liberal apostles remain unenlightened. The year 2002 has
\nbeen a continuation of their scheme. In Joseph Stiglitz's mocking
\nphrase, it is the scheme of \"privatization at all costs!\"<\/p>\n
Life in a Republic is a morass of competing interests and
\nvisions for a better society. The year 2002 has given the
\nfollowing testimony: as much as the predatory state is a menace
\nto public interests, so is the parasitic private sector a nemesis
\nto the common good.<\/p>\n
2003 could and should be a time to conquer the predicament of
\nour shared life. How? Bring back the true meaning and nobility of
\npublic policy. The bad news is, the neo-liberal cabals will
\nlaunch a fierce resistance. The good news is, more people have
\nbeen outraged by the neo-liberal credo which proclaims that a
\ntree only counts for something once it has been chopped down and
\nturned into pulp.<\/p>",
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