Anticipating social change in RI

Anticipating social change in RI

By Ignas Kleden

This is the first of two articles on development and the
accompanying changes the people have to face.

JAKARTA (JP): Needless to say, the economic development
which has been the focus of the first 25-year period of
Indonesia's national development program has brought about many
good things. However, it was apparently not so clear from the
beginning, that once people start to enhance economic
development, they ipso facto allow for changes originating in
shifts in the material base of the culture and society, of which
the economy of goods and services becomes the main underpinning.

On a very elementary level, a young man in East Flores, who
previously used to earn only Rp 5,000 to Rp 10,000 from
traditional fishing, undergoes a change in lifestyles because,
due to new motorized fishing techniques, he can now earn Rp
500,000 to Rp 1,000,000 by taking a fishing boat out with friends
for only three or four days. The tragedy -- to some extent it is
a real comedy -- is that the big increase in income is not
accompanied by the same increase in economic fantasy or economic
imagination. How could we expect the fisherman concerned to be
able to use that large amount of money productively overnight? No
wonder, the rising income has resulted, first of all, in the
increasing consumption of alcohol, which traditionally has always
been available on that island.

This example simply illustrates how economic growth
generates social changes, and the fact that we cannot deal with
those changes simply by believing that everything is still the
same as it previously was, or by attributing them to scapegoat
factors, which are actually impossible to blame. The increasingly
widespread use of drugs among the young people in the big cities
should be dealt with in terms of the changing material base and
our preparation to come to terms with it. One school teacher is
of the opinion that the parents should control the amount of
pocket money available to their children before they start to
complain about what is going on among the young people. Suddenly
we are faced with "Ecstasy", which overwhelms the young people we
are placing our hopes on.

If the kids have enough money in their pockets, they are
exposed automatically to the temptation to buy something which
they are not allowed to have, or something which their parents do
not want them exposed to. I would argue that our attitude toward
material things and material culture should be seriously examined
before we start to talk about moral values or things related to
consciousness building. Of course there is no difference between
the young people of East Flores who spend their extra income on
alcohol and the young Jakartans who waste their financial
resources on drugs. This is to say that it is unrealistic for us
to carry on believing that despite our economic growth and
increasing material wealth we will be able to retain our
traditional values without real efforts to readjust or to recast
them in order that they can stand on good terms with the changing
material base.

To come back to our example, the people of East Flores will
continue spending the money they earn much more quickly and
easily from modern fishing on alcohol if there is no supporting
education made available for them on management, marketing,
organization, distribution or processing. The same can be said of
the young people who are buying "Ecstasy" in Jakarta. It is quite
easy to blame them, but it is more difficult to answer the
question: Why do they look for the drug? One of the reasons for
using drugs is psychological. It can become a means to extend the
area of one's experience by means of being elevated into such
psychic circumstances which cannot be reached through everyday
experiences. If the opportunities for this sort of enchantment
are lacking, those who are in search of it will try to get it
through other channels, which might be rewarding psychologically,
although they are socially disastrous.

On another level we are faced with the question of the
relationship between the changing material base of culture and
society on the one hand and political attitudes on the other. The
project of national development has been built upon the belief
that political stability is a condition sine qua non for the
continuation of economic development. There is no possibility for
planning, implementation, and investment if the country is shaken
by political turbulence all along. The achievement of the New
Order government is to be seen not only in the improvement of
economic conditions, but in maintaining the political stability
on which to carry out economic undertakings. The political reform
which has been attempted so far aims to secure political
stability by means of reducing the potential of political
conflicts, shortening the once long procedure of political
decision making, as well as regulating the channeling of
political participation. All these major measures have been taken
in order to restructure political institutions in order that they
do not contradict the goal of economic growth, but remain in line
with it.

However, the restructuring of political institutions is one
thing, whereas the formation of political perceptions and
political attitudes is another. If there are changes in that
regard, they should first of all be treated as merely logical
consequences of the improvement of economic conditions, or the
changing material base of politics. If relative wealth is there,
people have more time and energy for other things, be they
political, philosophical, esthetic or religious.

All these phenomena can be observed in everyday life in
Jakarta. It is the young people from the new middle class who are
starting to stage periodic discussions on religious matters with
such a great enthusiasm and involvement. It is the members of the
same class who meet regularly for the reading of poems they have
written in their leisure time, or to organize exhibitions of
paintings they produced during their holidays or on weekends.
This is a natural tendency because it is one of the basic
features of human beings that they do not live by bread alone. If
the involvement in religious, esthetic, or philosophical affairs
are fairly welcome, why is the new engagement or the new sense of
belonging in politics so easily subject to suspicion?