Blessed are the ignorant?

With the year 2000 just around the corner and the specter of the feared millennium computer bug advancing closer, governments around the globe appear to be increasingly busy preparing their citizens for the possibility of a slew of technological disasters beginning at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31.

Not so in Indonesia. True, certain banks and other public service companies such as state-owned PT Telkom have in recent months been advertising their Y2K readiness to put their clients' minds at ease. But by and large, most businesses are indifferent to the threat of possible millennium chaos. If there is any concern about what might happen at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, Indonesians have certainly managed to keep such feelings to themselves. This is in stark contrast to what is happening elsewhere, especially in the industrialized world.

In Japan, for example -- a high-tech country that is thought to be among the best prepared in the world to face the possible threat of the millennium bug -- the government has found it advisable to counsel its people to be prepared for the worst and stockpile enough provisions that they and their families might need in case the millennium bug does indeed strike.

As most of us surely have learned by now, Y2K refers to the year 2000, and more specifically to the fact that when computers were first mass-produced their programmers did not take the new millennium into account and therefore programmed them with a two- digit date. Therefore, at midnight on Dec. 31, computers which are not updated may mistake the roll over date of '00' for 1900 instead of 2000, creating potential problems ranging from billing errors to power outages.

Since nowadays computers run practically every aspect of our lives, the Y2K threat is certainly not to be taken lightly. One could ask, then, why Indonesians, from the government down to the lowliest citizen, appear so unconcerned about it.

The reasons, we assume, are essentially twofold. First, it may be pure ignorance. While computers have over the past few decades become essential tools in business and industry as well as in government, for the majority of Indonesians -- the millions who live in the country's rural areas -- computerization still remains a remote idea. With or without computers, for those people daily life will go on as it always has.

The second reason could be that though modernity has taken a strong hold in most major cities in this country, the application of high technology, including the use of complicated computerized systems, has far from reached the levels it has in modern industrialized societies. Many, if not most, Indonesians seem to believe that even if the millennium bug strikes, the effects will be far less disastrous than in the industrialized world. The crucial question is, are Indonesians right in adopting this kind of attitude?

The right answer probably lies somewhere between the two extremes -- the alarmist expectations of the industrialized world and the indifferent stance of the developing world. Certainly it is rational to assume that in the low-tech world in which the majority of Indonesians live, the effects of the Y2K bug -- if indeed it is as menacing and powerful as it is portrayed -- would be far less damaging than in countries like, say, Japan or the United States.

Even so, certain important sectors of our economy and public life -- such as banks, hospitals and public administration -- depend on the flawless running of their computerized systems. Small as they may still be in comparison to the more traditional components of our public life, the importance of their roles cannot be underestimated.

For this reason it seems proper that the authorities waste no time explaining, in terms that can be readily understood by the man in the street, this country's exact state of preparedness in order that every Indonesian may know what he or she can expect, and how, if necessary, to deal with the situation.