Developing political literacy

Developing political literacy

By A. Chaedar Alwasilah

BANDUNG (JP): Literacy is commonly defined as the quality or
state of being literate, that is, educated and cultured, or
having the ability to read and write. Within academic circles,
literacy is often juxtaposed with orality, that is, being able to
listen and speak. Thus defined, people who just listen and speak
are hardly qualified as educated and cultured. In other words,
intellectuals who do not write are not fully educated and
cultured, despite their college degrees and professorships.

When juxtaposing reading with writing, it is the latter that
is least acquired by politicians, and Indonesian intellectuals in
general. It is not easy to find Indonesian legislators and
political leaders, as well as bureaucrats, who are active in
writing. Dwelling on the definition above, most of them are oral
politicians rather than literate ones. In most cases, their
political ideas are made public through the mass media. Thus,
much of their political career depends on the mass media.

True educated and cultured politicians read to develop
themselves intellectually and politically. They also voluntarily
write to make their visionary ideas known to other politicians
and the public in general. Through writing, their ideas, thoughts
and wisdom are passed on to the next generations. The corollary
is that anyone aspiring to be a visionary and exemplary
politician should possess writing skills.

Recently we learned that most newly declared political parties
have problems recruiting legislator candidates, let alone
presidential ones. What shocked us most was the report that many
candidates have high school qualifications only. What can we
expect from them? Without sufficient literacy, how can they self-
actualize to the full as politicians? For one thing, our
education has failed to provide students with literacy, enabling
them to be educated and cultured politicians.

Indonesia is now facing overwhelming problems due to a
prolonged economic crisis: widespread poverty, great inequality
within country, poorly trained teachers, large classes, abject
learning facilities, mother tongues with little or no written
tradition, and -- most of all -- no obvious uses of literacy. We
notice children are forced by parents to leave school to help
them to earn money. Obviously, Indonesia -- like other developing
countries -- has a similar problem, viz, it does not have a
literate infrastructure.

The proceedings of an international literacy conference held
at Jomtien confirm the report that the 1980s' decade was a bad
one for literacy and for development in general. In developing
countries, levels of literacy did not change radically, and the
provision of education got worse. Indonesia, for example, spends
less than eight percent of total state expenditure on this. This
indicates that in the last 32 years, the government has
downgraded education. In other words, the government was never
serious about managing education. It is believed that our
education is 15 years to 20 years behind that of other countries,
including ASEAN countries, especially Malaysia and Singapore.

At this juncture, it is appropriate to note the difference
between general literacy and specific literacy. General literacy
is developed through general education. By way of comparison, in
the United States, kindergarten to year 12 (K-12) schooling is
meant to offer basic or general education, designed to provide
students with skills and knowledge necessary for functioning and
surviving in the community. Reading, writing and arithmetic
(commonly called the three R's), are considered most basic of
all, hence they are given highest priority throughout the K-12
schooling system.

General literacy as defined above is a prerequisite for
developing specific literacy: political, economic, social,
religious and engineering, to name just a few. Just name it; all
professions are built up on specific literacy, which is
indispensably in turn built up on general literacy. Specific
literacy such as political literacy is traditionally developed
through post-secondary schooling and an out-of-school system of
education.

How advanced is Indonesia's political literacy? The answer is
easy to conjecture. Look at the street rallies and massive
gatherings during the campaigns. From the mass media, the
following observations are evident throughout the campaign
periods.

* The prevalence of street rallies that ignore traffic
regulations bears evidence that politics justifies law
violations.

* The campaigns comprises mobilizing people at grassroots level,
suggesting that politics is perceived as a show of force, where
in-group loyalty is of utmost importance than between-group
loyalty.

* Supporters prefer rallies on the street rather than attending
political speeches, thus denoting that political campaigns are an
outlet for mass emotional sentiment, and sidelining rationale.

* Leaders of most political parties do not embrace political
debates. This suggests that they are fairly confident of
communicating with their supporters, but they are not confident
of exchanging ideas with, say, oppositions. In a multiparty
system of democracy, consensus is reached through deliberations,
namely continuous debates with oppositions. And this is the way
democracy is exercised.

Given all the observations above, we need to redefine the
concept of literacy in the context of political education and how
it should be exercised in schools. The tenets of literacy and
their educational implications follow.

* Literacy is relative. What is considered literate in one
particular society and time may be perceived illiterate in
another. In the past, the ability to read and write simple Bahasa
Indonesia and mastery of basic arithmetic would qualify one to be
a literate. It implies that education should continuously be
examined and redesigned so as to provide students with increased
levels of literacy. The rule of thumb is to make the next
generation more literate than today's.

* Literacy is context-specific. It suggests that one who is
fairly literate in a particular domain is not necessarily
literate in another. Most emerging political parties are led by
professionals, experts or public figures who are highly literate
in their field, yet they are illiterate in politics. It implies
that education has a double function: to provide students with
general literacy as well as specific literacy. K-12 schooling
could be reconfirmed to provide students with general literacy,
while post-high school education to provide them with specific
literacy.

* Literacy is dynamic. The present multiparty general election
and direct presidential election in 2004 are two significant
milestones of political transformation in Indonesia. Most
Indonesians are paternalistic in attitude and obviously not ready
for the new systems, thus suggesting they lack sufficient
literacy to anticipate them. The fact that high school and even
elementary students are enthusiastic supporters of competing
political parties should assure us that political education
should be inherently incorporated into the present K-12
curriculum. The idea is not to train high school students, not
even university students, to be politicians but to inculcate on
them democratic political attitudes. To be a democrat, one does
not have to be a politician. Being aware of and observing rights
and obligations in school routines among students and teachers
is, as a matter of fact, the most down-to-earth political
education.

* Literacy is multidimensional. In the final analysis, literacy
is manifested outside the classroom. Literacy is acquired both
inside the school and outside. This suggests education should
bridge the gap between students as learners and society as the
arena for political games. What goes on outside the class, such
as political campaigns, presidential debates, street protests,
are worthy issues for political discussions. This practice hardly
took place in the past, simply because students, and teachers,
were brainwashed by the sheer fallacy that politics exists only
outside the school.

The writer is a lecturer at graduate school of Teachers
Training Institute (IKIP) in Bandung.