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.