E-mail challenges the 'sowan' tradition of Javanese people

E-mail challenges the 'sowan' tradition of Javanese people

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): Sowan is a Javanese word for a face-to-face encounter with another person from a higher level of the social hierarchy. It has been practiced -- in both traditional and modern Javanese society -- that younger people, or people occupying lower ranks within the social hierarchy to present themselves regularly to older people or to someone higher up within the hierarchy. Through this tradition, the existence of younger people or people from the lower stratum become recognized. Those who show up regularly will be recognized and acknowledged, whereas those who never show up will never get official recognition. Or worse, such a person may be suspected of harboring ill feelings toward the one in the higher echelon.

E-mail and the sowan tradition become comparable when we discuss the problem of personal communication. In a recent seminar on cyberspace, a young man complained about a problem he has encountered in his communication with older people in his office. Whenever he tries to communicate with these older people through the interoffice computer system or by telephone, he feels that he always gets an unwelcome reaction from the other end.

"Never use a computer or a telephone to have a dialog with older people, or with people in leadership positions. That is impolite!" So he was told. He was further informed that a computer or a telephone is a machine that cannot adequately transmit nuances in personal communication. "You should never initiate a dialog with important people by using one of these machines. That is taboo! What you must do, if you really want to have a dialog with these people, is to first request an interview, and after this is granted, you appear in person. This is the way things are done in this country."

We still live in sowan culture and we still uphold the tradition of presenting ourselves in person whenever we have to convey something to people from a higher strata. Discussing important matters without sowan, without appearing in person ourselves, is considered impolite. Such practice has been taken to mean that you do not have enough respect for the person above you.

The young man cannot fully comprehend this explanation. When he was in Australia, he said, every time he wanted to communicate with his advisor, he would type an e-mail to him any time of the day. His message would be read immediately, and by the time he met his advisor in person, both sides were mentally prepared for a thorough and intensive discussion on an agreed upon topic. No time has been wasted this way.

This young man does not seem to understand the difference in the psychological make-up between Australian professors working in Australian universities and elderly functionaries working in Indonesian offices. He does not seem to notice that Australian professors are democratically-minded people, who live and work in democratic environments, and who have learned to appreciate and interact with the latest products of information technology in their life.

Nor does he seem to understand that older people in this country are very much influenced by their daily life environments in their attitudes towards advances in information technology. Within the confines of their traditional working environments, most elderly people get respect in their jobs, and in society, primarily from their seniority and their position within the occupational and social hierarchy. In many cases, competence in working with modern technology does not constitute a very important factor in determining the amount of respect that is to be attributed to a person.

Most elderly people in Indonesian offices --both government and private-- are reluctant to adopt computers in their daily life because they are afraid that their ignorance about computer technology will cause younger people to loose respect for them. It is for this reason that elderly officials tend to view computers and other modern devices of communication with appre hension, fear and suspicion.

Because of this cultural tradition, computers, cyberspace and internet seem to be embraced primarily by the young generation in Indonesia, whereas most of the older generation do not seem to share this enthusiasm. Most of them tend to minimize the importance of developments of this kind. It is anticipated that, in the long run, this will create a huge information gap between the young and the old. In certain circles, this will create a kind of authority crisis, in the sense that older people who occupy leadership position have less understanding, compared to the young generation, concerning problems that are to be solved. This may cause certain elderly people in leadership positions to look indecisive and rudderless in the face of unfolding events.

Is this a situation that is to be lamented?

As far as I am concerned it will be much better for this country if the older generation is willing to learn to understand the meaning and significance of information technology for the social and cultural transformation of our society. As far as I can understand it, advances in information technology have the potential of enlightening the citizenry, and therefore also the potential of speeding up the democratization process throughout the world.

Allowing the older generation within our society to remain aloof and indifferent towards these developments means that we allow ignorance on the part of some power holders to stand in the way of progress towards democratic communication in our society, which, ultimately, means hampering progress towards democracy itself.

The writer is rector of the IKIP-Muhammadiyah Teachers Training College, Jakarta.