Gus Dur warns on social apathy

Gus Dur warns on social apathy

JAKARTA (JP): Moslem scholar Abdurrahman Wahid has warned
against the development of human resources for the sake of
national development alone, citing a growing social apathy as the
result of obsession with this goal.

The improvement of human resources for the sake of physical
development alone would turn people into mere components, akin to
other instruments of development, such as natural and capital
resources, he said yesterday.

Abdurrahman addressed 200 youth activists attending a
reception to mark the 25th anniversary of the inauguration of the
Cipayung Group, an influential student group comprising several
nationalist and religious-based organizations.

He compared today's approach to human resource development
with that of the New Order administration.

"During the early years of the New Order, we said we needed
people with determination and high morality. Now we say the
nation is in need of quality human resources," he said.

Abdurrahman said the shift in the approach to human resource
development was indicative of a shift in values. He said people
did not now place as much importance on ideals, a willingness to
sacrifice, a common view or social solidarity, but were more
concerned with the skills needed to survive.

Development

Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, said people now believed
"the most important thing is that the wheels of development roll
on, and that there should be as many skilled people as possible."

"Members of this high quality workforce will then be put into
an invisible machine, slotted into their respective positions and
all move according to a market mechanism that will breed a
product of its own," he said.

Social apathy was the result of this approach, he said. "This
approach will create a socially-ignorant society," he concluded.

Such human resources policies would, for instance, remain
apathetic to the point of ignoring monopolistic practices.

He cited the United States, Singapore, and Japan as countries
with high quality human resources but also with the "symptoms of
social apathy."

"They neglect their minority, such as the homeless, whose
numbers are great," he said.

He suggested Indonesia learn from these countries and called
for a more integrated and holistic approach to human resource
development. "It should not be only for the sake of national
development," he said.

Meanwhile the Cipayung student group warned the highly
centralistic government is nurturing social, political and
economic injustice.

Indonesian people were losing their wisdom and maturity -- the
quality they were most proud of -- because they could no longer
bear the country's worsening injustices, the group said in a
press statement.

"There is a worrying tendency that elements in this society
can easily discredit others, that these people can resort to
violence," they said.

"This is perhaps because the injustices are so bad they
surpass the people's limits of tolerance. The recent outbursts of
violence were expressions of their frustration at this structural
unfairness."

The group referred to the recent spate of religious and ethnic
violence that happened in Situbondo, Tasikmalaya and Sanggau
Ledo.

The political statement was signed by the five student
organizations that make up the Cipayung group: the association of
Catholic Students, the Association of Islamic Students, the
Christian Students Movement, the Nationalist Students Movement
and the Islamic Students Movement.

The Cipayung group pointed out that the government had often
not shown common sense in handling social matters, and coercively
used laws and regulations to justify its actions.

"People who used to be apathetic and passive now become
aggressive and anarchic when facing certain conditions," the
group said.

The widening social, political and economic disparities were
ironic because they were rife when Indonesia enjoyed economic
success and political stability, they said.

"Politics and economics are concentrated in the hands of an
elite few and some consider this as something normal in a process
of development; this is indeed ironic," the statement said. (08)