'Indonesians face dehumanization'

SEMARANG (JP): Two philosophers are speaking out against modernization brought about by economic development, and the resulting "dehumanization" that Indonesians now face.

Mudji Sutrisno, a professor at the Jakarta-based Driyarkara School of Philosophy, and Slamet Sutrisno who teaches at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University both expressed concern about the dehumanizing effect of development in a seminar at Sugiyapranoto Catholic University here yesterday.

"Men are becoming more like instruments, tools for the interests of ideologies, politics, power or capital," Mudji said. "The complex values of humanity have been reduced."

He blamed society's emphasis on economic development, which has eclipsed other values which are "qualitatively higher".

He explored at length what he called modernization and identified a number of indications of its process, the first of which is that men have become increasingly uniform. Men become part of the masses and individuality is eclipsed, he pointed out.

The second feature of modernization is the growing secularism, he said, in which religions fast lose their place in people's lives.

The third indication is a growing yearning among people for instant solutions for just about every problem they encounter in life. The fourth is the disintegration of social bonds, he said.

Slamet Sutrisno seconded Mudji's opinion, but focused his analysis on education institutions which he said are also experiencing "dehumanization".

He named a number of indications, including the rampant violation of rules in colleges and universities. Students cheating by resorting to plagiarism when they have to write thesis, or trading test materials for the sake of getting good grades.

"Social values are being turned upside down," he said. He pointed out that people used to respect the values of religions, philosophy, ideology, the sciences and arts.

"Economics, technology and politics used to have last place in people's priorities," he said. "Now, everything has changed. Politics, technology and economics get priority while religions and philosophy are neglected."

He blamed the situation on what he described as spreading hedonism. "Now people's basic rights are violated, religions become relegated as mere rituals...people observe a religious ritual only because other people do," he said. (har/swe)