Misfortune never comes alone

During my spare time, I muse over the past, present and future of our daily life. In the pre-July 1997 era, it seems to me that life was good, everything was plain sailing. Then came the debacle of the exchange value of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar. The rate before July 1997 was approximately Rp 2,500. Suddenly it began to slide, until it touched its historic low of Rp 17,000, according to newspaper reports.

I believe that nobody has the right answer as to why this happened. I have read one of Uncle Sam's magazines stating that it is relatively easy to devalue a country's currency by, for example, 70 percent. But when I wrote to the magazine asking how to do that, the reply was a deafening silence. No wonder that the prime minister of our neighboring country accused a fabulously rich tycoon in Uncle Sam's country of masterminding the downfall of Asian economies.

It reminded me of the New York Stock Exchange debacle in the 1930s which became the harbinger of the Depression, when I was 5 years old.

In the current case, the rupiah's depreciation against the dollar has had far reaching effects -- a domino effect. For example, imported raw materials are five to six times their old prices, which has resulted in lay offs because the finished product prices are automatically five to six more.

Then came El Nino, causing a protracted drought in Indonesia, which resulted in crop failures, compelling Indonesia to import millions of tons of rice from neighboring countries. To make matters worse, forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra raged for several months, which made neighboring countries' daily life miserable because of the haze. Then came dengue fever, which made hospitals very busy. In Lampung (South Sumatra) out of nowhere, millions of locusts devoured everything green in the fields. In Irian Jaya, about 600 people died of starvation.

All these occurrences have caused the prices of the nine basic commodities to skyrocket, making the life of wong cilik (little men) miserable and frustrating. And to make the cup of bitterness overflow, mobs went on a rampage (apparently to vent their frustration), setting fire to stores, homes and vehicles and looting shopping centers, which resulted in billions of rupiah of damage and more than 500 people became lumps of charcoal. The above is about the past and present.

What about the future? People demand reform in all sectors and a general elections is a "must" and a drop of prices for sembako (the nine basic commodities) is also a "must".

Bisnis Indonesia reported last week that about one million people gathered in Surabaya to pray for forgiveness from the Almighty for our wrongdoings and to pray that He will save us from our present miseries. A praiseworthy deed.

About 40 years ago, when I paid for English lessons costing one-fourth of my salary, I learned, among other things, poems by American poets, one which I hereby recite: Life is hard, life is but an empty dream... for the soul is dead that slumbers and life is not what it seems... (Longfellow).

A. DJUANA

Jakarta