Morality: A piece in the national development puzzle

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): A friend of mine, an economist, has been telling me that what really ails Indonesia is not its economy but its morality.

Morality is a cultural issue so the main problem facing Indonesia today is not economic but cultural. And cultural problems are much harder to solve than economic ones.

Theoretically, any economic dilemma can be solved through economic measures that regulate forces which are responsible for that particular quandary.

But whether these economic measures will be carried out faithfully and honestly, well that is no longer a problem of economics. That is a cultural problem.

I was confounded when I heard this explanation. I have been conditioned to think that economic problems are the most basic and the most important among all the enigmas that beset this country. I was not prepared for such a strange perspective.

My friend went on to expose and explain his view. He said the disappointing factor was that we did not seem to be aware that such cultural problems existed.

We have not done anything to solve our morality problems or any other cultural obstacles. Compared to what we have done to analyze and solve our economic problems, our attempts to solve cultural issues have been infinitesimal.

Since the national dialogue on culture in 1938, nothing of equal significance has ever taken place.

For a while I could offer nothing in return for my friend's view. He seemed so right yet somehow he also seemed not quite right. There was something wrong with his conclusion.

It was only after carefully analyzing his argument that I found out what was wrong with his way of thinking. His mistake: he views problems of morality and economics as though they belong to the same category.

Questions of morality lie within the domain of ethical values, whereas economic questions stem from empirical facts. Ethical concepts are gerundives, denoting something worthy of doing. Empirical concepts, on the other hand, designate the properties of things. The two cannot be contrasted.

It can thus be concluded that both moral and economic problems are of equal importance and that they must be tackled simultaneously.

It is wrong to think that we must wait until moral values become firmly anchored in our society before we can proceed to solving our economic problems and make our society more just and more prosperous. But it is equally wrong to think that success in solving economic problems will automatically bring about a society with higher moral standards.

Are problems of morality really cultural? I am not so sure. I think that such a view is only partially true. Problems of morality are basically caused by the failure of individuals to adhere to accepted values or norms, especially ethical norms.

It is cultural in the sense that in any society, ethical norms are transmitted from one generation to the next through culture. Problems of morality can be considered entirely cultural only if the whole set of beliefs -- the right and wrong that a society accepts and implements -- are incompatible with the ethical norms of other societies.

In such a case, it becomes highly problematic to decide which societies, with such conflicting value systems, are indeed beset by problems of morality. Perhaps this is because, as Samuel Butler (1835-1902) said, morality is the custom of one's country and the current feelings of one's peers. Or, to borrow the words of Elbert Hubbard (1895-1915), morality is largely a matter of geography.

My economist friend is right, in my opinion, when he argues that we do not spend enough time or effort solving our cultural problems -- our problems of morality. Why is this the case?

I do not know. But my guess is that this is the consequence of a development policy that puts economic growth at the center of all activities. Morality never enters the equation of development. It has not even been recognized as a relevant variable.

It should not be surprising therefore that there has never been any serious discussion about morality, an issue that our development design considers trivial.

Even after every major international institution of development states that corruption and collusion -- which are signs of low morality -- are detrimental to development, we still refuse to include morality in our thinking on this issue.

I personally view morality as the foundation for every technical structure of development. If our morality is solid, every kind of structure we build for our advancement will stand strong too.

Consequently, we will have stable institutions of development: economic, political, social, health, educational, etc. But if our morality is weak then every structure we build will stand upon a loose heap of sand. Such institutions will collapse easily.

Do we really have problems with our morality? It depends upon how we define morality. According to Dr. Philip H. Phenix, the essence of morality is knowledge about right and wrong -- knowledge about what ought to be done and what ought to be avoided -- and voluntary personal commitment to abide by these views.

The central concept of morality is obligation. And according to John Morley (1871-1908), the essence of morality is the subjugation of nature in obedience to social needs.

If we use this concept as our guide, we can now ask ourselves the following five questions to judge where we stand on the issue of reality.

1. Do we have problems in distinguishing what is right from what is wrong?

2. Do we have problems doing the right thing deliberately every time?

3. Do we have problems defining what our obligations are?

4. Do we have problems fulfilling what we have accepted as our obligations?

5. Do we have problems subjugating ourselves to social needs.

If we are willing to look honestly at the situation around us, in terms of these five questions, then we have to admit that we have serious problems indeed with our morality.

Do we have the capability to strengthen our morality?

It depends on whether or not we want to build a viable society. If we do, then we will have to do whatever we can to develop civic and personal moralities.

Bertrand Russel said, in 1917: Without civic morality communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value."