Questioning celebrity intellectuals

Questioning celebrity intellectuals

Ardimas Sasdi, Jakarta

As this country goes through an historic democratic transition
period, intellectuals are again at center stage, but this time
in an unfavorable light. Critics accuse some of them of behaving
like celebrities rather than scholars.

One particularly stiff jab was delivered by writer Radhar
Panca Dahana this month during a launch of his new book, which
discusses the role, character and behavior of Indonesian
intellectuals and their struggle to maintain their quality and
independence. There have been a lot of nods of agreement by
senior intellectuals.

Dahana refers to a troubling trend among intellectuals,
especially the new breed, who stray away from their areas of
expertise to become politicians and commentators on current
events, talk show hosts and models for advertisements, often at
the expense of their teaching and research roles.

Senior researcher Mochtar Pabottinggi from the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences, after reading Dahana's book, admitted that
this new breed of "intellectuals" were not as committed as their
senior colleagues to their profession and that the amount of
serious work they engaged in was very limited. He said
intellectuals were more interested in writing op/ed pieces for
newspapers rather than serious research reports in scientific
journals as the latter simply paid less.

Philosophy professor at the University of Indonesia Toety
Herati also agreed with Dahana's thesis and criticized the
attitude of some intellectuals, who envied and felt less popular
than celebrity figures, as a form of immaturity. She called on
her colleagues to do some serious introspection and return to
their path so they could remain a critical force for the
development of society.

"Now it is time to criticize ourselves," Toety said.

Intellectuals have a responsibility to share knowledge with
other people through teaching and research. The intelligentsia
must remain committed to their "scholarly duties" depending on
the areas and eras where they live.

Noted American intellectual, Noam Chomsky, wrote on The
Responsibility of Intellectuals, wherein he posits that
intellectuals have a "responsibility ... to speak the truth and
to expose lies" and a duty "to see events in their historical
perspective."

One example is a country like Cuba, which has suffered from
political and economic sanctions imposed by its mighty neighbor
and arch foe the U.S. According to Dr. James Petras from
Binghamton University in New York, "the intellectuals have a
responsibility to distinguish between the defensive measures
taken by countries and the people under imperial attack and the
offensive methods of imperial powers bent on conquest."

The special clout bestowed upon scholars to shape opinion, and
the responsibility that comes with this status, have lost none of
their relevance, though circumstances have changed. In a
developing country like Indonesia, which is mired in a myriad of
problems, they shoulder an even heavier moral and scholarly
burden.

With their mandarin-like status, intellectuals are expected to
play a key and constructive role in forming public opinion and
proposing alternative, but workable solutions to help the country
fix pressing problems like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and
security, all of which have the potential to tear this country
apart.

So it is a real concern that a good portion of the local
intelligentsia have lost their way, especially at this critical
juncture. This breed of intellectuals is defined by their
extravagant lifestyles and frequent appearances in public forums,
which then creates envy among their peers. They are concentrated
in big cities like Jakarta, where big companies, government
agencies and the large media companies are located.
Interestingly, these intellectual celebrities are products of the
media business, which hypes and magnifies them by giving them
space and airtime.

Depending on their real fields of expertise, these
intellectuals moonlight as politicians, consultants for state and
private companies, speakers in seminars, conferences, symposia,
talkshow hosts and models. Most are readily available to give an
instant opinion on any given subject, lest they risk a loss of
quality as well as their own dignity.

The case of these wayward scholars is the tip of the iceberg
in our scientific world. They usually get paid very little for
education and research, have a sub-standard quality of education,
are not pushed or motivated to achieve anything groundbreaking,
lack a scientific tradition, are unable to speak or read English
and have poor communication skills when among international
scholars.

In the modern world, where educational institutions are
intertwined with business, the phenomena of intellectuals
drifting away from the path of art and literature, politics,
economy and religion, and being thrust into the limelight, is not
out of the ordinary.

Indonesia is no exception to this phenomena, especially as
commercialization has penetrated almost all facets of our lives
and salaries of civil servants are very low. Therefore, it is
difficult to expect intellectuals not to moonlight. Monthly
incomes for a university professor with 30 years of experience,
for example, is a meager Rp 4 million (US$ 450) barely enough to
feed, clothe and educate one's family.

To solve this problem, the government, where most of these
intellectual celebrities now augment their incomes, cannot stand
idly by, but must do something to raise salaries of intellectuals
despite budget constraints. Non-salary incentives like greater
academic authority to design budget and elect staff, sabbatical
leave and paid-trips to attend seminars abroad for senior
professors and researchers twice or thrice a year would certainly
interest many scholars.

Strategic policy is necessary in order to persuade
intellectuals not to moonlight and halt a continuing trend of a
brain drain of the best talent. Many of them trained in the best
universities abroad with government money or assistance from
friendly governments.

Most of these people will likely listen if the government
gives them a reason to return to serious research, especially if
the appeal is sweetened by improved welfare packages. The money
is a problem, but it would not be, if the bureaucrats were able
to halt the trillions of rupiah in leakages from the government
budget and allocate it for education.

The author is a staff writer for the Jakarta Post and can be
contacted at ajambak@berkeley.edu.