Roles of intellectuals in the course of social change

Pengkhianatan Kaum Cendekiawan (The Betrayal of Intellectuals)

By Julien Benda

Translated from La Trahison des Clercs by Winarsih P. Arifin

Gramedia Pustaka Utama in cooperation with Forum Jakarta-Paris

1st printed, November 1997

xxii + 189 pp

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Clifford Geerts contends there are four chaos-triggering factors in any society.

First, irrationality/lack of common sense as manifested in rioting and revenge characterized by ethnicity, race, religion and social grouping.

Second, confusion in the province of knowledge as reflected in the trend of intellectual whoring for the sake of position, material gain and vested interests so that intellectuality becomes dedicated to attaining power and retaining the status quo and will finally be devoted to the interests of personal ego and certain groups.

Third, chaos in esthetics marked by the absence of art works because creativity is stifled or exhausted as people are pitted against each other, leading to mutual suspicion, mutual threats and mutual fear. The result is that art is but an act of releasing psychic and psychological stresses without any creative art work actually being produced.

And the fourth factor is irrationality in religion as underlined by the manipulation of religion in the interests of the political pursuits of the rulers of the state to ensure the status quo will continue to prevail and that no prophetic criticism by any religion will be launched against corruption, collusion and nepotism.

With regard to the second factor, this book is significantly relevant to the situation in Indonesia at present. Intellectuals are a group of people on whom people pin their hope for a change for the better. In other words, intellectuals should realize that science should not only be studied to understand and explain natural and social phenomena but is also expected to give direction to the course of social change.

Science is meant to benefit the public. Therefore, although progress in science is generally achieved by individuals, its communication and application are social in nature. In the process of applying science, intellectuals have a supervisory role, to ensure that it is fully utilized for the good and the welfare of humankind.

To be able to do this, intellectuals must have a good grasp of the moral and ethical aspects of science. Through the sensitivity of their consciences, intellectuals will then be able to make a distinction between branches of science which will benefit mankind and those which will destroy human beings.

Intellectuals must also be able to translate existing theories into values or ethics with relevance to the community. Therefore, intellectuals must not depend on their rational and logical faculties but also on their feelings and wisdom. They must not rely only on their brains but also on their hearts.

As guardians of morality, intellectuals must be capable of combining intuition, theology, philosophy and metaphysics, rather than simply depending on rational-empirical thoughts based only on reason. It is also important that intellectuals make use of moral values and conscience so that they can make a distinction between virtue and evil and between truth and falsehood.

It is the intellectuals' job to keep science on the right course so that it will benefit society. Intellectuals must not be "committed" to certain groups; they must instead be committed to truth. Intellectuals must unite with the community where they lives and work to disseminate the scientific knowledge at their disposal.

However, intellectuals are not prohibited from setting up working groups as long as they are committed to retaining their independence and orientation in upholding the morality of the community. Intellectuals can be meaningful and functional only if they live in a community, illuminating and guiding it toward a better, fairer and more civilized life in conformity with human dignity.

Benda describes intellectuals as people who undertake activities not in pursuit of practical or pragmatic purposes but rather in search of fun in dealing with arts and science or metaphysical contemplation. In short, intellectuals wish to own something which is not worldly. In their own way they will say: "My kingdom is not in this world." (pp 25-26)

Thematically, this book can be divided into two parts. First, it deals with the emergence of political passions which pose a threat to the liberty that the intellectuals enjoy and must maintain. Second, it attacks intellectuals already entering a political arena and making themselves ideologues. According to Benda, one of the main characteristics of 19th century was the emergence of a movement which gave rise to hatred, which will disappear only to make way for other forms of hatred, which are more general in nature, until a new conviction has been shaped as a new force (pp 1-2).

In this context, what Benda says in this book is worth observing so that we may become wiser. "Nevertheless, in my opinion, it is important to have people, who, although mocked at, will continue to fight for other convictions that those which are all worldly and mundane.

"Unfortunately, those who previously played this role and whom I call intellectuals, have not only relinquished this role but have instead played a role in reverse. Noted European moralists in the past 50 years, particularly French intellectuals, have mostly called on people to ignore the bible and read military regulations." (pp xxi).

It must be borne in mind that it is another task of the intellectuals to always keep their ideas actual and sharpen their consciences and intuition so that they will be independent of any power, including their own intellectual power. Intellectuals must be independent of any "ism", religion or other school of thought, including any attempt to make thinking uniform.

-- Eni Nur Husniyati

The writer is an alumnus of the School of Religious Missionaries (Dakwah), Sunan Kalijaga State Institute of Islamic Studies, Yogyakarta.