Social gaps: A ticking time bomb

By A. Wisnuhardana

YOGYAKARTA (JP): World Bank President James Wolfensohn once likened the rich and poor gap to a time bomb which can explode any time unless a comprehensive solution is immediately forthcoming (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 24, 1997).

In the last four decades, the world has been a witness to such a gap among nations with the North assuming the central position in the economic system and the South a milk cow to spur the former's growth.

This north-south gap has been keenly observed by Martin Khor Kok Peng, who has presented a hypothesis stating that the impact of this gap could have its repercussions in political, social, defense, ecological and other areas.

In the context of Indonesia, Wolfensohn's statement has proven correct. The recent outbreak of rioting in Ujungpandang, in which a reportedly insane man of ethnic Chinese descent killed a little girl of Bugis descent, proved to be a sorrowful reality reflecting the outburst of gap-related pent-up emotion.

The seeds of disappointment and psychological wounds stemming from income and social gaps have resulted in ethnic Chinese becoming the symbol of the rich and the occasional victims of the poor's frustration and rage.

In a capitalist society, different levels of earnings are justified by economic values placed on a worker's productivity stemming from education, knowledge, skill and experience. It is believed that these income differences are natural and that salaries and adjustments must be left to the free market mechanism.

On a global scale, however, this paradigm is actually an irony. Why? It is a fact that this ideology is now the only ideological mainstream in the world after the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe.

Ironically, natural and human resources are being exploited in many places as capitalism finds its way to many countries. The model of the world's capitalist system -- following the thought of Immanuel Wallerstein -- has divided the world into central capitalist states (advanced Western countries) and peripheral capitalist states (developing countries).

Developing countries have fallen into the current of capitalization created by Western countries, whether they are aware of it or not.

With respect to gap-related problems, there are, according to Wallerstein, two main characteristics with opposite trends. The first is that capital always flows from peripheral capitalist states to central capitalist states. This flow of capital takes place in a very refined manner in various forms from business and trade by multinational corporations to development and economic aid which has actually hurt recipient countries.

The second is that technology and poverty flow from central capitalist states to peripheral capitalist states. New technology is exported from developed economies, which have more resources for research and development, to less developed countries. As soon as a new technology is absorbed by the consumers in developing countries, a new and more sophisticated technology is developed by central countries to replace it.

At the same time, these peripheral capitalist countries must accept the process of impoverishment, either directly or indirectly. The capitalization flow taking place in the peripheral countries requires abundant natural resources and cheap manpower in an effort to reap the greatest profits possible. So large-scale exploitation of natural and human resources is taking place in most peripheral capitalist countries.

At this juncture, gaps are inevitable. At a global level, the gaps are widening between central and peripheral capitalist countries as developing countries deplete their national resources and assets in an attempt to catch up to more advanced Western countries.

At the local level in the peripheral capitalist countries, gaps are found between a small group of economic elites -- the extension of global capitalists -- and the larger part of the population who have to swallow the bitter pill of exploitation.

In the Indonesian context, social and income gaps have become increasingly focussed upon. These gaps and their impacts have grown into problems which cannot be approached partially from the economic point of view alone or simply from the political angle.

It is true that thanks to a number of government-sponsored programs, absolute poverty has been significantly reduced. The number of people living under the poverty line has decreased considerably over the last few decades.

However, this reduction has not been coupled with a decrease in relative poverty. Although less people are living in abject poverty, there is a growing realization that the rich have become far richer and the poor have only become less poor -- the gap has thus continued to increase.

The income of a low-wage worker may be two hundred or three hundred times smaller than the salary of a top executive in Indonesia. In developed countries however, this difference is below fifty fold.

Therefore, all the problems cited above cannot be solved only through partial and charitable policies. One gets the impression that the government greatly publicizes its success in reducing absolute poverty but hides data regarding the large number of people who are still relatively poor.

Worse still, policies on poverty-handling are colored with bureaucratic involvement. Our bureaucracy, unfortunately, is known as one of the world's dirtiest, while the country itself has earned the label of being "most" corrupt.

Gap-related issues also have given birth to a host of other potentially explosive problems in sectors not directly linked with social gaps or poverty.

The case of the slain reporter of Bernas daily, Udin, who wrote about irregularities in the distribution of funds allocated for undeveloped villages, is one example.

The investigation, topsy-turvy and reflecting unbelievable fabrications, has sown the seeds of potential ventings of anger by groups who have been disgusted with the process but which may not directly be connected with gap-related issues.

Perhaps what is described above has not even touched the beginning of a solution to Indonesia's, or the world's, income distribution and social problems. One thing is certain, however. If a social gap is a time bomb, then do not let the time bomb go off before society is ready to deal with all the consequences.

The writer is an observer of social affairs and a researcher at the Forum for Social and Humanities Studies in Yogyakarta.