Soothsayers in our society

If the general election campaign was not in full swing, this week could probably be called the "week of soothsayers". Our newspapers are filled with reports about a homicidal soothsayer in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, whose victims are now said to have reached the incredible number of 42. Even more notable is the fact that, since the beginning of this month, 17 soothsayers have been holding practice in one of metropolitan Jakarta's modern shopping centers, Blok M Plaza.

The thing to note is that, so far, we have been conditioned to believe that due to both the success of our development efforts and the swelling tide of modernization, Indonesians have become more or less modern -- or at least trapped and compelled to live in a modern world environment. We are living amidst icons of modernity -- which appear in various forms, from skyscrapers to our social system and institutions -- that can be defined only in modern jargon. How, then, are we to explain the reemergence, or persistence, of soothsayers in our society?

We are entering an era of skyscrapers, luxury cars and freeways, but we have not passed the phase of exhaustive preparation. We drive cars, but we have not adopted the necessary culture of road courtesy. We covet high academic degrees, but we refuse to take the trouble of adopting a culture of study or improve our academic standards. We want democracy, but we refuse to accept the strains that come from allowing differing opinions. We are not ready to accept pluralism.

Perhaps we could simplify all this by saying that we are modern in terms of our symbolical orientation, but have remained traditional in our cosmological orientation. We adopt academic degrees, drive luxury cars, wear brand-name apparel and talk about our system and strategy in modern jargon -- yet, at the slightest sign of trouble, we resort to the services of soothsayers.

-- Kompas, Jakarta