Soothsayers in our society

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