Strange atmosphere hovers over every corner of Indonesia

By Y.B. Mangunwijaya

JAKARTA (JP): Everybody knows who the culprits are in the economic calamities and the free fall of the rupiah.

Everybody smiles bitterly at the hollow rhetoric of the powerful elite, urging patience from victimized and deprived people on the streets.

Everybody shrugs their shoulders at the vain grandstanding of bureaucrats and the wealthy, who sell their dollars in garish displays of generosity in the "Love Rupiah" campaign.

Everybody smiles sourly at the well-meaning but naive gesture of religious leaders, offering gold to the head of state to rescue the rupiah.

Everybody demands that everyone save the collapsed economy of the former Asian "tiger cub" which is this archipelago.

All very strange indeed.

Everybody knows that ultimately the best way to accomplish the common and desired goal would be the willingness of the responsible decision-makers, or maker, of the past to step down to make possible the abolition of corruption, collusion and nepotism, and transform the whole economic, social and political structure into a better one.

Everybody knows, but everybody is powerless, crippled, incapable or too afraid to start the breakthrough.

Nobody dares because of the fear of sparking uncontrollable anger, of angry crowds filling the streets and yelling for revolution; starting chaos and mass-murder like in 1965/1966.

It is very strange that everybody thinks this government is as solid as the rock of Krakatau and eruptions of all sorts could be easily repressed.

Nobody believes anyone could be clever, daring and wise enough to lead the nation and to rescue its economy except the legendary five-star general with the magical name, Soeharto.

Even in his old age everybody sees him as the strongman of more than 30 years ago.

Strange that in a liberated and modern society which naturally wishes for the development of a democratic framework, everybody thinks the autocratic New Order was proclaimed for eternity. And nobody seems to want the 1945 Constitution, which gives a single man all the power he needs, to be transformed in a more democratic one.

Although designed for an emergency situation in the early days as a temporary flexible constitution on behalf of a multilayered revolution, during the history of our nation the constitution seems to have become sacred, as sacred as wahyu or revelation from heaven. So it never could be changed or made better.

But paradoxically strange, everybody admits, that according to the laws of nature, everything changes and the ruins could only be resurrected and the old New Order turned into a better and younger one.

Everybody is convinced that a new generation of civil servants shall be elected to govern the nation in the ever-changing world by a new generation with a new attitude.

Everybody knows corruption, collusion and nepotism is difficult to eradicate, but not impossible. But everybody is sure that within the now ruling system in which corruption, collusion and nepotism flourish, there is no way for a sound solution.

It is a strange situation in that everybody is set on an almost magical course to continue this corrupt and fatalistic system.

So the nation remains in waiting, mostly because of the fear of repeating the chaos of 1965/1966, but for the greater part because of the still deeply rooted jongos-babu (domestic servants in Dutch colonial context) mentality.

Alas, the peasant still lives deep within us, someone who practices absolute obedience and is willing to sink together with the masters.

Paralyzed culturally, which was somehow caused by an innate conviction of an almighty predestination of fate, everybody waits in preparation of surrendering to coming events, like rice fields surrendering to lava floods.

One can only understand the New Order if one understands the economics of the Netherlands Indies, the politics and the social engineering of the Japanese occupation army during the Pacific War, and the long traditions of the sultanates of our islands, combined into a blend of a ruling system with ultra-modern instruments and mass media.

It is under this heap of multidimensional crises, political, economical and cultural as well, that we now suffer.

It could be a sign of a bigger crisis which foreshadows the birth of the coming of a new paradigm on the economical and political scene, a crisis which could profoundly transform our way of thinking and behavior toward society and state, benefiting the future of our nation.

Without regeneration of rice and corn crops, new seedlings will never grow or produce continued harvests.

But it is not impossible. We hope not for it to become reality, for it could signal a bigger disaster to come. Such as the extinction of a free nation whose better part dares not take the future into its own hands, but who practices obedience in the tradition of thousands of years, a culture of self-killing devotion to despots, even into the swamps of a corrupt, disintegrated nation.

The writer is a noted social worker, architect and novelist.