The age of madness: Fact of fancy?
The age of madness: Fact of fancy?
By Mochtar Buchori
JAKARTA (JP): 'Jaman edan' is a Javanese expression meaning the age of madness.
This expression was coined by the late Ranggawarsita (1802- 1873), a Javanese literary personality who served as a literary expert at the Paku Buwana court in Surakarta.
He served six Kings, from Paku Buwana IV to Paku Buwana IX. Through his literary and linguistic intercourse with the Dutch scholars assigned by the Dutch East Indies government to study Javanese language and literature, Ranggawarsita adopted western modes of literary expressions to enrich the Javanese literary styles of his time.
He was acknowledged as one of the modernizers of Javanese literature. Ranggawarsita was also considered a great Javanese artist and philosopher. He wrote not only poems and prose, but also essays on issues about education, economics, law and general social issues.
His philosophical works were widely read by the Javanese public, which greatly influences the way modern Javanese society thinks today. His thoughts have become a torch for the morality which has evolved in Javanese society.
Late in his life, when he was physically weak and very fragile, he wrote Serat Kalatida (A Book About The Age of Social Upheavals). This book is a collection of poems through which Ranggawarsita expressed his disappointment, chagrin and frustration about the moral decline that occurred within the Javanese society, especially within the Surakarta court.
A part of this book later became very popular. It said:Amenangi jaman edan/ Ewuh aya in pambudi/Melu edan ora tahan/ Yen tan melu anglakoni/Boya keduman melik/ Kaliren wekasanipun/Dilalah kersa Allah/Begja-begjani kang lali/Luwih begja kang eling lan waspada.
Roughly translated: "Living in an age of madness/Facing very difficult choices/Want to act crazy like the others, conscience forbids/But if you do not act crazy, you will never get your share/At the end you will suffer from hunger/But it is Allah's will/However fortunate people may be who are forgetful/More fortunate still are those who are always mindful and vigilant."
Ranggawarsita personally experienced one of the darkest periods of Javanese history. This was the period from 1820 to 1860, during which Javanese society, especially the Javanese villages, underwent a severe pauperization process. The process was a consequence of the exploitative practices conduced by the Dutch colonial government and aided by the bureaucracies of the Javanese kings.
It was Prince Dipanegara who finally protested the injustices directed against the Javanese people. This led to the outbreak of the Java War between 1825 and 1830. Prince Dipanegara was defeated through a political trick, and he was imprisoned by the Dutch government and died in exile in UjungPandang, Sulawesi.
His followers were exiled to several different places, including Gorontalo and Tondano in North Sulawesi, and Sri Lanka.
It is not difficult to imagine that the Javanese became demoralized during this time of political disintegration, and that various forms of deceit and hypocrisy emerged within the courts.
In these courts political intrigue thrived, and violations of norms became common. People skillful in winning the trust of those in power have always won, no matter how wicked such a person may be.
On the other hand, those who are considered too rigid and inflexible in upholding existing norms, and are unwilling to overlook violations of norms conducted by others, are not able to win the trust of others.
Such a person will never get close to the power holder, and will in the end loose. This has always been the case no matter how right such a person may be.
It was said such was the political atmosphere existed in the court of Pakubuwana IX when Ranggawarsita wrote this famous work. To later generations of Javanese people, jaman edan has come to mean any time or period during which villains who violated ethical norms not only get away unpunished, but are actually rewarded. Those who try to uphold the norms are punished.
For later generations of Javanese people, jaman edan has come to mean a period during which ethical norms are turned upside down, and developments or events have become very difficult to comprehend.
It is a period during which the normal becomes the abnormal, the sane become the insane, and the villain becomes the hero. Guided by this understanding, Javanese people tend to consider certain periods in the past as temporarily mad: times like the Japanese occupation, the revolution and the old order.
Whenever the normal order of things becomes disturbed, whenever phenomena occur which offend people's sense of justice, the Javanese tend to look upon such times as the dawning of jaman edan, the dawning of the age of madness.
These days there are so many things happening that people don't understand. When the price of cement goes up and down within the span of one week, when court decisions can be easily reverted or declared void, when right can never prevail in the face of might, when you have to pretend as if you are insane to be considered sane -- can we still call such a time morally normal?
Are we really living in a jaman edan, in a time of madness, or are we merely imagining that things around us are abnormal and incomprehensible?
I don't know. And I don't want to think about it any further. I am afraid that I am really going crazy.
The writer is rector of IKIP-Muhammadiyah Teachers Training College, Jakarta.