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.