The lightbulb phenomenon

Many people may say that the maiden flight of the much-talked- about IPTN-made N-250 plane the other day is proof that the age of modern technology has at last begun in this country. In a way they are right. The N-250 plane with its "fly-by-wire" technology, designed and built by an all-Indonesian team, is widely recognized as the most advanced in its class. The maiden- flight was so successful that Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie went as far as proposing that Aug. 10 should be declared our National Technology Awakening Day.

Perhaps, though, for millions of Indonesians, more tangible evidence of the coming of the age of "modern" technology is the unprecedented phenomenon of having millions of small, colored lightbulbs decorating streets and buildings in possibly all the hundreds of towns and cities in this country.

For decades, it has been the tradition here to celebrate Independence Day by hanging out strings of wire decorated with small red-and-white paper flags, and by building gapura (gateways) at entrances to streets and alleys in villages or housing complexes. These gapura were usually made by members of the local neighborhood associations under the age-old tradition of gotong-royong (mutual help), using cheap materials, mostly paper, bamboo and wood. Some local artists then would paint it with images of our heroes -- usually long-haired youths wearing red-and-white headbands and brandishing bambu runcing (bamboo spears), which were the most simple and easily made of weapons that were used by republican revolutionaries during the war-of- independence days.

But apparently some officials believe that a golden anniversary deserves a brighter celebration and hence, this time the populist gapura and long-haired youths must give way to the more enthralling and illuminating lightbulbs.

Interestingly, in a typically Indonesian way, no one seems to know where the original instruction to install those decorative lightbulbs came from. The chairman of the National Committee for the Celebration of the Golden Anniversary, Emil Salim, even went so far as to issue a statement to deny that his team was the one responsible for issuing -- to borrow Emil Salim's words -- such a "burdensome" instruction.

Another striking aspect of this lightbulb phenomenon is the near-uniformity of their installation: a bamboo pole rigged with a string of a half dozen or more lightbulbs, erected in such a way that their ends almost meet those of similar poles erected on the other side of the street. Perhaps this reflects the tendency of Indonesians, who like, or enjoy, some measure of uniformity and always try to find harmony and avoid divergence in order not to be singled out as defiant.

Foreign visitors may think that this country must enjoy an abundant supply of electricity to permit the extravagance of such a bright and illuminating feast, which may devour millions of watts of much needed electricity. They may be shocked to find out that actually some 60 percent of the villages in this country still have no electricity, and that even up to last year power shortages caused regular brownouts in many cities in this country.

The question, then, is can we really afford to waste those millions of watts for those lightbulbs, which according to many, particularly when seen in daylight, are esthetically ugly? Shouldn't we use that wattage for more productive purposes?

As always, the answer to this question is ambiguous, since in this country one can always find dozens of excuses or explanations for whatever perceived error. And since for most people a golden anniversary occurs only once in a lifetime, anyone who opposes this could be accused of harboring a "subversive" mind.

So, let us celebrate the upcoming Independence Day anniversary in good spirit and with shining colors. And let us wait and see if our long-haired-heroes with their red-and-white headbands and bamboo spears will make their comeback next year.