Weakening social solidarity causes public apathy

Weakening social solidarity causes public apathy

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid bitter complaints from activists about public apathy
towards public problems, a sociologist and a psycho-social expert
say the indifference is due to weakening social solidarity among
the people.

"Social solidarity has weakened considerably among the people
as they will only react to an issue if it impacts directly on
their lives," said Ery Seda, a sociologist from the University of
Indonesia.

Ery said the abundant sources of information available to the
public did not guarantee that people would take concrete action
to react to the problem.

Driyarkara School of Philosophy psycho-social expert Suhati
Kurniawati concurred, saying that unless problems being raised
affected individuals as well as the community as a whole, all
efforts to address the problems would fail to garner public
support.

"People will simply ponder whether or not the issue being
addressed can help fix their daily problems and whether their
involvement and role is really needed. Otherwise, they will
prefer not to become involved directly," Suhati said.

The public's indifference has concerned many activists.

Environmental activists mourned the public's lack of support
for "Car-Free Day", which was held last month to promote easing
air pollution. In June, anti-drugs activists were also critical
of the public.

The latest protest, organized by several non-governmental
organizations, including the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), the
Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) and the Democratic
People's Party (PRD), to protest plans to fence off the National
Park (Monas) in Central Jakarta by forming a human chain late
last month, fell short of supporters. They failed to form a
perfect circle as only 1,000 of the 4,000 protesters expected to
turn up, joined the rally.

Commenting on the failure of the campaigns to attract the
support of the public, Suhati said such issues were not popular.

"The people may all agree with activists that issues like open
space, air pollution, drugs are important and urgent problems.
But, they will think it does not significantly affect their daily
lives so they fail to see the significance of their involvement
in the movement," Suhati said.

Suhati also attributed the people's lack of support to the
people's reluctance to endanger their safety during street
rallies.

"Threats from police and security personnel to use violence in
cracking down on street demonstrations is still apparent ... the
use of violence still takes place," Suhati said.

However, Ery said that people would easily become involved if
the problem affected them or their neighborhood.

"We witnessed recently a wave of protests in the work places
or neighborhoods ... No wonder that all employees or residents,
regardless their classes, get involved in the rallies as it
directly affects their purses and homes," Ery said.

"We must also keep in mind the fact that many Jakarta
residents are migrants who do not consider Jakarta a permanent
residence. They see it as a place to earn money. Public issues
are out of question."