Freedom and Anxiety

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

ILLUSTRATION. An anti-hoax themed mural under the Rawa Buntu flyover, Serpong, South Tangerang, Monday (11/3/2019).

Anxiety has clouded the world, triggering primordial sentiments across the globe. Fanning the flames of hostility against those that are "different" have become an epidemic, even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic that has struck all nations, religions, ideologies and economies.

The flow of globalization has freed the public sphere and intensified interaction between societies. Freedom and interaction raise many expectations. In fact, these high expectations are not always in line with fulfilling the expectations for justice. It is this wide gap between freedom and justice that breeds anxiety and violence.

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In the Indonesian context, the Reform Order [sic] gave birth to the momentum for an open public sphere. This is marked by the reinstatement of civil rights, freedom of opinion, of assembly and of association. However, democratic values cannot be upheld easily in the midst of a strong feudal culture, low education levels, wide economic inequality and a weak rule of law. Democratic development and political reform without the support of orderly laws and socioeconomic justice often come with social conflict, disintegration and ethno-religious violence.

AFP/WAHYUDI

People stand next to an overturned police car during a nationwide strike against a new law which critics fear favours investors at the expense of labour right and the environment in Pekanbaru  on October 8, 2020.

In other words, enhancing democracy requires that freedom go hand in hand with justice. In an authoritarian system, the main threat to freedom comes from the state. In a democratic system, the threat actually rises from societal forces in the form of communal fanaticism. Fanaticism is the antipode of civil society because it rejects the rationality, equal citizenship and government based on law (constitution) that are the vital pillars of democracy. Established groups that have seen setbacks, as well as the emerging middle class whose vertical mobility was "blocked", often develop fanaticism by showing their "envy" (resentment) towards freedom, differences and modernization.

These injustices and socioeconomic deprivation is exacerbated by the paralysis of the public’s interactive-communicative capacity due to the subordination of the value of harmonious living (lifeworld) by the capitalistic system.

However, fanaticism is not rootless. It arises as a result of disruption to the foundations of equality and the distortion of public communication. Based on the experiences across countries, many incidents of violence and social conflicts occur as a result of injustices (both real and perceived) in resource allocation, land grabbing and social deprivation, in both domestic and international relations. These injustices and socioeconomic deprivation is exacerbated by the paralysis of the public’s interactive-communicative capacity due to the subordination of the value of harmonious living (lifeworld) by the capitalistic system.

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Legal justice is disrupted when citizens are treated differently or are denied protection from the state for their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. If citizens do not receive protection from the state, they will naturally seek out protection from other sources. These alternative sources can come from religious fundamentalism, tribalism/ethnocentrism, thuggery and cronyism.

AFP/JUNI KRISWANTO

Activists gather during a nationwide strike against a controversial new law which critics fear will favour investors at the expense of labour rights and the environment, in Surabaya on October 8, 2020.

Economic justice is disrupted when the expansion of political participation does not coincide with the expansion of economic participation. In Indonesia, the shift towards a democratic system brought a wave of neoliberal economic aspirations when the traditional welfare state was still weak. Capital penetration and pro-market policies amidst expanding corruption and weak state regulations provided an opportunity for the giant economic "predators" to rampantly and quickly prey on small and medium businesses. The expanding interests of these giant predators did not stop at the business world, and also infiltrated legislative matters, even down to the elections of regional officials. The widening economic inequality sparked social envy.

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Thus, to achieve substantive democracy, public freedoms must be managed in a mature way. Freedom must be used responsibly in the framework of "protecting the Indonesian nation as a whole and all Indonesians based on unity, by realizing justice for all Indonesians".

Kompas

Yudi Latif

Democratic consolidation in Indonesia will succeed if we are able to manage the demands for freedom in line with justice. If the two do not come together, the threats we will face will not only be a matter of social disintegration, but also the breakdown of social cohesion. If the cohesiveness of society collapses, social distrust will grow so that societal groups will grow suspicious and hostile and even worse, give rise to attempts to negate each other. In this situation, the Hobbesian nightmare of "the war of all against all" could become a reality. As such, we realize how important it is to self-reflect, to open a loving heart to others.

YUDI LATIF, Expert at Aliansi Kebangsaan (National Alliance)