Screams of Death during Pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, statistics are talked about a lot. We like to read numbers. Without realizing it, we are trapped in how to understand [such a phenomenon], which makes us perceive Covid-19 as if it were just the ups and downs of case numbers.

For example, data on 15 March 2021 showed the total number of Covid-19 cases in the world was 120,399,288, the number of people recovered was 96,944,566 and the number of deaths was 2,664,622. In Indonesia, positive Covid-19 cases stood at 1,425,044, recoveries 1,249,947 and deaths 38,573.

We get worried if the numbers go up and we are relieved if the numbers go down. However, is it correct if our worries and reliefs depend on the ups and downs of numbers? We forget that 2,664,622 deaths in the world and 38,573 in Indonesia are not just numbers, but also lives. Indeed, behind these numbers there is actually a sense of sadness, loss and disappointment.

Tragic death

Death is death. However, if we look at death as just a number, we can carelessly compare deaths due to Covid-19 with deaths from common fever, heart attack, kidney disease and even traffic accidents. Every year, deaths due to all those also occupy a high statistic.

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This kind of assumption makes us forget that deaths due to Covid-19 cannot be compared to deaths due to other causes. Because with Covid-19 deaths there are follow-up events that do not occur in common deaths.

Death often comes earlier than expected. But for those who died because of the coronavirus, the death was truly tragic. Because it came without warning, often without symptoms, and instantly it took life. This kind of death is sure to leave great sorrow and suffering for those who are left behind.

As if without any causes, people can suddenly lose their loved ones. Doctors, nurses and health workers can remain safe when caring for patients who are sick due to, for example, cancer, heart or kidney failure. But when dealing with coronavirus patients, they must risk their lives. Finally, not a few of them died.

Patients do not even recognize the visitors anymore, even if it is their closest family members who visit.

Those who were exposed to Covid-19 were even sadder. They are estranged from their families, even at the last moment when they really need it. People who can get close to them must wear complete personal protective equipment (PPE). Patients do not even recognize the visitors anymore, even if it is their closest family members who visit.

And when death comes to them, their fate really languishes. Their body is thoroughly sprayed with disinfectant. The dead bodies are not given makeup. And must be buried quickly. The burials are quiet. The closest family members can only watch from afar. They really are like unwanted dead bodies. And considered as a plague that can cause infection, even though they have passed away.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Officers carry a patient\'s coffin with the Covid-19 protocol at the Pondok Ranggon cemetery, East Jakarta, Tuesday (12/6/2020).

Usually, burial is a time when those who are left behind pay their last respects to the departed. It is the last moment when love is poured out, apologies are asked, and the family whispers messages. And of course, it is accompanied by religious rituals to pray that the deceased will go away in peace, and the family will be given consolation.

This was all negated during any death because of Covid-19. The reason is to prevent people from getting infected. It was a tragic death for those who died from Covid-19.

Death should be decorated with happiness. Even those with the most despicable lives deserve the honor of being human at the moment of their death. That\'s what Mother Teresa, the holy woman from Calcutta, did.

When she received the 1979 Nobel Prize in Oslo, Mother Teresa made a speech, “I never forget how I found a man on the street. Flies covered his whole body. The only part that looked clean was his face. I took the person to the place where we were accommodating people who were dying. And this is the only word he said, ‘I live like an animal on the streets, but now I will die as an angel, loved and cared for’. And he died beautifully. He passed away to God. Death is nothing but returning to God. I felt: He is excited and happy because he is experiencing love, that he is loved, wanted, and that he is someone who matters to others."

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Indeed, when dying, anyone should experience that he or she is a human being, loved and appreciated as a human being. Indeed, it is love and respect that is lost during the deaths of people exposed to Covid-19. "Sorry, this burial has nothing to do with respect," this is the apology behind the absence of proper farewell and religious rituals for those who died because of Covid-19.

This is the reason why cases such as in Bantul regency, Yogyakarta, recently occurred. Hundreds of volunteers from the Disaster Risk Reduction Forum (FPRB) came to the Bantul Legislative Council (DPRD). They protested against a statement from a member of the Council regarding the funeral of the bodies of Covid-19 victims.

According to the volunteers, the councilor once stated that the funeral of the bodies of Covid-19 victims was carried out very improperly, “like burying an animal”. This statement clearly hurt the hearts of the volunteers, who in all their limitations had buried the victim\'s body sincerely and properly. Happily, the case ended with an apology from the councilor.

Cases like the one above clearly show that Covid-19 does indeed bring problems about death. As Die Zeit columnist Anna Mayr said, Covid-19 drives us to talk about the drop in the death rate, but we do not talk about the death itself. Human deaths become anonymous.

Behind this indifference to Covid-19 death lies an ideology of liberal salvation which says, “what matters is my safety, [I] don’t care about the death of the victims and the grief of those left behind”. If such indifference is tolerated, we will not be able to get together to find ideas, how to respect and honor those who have passed away in a commensurate ritual.

The paralysis of religion

The waning of religious rituals in funeral due to Covid-19 is a sign of the paralyzing power of religion in this modern era. According to philosopher Giorgio Agamben, religion has long had to compete with capitalism and science. Facing this pandemic, religion has been forced to "surrender" to science, particularly medicine and medical science.

Through political power, religion is asked to surrender to "medicine ritual and liturgy". These must all be made for the sake of health and life. Understandably, for medicine, health and life are everything.

Thus, health has become an idol in this era of liberalism. According to Agamben, salvezza, salvation, has been sacrificed for the sake of salute, health. This is because religion must tie itself to history, seeking salvation through history. Ultimately, what this history has discovered is not salvation, but health. Man\'s ultimate goal is health. Anything outside of health — let alone death — is no longer crucial. That is why humans no longer witness a natural relationship between life and death.

KOMPAS/AGUIDO ADRI

Officers prepare to bury the bodies of Covid-19 victims at Pondok Ranggon cemetery, Jakarta, Tuesday (5/5/2020).

Denied or accepted, the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly brought death closer to life. According to theologist Wolfgang Palaver, now is indeed an opportunity for us to not being so ignorant about death.

With such an attitude, we can actually appreciate life. However, as Agamben has shown, it would be a mistake if we simplify life to be just about health. Once you think about health, people are easily tempted to put their own health first.

This, among other things, has caused us to seem completely incapable of thinking about how to pay proper respect to those who died because of Covid-19.

Indeed, life is more than just health. Thus, Palaver agrees with the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas who said that holding on to life for any reason is the root of violence and war. Life is not just our life, but lives for and with other people. Herein lies why we should think about salvation, alongside or in addition to health.

It is impossible to seek salvation outside of history. And if it is to be found in history, salvation has to go with health.

Thus, Palaver disagrees with Agamben\'s opinion, as if salvation can be separated from health. The two are inseparable, and both are within history. It is impossible to seek salvation outside of history. And if it is to be found in history, salvation has to go with health.

However, speaking about salvation, it is impossible to forget death. With death, salvation reaches its perfection. It is death in this sense that is

forgotten during the pandemic. It seems that death is only caused by virus infection. So, the ritual can be ignored too. This is what hurts the hearts of many families left by their loved ones who have died of this coronavirus.

Deaf politics

We have long insisted that death is not a part of politics. Now, it is politics that is facing massive cases of death and is, almost, paralyzed. Politics has lost its way in facing the deaths that have repeatedly come. Politics is forced to fear death.

According to Palaver, fear of death should not be interpreted as just negative. Fear also includes respect. If you respect death, politics will also result in responsible action.

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In the face of such threatening deaths during this pandemic, politics is compelled to realize that life is actually very meaningful. So, by respecting death, politics will certainly respect life. Since it is not death, but only life that can provide orientation, politics must find out what new orientation life now provides. If politics is too lazy to seek this new orientation, there may be dangers that will plague us with its demise.

In the first place, the new orientation should erase the raw view of social Darwinism: let the dead be dead, let the living be alive. This view clearly allows the weak as a victim in favor of the strong (survival of the fittest). It is tragic that during this pandemic this social Darwinism has emerged, in fact, in several developed countries.

Once again it appears, as Agamben points out, that it is the idol of liberalism which affirms life and health as its only goal. The guise of this idol is unveiled because it turns out that life and health that it fights for is the life and health of those who are strong. The weak were left unprotected.

Behind this social Darwinism lies a cruel calculative logic. Such logic could coldly conclude: It is permissible for one person to die if thousands of people are saved. Morally, this logic cannot be justified. It is unacceptable that humans may be sacrificed, even by one person, for the benefit of many others.

The new orientation also needs to move away from the principles of modernity, which view humans are valuable as far as they are useful. According to sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, this principle could argue that in the end humans are just garbage when it is no longer useful.

Because it is no longer useful, it can be excluded, even disposed of like garbage. Understandably, this principle holds that life will be comfortable if it is not disturbed by those who are only burdens. In the Agamben language, the outcast is homo sacer.

In ancient times, homo sacer were people who were considered useless and could be sacrificed. In this era, homo sacer are those who cannot and do not have the capacity to be able to participate in the modern democratic order. Because of this, even democracy has been secretly getting rid of them.

Bauman describes the homo sacer as the jobless, the unemployed and the marginalized. They are no longer able to produce, because of that they are entangled with financial problems. As a result, they also could not be ideal consumers.

So, when oversimplified, politics easily perceives them as a nuisance to democracy.

They lose their voice and consequently they will definitely be excluded from the democratic process. Democracy presupposes that citizens are able to manage and determine their own destiny. Meanwhile, these people must be taken care of because they cannot determine their own destiny. So, when oversimplified, politics easily perceives them as a nuisance to democracy.

Many are indeed wrong in modernity today. It has been a long time that people did not want to get out of that mistake. With its screams of death, the Covid-19 pandemic forces us to correct this wrong path again. We must not keep these screams silent because they do not only challenge us, they also give us an opportunity to rethink our lives.

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The screams tell us loudly that death is sacred. If we are willing to return to make death sacred, we will also purify life. That is, death wants us not to play with life, and reduces life to mere health. Life is salvation, not for ourselves, but for the sake of countless other human beings.

In this country, the pandemic has also brought us closer to death. Our politics were also perplexed in the face of death. Unfortunately, our politics seem to turn a blind ear to the screams. The main message of death is that life is valuable, so value life, and make life a salvation.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Relatives can only see from afar the funeral procession of family members of Covid-19 victims at Pondok Ranggon, Jakarta, Saturday (18/4/2020).

We forgot the message of death. We still put politics into dealing with trivial matters that never end. We make politics an arena for controversy, for the struggle for truth, which we present through blasphemy and lies.

This shallow, tedious and irritating political hustle and bustle has absolutely nothing to do with the problems left by the pandemic and which we have to deal with: unemployment, loss of job opportunities, poverty and the sudden marginalization of many citizens.

This liberal attitude is none other than arrogance and selfishness to seek pleasure on one\'s own.

Our democracy must not ignore people who suddenly fall into being homo sacer. Unfortunately, our democracy has instead become an arena for political elites to fight for power and seek security for themselves. The elite preach anti-liberalism, but in fact they have embraced the liberal attitude itself. This liberal attitude is none other than arrogance and selfishness to seek pleasure on one\'s own.

It seems that our politics really ignore the screams of death of many people who have died because of this pandemic. As if we don\'t owe them anything. In fact, we can only pay this debt if we want to run a politics that respects life. And that can only be truly realized if politics is willing to defend and fight for those whose lives are weak and threatened.

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Sindhunata

The Javanese have a teaching about mati sajroning urip, willing to die (anytime) in life. Whoever wants to put this teaching into practice, he or she will be wise in this life. It is there that we are taught not to consider our own lives absolute, but to be ready to lose part of our life for the sake of other people\'s lives. The pandemic has sharpened the truth of that teaching. If we care about this truth, our politics will certainly become wiser and wiser.

Unfortunately, our politics remains stubborn with its old habits, as if death in the midst of this pandemic means nothing. It does not see the slightest bit of a new orientation, which we must find together to face the future, after the pandemic that has caused many deaths. It seems that our politics also do not want to be wise despite hearing the screams of death amid this pandemic.

Sindhunata, Journalist, Guarantor of "Basis" Magazine, Yogyakarta

(This article was translated by Kurniawan H. Siswoko).