In Search of Us amid My Inner Self

“The Great Reset”. This is the term widely used to describe the enormity of the changes that have occurred in the world order we believe in and the society we live in as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wahyudi Anggoro Hadi, the head of Panggungharjo village in Sewon district, Bantul, has described this well. He said we have learned through this pandemic that the peak of social relations was the family, the peak of economic relations was cooperation and the peak of political relations was discussion.

The pandemic forced us to stay mostly at home. Parents interacted with their children for 24 hours. Husbands and wives also lived together without separation and personal space in their work and private lives.

We left economic competition to join hands in meeting the need for health services. Political life was relatively quiet from disruptive actions. Sectoral ego became integrated with collective efforts to overcome shared problems.

Polarization

However, are these three changes permanent and constant? It does not automatically seem to be the case. We have noticed this year that some of these altered relationships have returned to pre-pandemic patterns. Individual interests and agendas have again come to the fore, personally and in groups, and at the national as well as the global stage.

We are witnessing ever-growing polarization in various fields, not only in practical politics.

The quality of public welfare has become directly impacted by inequities. The poverty rate has increased as an impact of small and medium enterprises collapsing and large companies slashing their workforce. Meanwhile, after the mobility restrictions were eased, upper middle class families are enjoying the travel plans they gave up over the last two years.

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Referring to the book by Wilkinson dan Pickett (2009), The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, unless inequality is dealt with properly, we will be reaping problems in the quality of life in the next few decades, such as in the crime rate, children and women’s welfare, life expectancy rates and public health, as well as education level and quality.

At present, quality education is more accessible to the upper middle class and digital education also offers easy adaptation.

For the lower middle class, especially those living in villages and 3T (disadvantaged, border and frontier) regions, the pandemic has raised multiple difficulties. Unequal internet access, poor financial capacity to provide devices, and low digital literacy among teachers and students have resulted in greater learning loss for them.

We have also seen religious polarization in Indonesia, especially among Muslims as the majority religious group. In the view of Syafii Anwar, polarization occurs between the substantively inclusive and the legal-formalistically exclusive paradigms.

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A female driver crosses the mural "Indonesian Diversity" in Pancasila Village, Harapan Jaya Village, North Bekasi District, Bekasi City, West Java, Friday (13/5/2022).

The former maintains that every individual has equal rights so religious inclusion should be upheld. The latter maintains that democracy means power to the majority so it is natural the majority religion should formalize the rules.

Consequently, the exclusive attitude of believers in the majority group in various places has also brought about a loss of constitutional rights for members of minority religions.

Information technology, too, has recorded the impacts of polarization. We have seen the tendency of people to become even more connected with one another through social network and social media platforms.

“ Kampret” (bat) and “ cebong” (tadpole) even serve as labels to degrade the supporters of political opponents. Unsurprisingly, a family can break up as a result of differing political choices.

On the one hand, this has made it easier for people to help one another or collectively raise a crucial issue. Various cases have gone viral on social media to result in policy changes or to guide cases to settlements. When their compatriots are in need, netizens don’t hesitate to act or dig into their pockets to help people they don’t know. As a result, our nation was awarded the top rank in the World Giving Index 2019.

On the other hand, social media has also served as a space passing down very cruel judgement. Doxxing (stalking and revealing personal identities) happens rapidly. Cyberbullying is also widespread. This has ranked Indonesia as the least civilized nation according to Microsoft’s Digital Civility Index 2020.

And certainly, polarization results from practical politics crossed with identity politics. In a sociocentric society, identity is the sentiment that most easily wins political support. “Kampret” (bat) and “cebong” (tadpole) even serve as labels to degrade the supporters of political opponents. Unsurprisingly, a family can break up as a result of differing political choices.

Spirit of kinship

Each type of polarization can have far-reaching impacts and at the very least, ruin interhuman relations as a consequence. Therefore, we need to immediately and deliberately make various efforts because it is almost impossible for this phenomenon to improve on its own.

We should return to the spirit of sharing each other’s hardships as a nation and a state, fostering the spirit of national brotherhood via nation building.

Gotong royong, or mutual assistance, is the concrete principle of coexistence for every group of Indonesian people that was empowered during the course of the pandemic. That is why we need to affirm gotong royong as the basic value of and approach to nation building.

Nonetheless, gotong royong cannot be expected to grow in this way, let alone be turned into a slogan. According to Otto Scharmer’s theory as presented in his book, The Essence of Theory U (2018), gotong royong as a collaborative approach that is generative/productive can be realized only if we are able to rid it of the three impediments of the Voice of Judgement, the Voice of Cynicism, and the Voice of Fear.

HERYUNANTO

Heryunanto

These voices keep us mired in competition and debate to impose our interests, instead of dialogue, let alone collaboration. We are trapped in a “cebong-kampret” polarization, causing state administrators to make blunders that ignore public affairs while also increasing public distrust in the government and political parties.

The mindset that one group needs to guard against the threat of another makes us suspicious of the other group’s agenda and strive to seize and maintain power. Undeniably, today’s paradigm of power relations dominates gender-based violence in families, as well as economic interests and state power.

Gotong royong, in Scharmer’s view, requires three attitudes that might seem trivial, which are Open Mind, Open Heart and Open Will. With these three outlooks, the hierarchical-structural approach and competition can be replaced with true collaboration because it generates a mindset of justice and compassion, as well as responsibility.

If we succeed in rebuilding the bridges of relationship between the people of the Indonesian archipelago, “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” will eventually not be a mere slogan.

If we go deeper, these three attitudes are not new values in our society. Sadly, the journey through the nation’s life that excludes strong nation-building efforts has made us brush aside these values for material achievements.

Our nation is full of great philosophies. Tri Hita Karana (three causes of wellbeing) for instance, is the philosophy of the Balinese people for building a life that is meaningful and prosperous through harmony with God, harmony with fellow human beings and harmony with nature.

This carries the same tone as the Islamic concept of three relationships that people should build: hablum min Allah (relationship with God), hablum min an-nas (relationship with fellow humans), and hablum min al-alam (relationship with nature).

K.H. Ahmad Siddiq has completed these with the three elements of kinship (ukhuwah): ukhuwah diniyah (kinship among fellow believers), ukhuwah wathaniyah (kinship among fellow citizens) and ukhuwah basyariah (kinship among fellow humans).

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To this end, we need strong leadership. It is leadership that sets a good example (ing ngarso sung tulodo), leadership that keeps pace with the nation (ing madyo mangun karso), and leadership that empowers from behind (tut wuri handayani).

In his 2012 writing, (former president) Gus Dur stated that most countries in the world aspired to freedom and prosperity as their foundational goal, which was different from Indonesia. He pointed out that our nation declared that the objective of founding the state of Indonesia was justice and prosperity.

Thia objective requires us to form a bond of togetherness, build a collective relationship and mutual strength to move ahead in concert.

If we succeed in rebuilding the bridges of relationship between the people of the Indonesian archipelago, “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” will eventually not be a mere slogan and will materialize in the awakening of a just and prosperous nation.

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Alissa Wahid

ALISSA WAHID, Director of the Indonesian Gusdurian Network, executive chairperson of People’s Welfare, Nahdlatul Ulama Central BoardThis article was translated by Aris Prawira.