Blessings of ‘Stumbling’

In the span of nine months since last July, we have been appalled at the revelation of a string of events “stumbling” into cases, which tragically smack of irony.

Is the universe signaling something? Then, how do we interpret these “stumbling” events?

It started with the deadly Kanjuruhan soccer disaster; then the disclosure of the premeditated murder of Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat by former police general Ferdy Sambo; the ensnarement of Insp. Gen. Teddy Minahasa Putra, a regional police chief doing the “side job” of selling confiscated drugs; the fall of an official at the Directorate General of Taxation due to the reported case of hostile acts committed by his son; the dismissal of Yogyakarta customs and excise head because of a luxury lifestyle show-off; a police officer turned his "aversion to being poor" into piling up wealth amounting to hundreds of billions of rupiah (what a whole lot of money!).

It was as if we were watching a stage play as spectators being emotionally provoked into suspense. Following the flow of the scenes here and there we are left gaping at times. The process of investigations, examinations, questionings and trials, as we follow the publication in mainstream media or social media, are full of dramatic ups and downs with shocking revelations.

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Everything is exposed to the extreme level of nakedness. Such an exposure would be impossible to happen during the New Order era, because at that time, as we were well aware (this needs to be clarified as the millennial generation often thinks that the New Order was a "very democratic era") state officials, especially the military, were “safe” when they stumbled into a legal dispute.

This article is refraining from looking further, for fear of being vindicated to be out of proportion, at the psychological impact on the children of those implicated. It is refraining from talking about legal aspects or judging how media exposure of these despicable events may affect the children. But it is just calling for light reflection by deep-diving into our humanistic realm. It is a space where our loneliness interacts in dialogue with ourselves in solitude. Who knows, inspiration is there to save our lives.

Everything is exposed to the extreme level of nakedness.

Given these scandalous events, apart from the Kanjuruhan tragedy, we remember how our ancestors used to remind us in a message eling sangkan paraning dumadi, which means always remember the origins of your existence. It proves an efficacious ancestral advice when heeded. It is helpful to save fate. There are other Javanese words of advice: aja dumeh (restrain greed when in power), adigang adigung adiguna, becik ketitik ala ketara (every good and bad deed, however small they are, will reap reward and punishment accordingly), and similar adages in other regions across the nusantara (archipelago).

All of them remind people not to be reckless and greedy in managing power, as a case coming to light this week has shown when an unscrupulous official from the Directorate General of Taxation was found hiding a wealth of more than Rp 500 billion. That is half a trillion. Those ancestral pieces of advice teach people to always be honest with their past. There should be nothing to hide. People should not indulge in their replenished lives too excessively and forgo their historical roots.

Stumbling into blessings

In this context, learning from a posting on Facebook I have been impressed by the visit of Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, who without hesitation visited the elementary school where he studied during childhood, a few weeks after he was inaugurated as the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries minister.

An elementary school far away in a remote area, SD Negeri Ngablak is not far from the Kedung Ombo reservoir, Boyolali, Central Java. He met and thanked his teachers who taught him the alphabet and math. The minister revisited his past, with no psychological burdens whatsoever.

Presumably, he is still a supposedly true Javanese who can live up to that eling (acknowledgment to roots) attitude. He seemed to be willing to say “I never stop surfing the waves of life, but I'm a native villager after all.”

There are those among us who are able to turn calamities, challenges, stumbles, mistakes and threats into a blessing. Threats and mistakes awaken vigilance and turn to glory. Having stumbled gives a lesson on how not to stumble again. The frenzied display of wealth, luxury and flaunted power, which have recently rocked the nation, are akin to an attempt to create self-image by dwarf-minded persons who have the ambition to appear as the “most perfect creature,” an appearance they see as carrying no defects or flaws.

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There may be some whose starting point for their career as a poor villager, who perhaps had to go through tribulations just to go to school, had to be buried. They try not to let people know that they used to be part of a pariah caste, or illiterate social class. And because of that, today when they become a person of high rank or in power, that “dark episode” becomes a forgotten past with no weight on the rendered beautiful success story.

Such a soul-crooked person feels the need to show off their personal transportation worth billions of rupiah, and the price of the bag that his wife carries can finance the education costs of the whole elementary school children in a village. If sold, a big luxury bike (that used to be shown off on Instagram), would fetch money that could help dozens of people who have to have dialysis twice a week.

Self exposure

Those fallen figures today, like Sambo and several other state officials, did not seem confident that their perseverance toward reaching the peak of their careers and becoming people of rank and affluence was the "essence of struggle" that deserved gratitude.

And it should have been approached with honesty by being an example for anyone. Sorry, I have to put quotation marks on the "essence of struggle" because suspicions have since grown that they may have resorted to corrupt practices in procuring their wealth.

Who has exposed their crimes? Themselves! In the midst of quietness from noisy protests and lawsuits, when this nation seemed calm and peaceful with the people willing to pay their annual taxes, as expected by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, a “trivial” incident suddenly exploded. It unfolded with a personal affair before exposing the malice committed by a person who had seemed to be polite and neat but turned out to have covertly perpetrated treason against the state in the financial sector. The people and government leaders have become shocked alike. Expressions of wrath abound.

Without anyone asking, the universe somehow conjured magic spells to have criminals exposing themselves, showing the ulcers and rottenness of their behavior. And it looks likely that such an appalling explosion will still continue. I do not know how it will happen.

If only they hadn't forgotten the adage eling sangkan paraning dumadi, the course of their fates might not have been as tragic as today. At least that adage could have served as moral deterrence against uncivilized desires and put the brakes on greed. They have stumbled to leave their lives shattered into pieces. The pieces are hard to put back together, no longer able to be turned into an inspiration. They have failed to learn a lesson from previous stumbles.

Warrior-style strategy

We know that many people actually can learn from stumbling to turn it into a blessing. Precisely from stumbling sometimes new knowledge is born. I am one of those who believe that. That stumbling serves as a blessing in disguise sent by the universe.

Studying the histories of successful and accomplished figures, in any professional sector, we can be sure that they have managed to escape various stumbling obstacles. They can even turn the stumbling obstacles into the finding of new perspectives and ideas that are inspiring and innovative. The birth of the various theories that we have so far studied in academics, if we examine further back, have come up with the founder of the theory having gone through obstacles.

Look at the history of another nation. If only Japan's arrogance had not been tripped over by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it would have been born only as a puppet state of the Old Brothers (Japan). A stumbling event that took place far away blessed the nation, which later proclaimed its independence.

Stumbling and tripping can actually be capitalized as impetus to win a battle.

The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), which tripped many times during the New Order era, not to mention was made a puppet by the authorities, gained inspiration to reincarnate into a solid political party by adding “Perjuangan” (struggle) to its name, thus becoming the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Gus Dur was fortunate to be the head of state, because a "reform figure" had stumbled in his own political game.

Maybe we can say jokingly that Pak Joko “Jokowi” Widodo would not have sprung up the past headway that proved to usher him into today’s position, if he had not tripped over the arrogance of a regional head in Central Java at that time.

Stumbling and tripping can actually be capitalized as impetus to win a battle. That is why people competing to identify themselves as the best should be smart about capitalizing on stumbling obstacles as warriors would to win a battle.

Warriors who defend discriminated people will consistently maintain the spirit of tolerance and pluralism; it is not those who merely carry the greed of the oligarchs and only show off their luxury, wealth and power.

KOMPAS/IWAN SETIYAWAN

Butet Kartarejasa

Butet Kartaredjasa, Actor

This article was translated by Musthofid.