Download PDF file Forum Manajemen Juli-Sept2010

Note to English-speaking readers:
The article is in Indonesian language. I wrote about how the current US crisis changed the way I see things, particularly pertaining to finances and managing funding.

oleh Jennie S. Bev, San Francisco

Perubahan selalu ada. Musim selalu berganti, senang dan susah, berhasil dan gagal, kuat dan lemah. Semua filsuf barat maupun para sufi mempertanyakan, “Apa arti semua ini?” Untuk menjawabnya, kita tidak perlu menjadi seorang pemikir, karena kita tidak henti-hentinya menjawab pertanyaan ini setiap kali mengalami perubahan, baik kecil maupun besar, baik dari luar maupun dari dalam.

Inti dari Ilmu Manajemen Bisnis sendiri adalah bagaimana memperbesar kemungkinan sukses dalam setiap perubahan. Jadi, “perubahan” sepatutnya selalu disadari dan diantisipasi oleh setiap pelaku bisnis manapun.

Ada dua jenis perubahan berdasarkan sumbernya: eksternal maupun internal. Dalam dunia bisnis, ini bisa diartikan dari dalam maupun dari luar organisasi, baik yang berorientasi laba maupun nirlaba. Dalam pandangan mikroskopik, organisasi merupakan organisme yang terdiri dari individu-individu yang bekerja bersama-sama membentuk suatu sistem. Secara otomatis, para individu ini juga mengalami perubahan setiap kali organisasi mengalaminya. Mungkin bisa kita imajinasikan sebagai borg di dalam serial Star Trek, di mana pikiran satu borg tersampaikan secara serial kepada setiap borg yang terkait.

Perubahan yang berasal dari dalam biasanya lebih mudah dikontrol karena variabel-variabelnya lebih mudah dijangkau dan dimengerti (controllable and understandable variables). Contohnya adalah perubahan-perubahan dalam ranah sumber daya manusia, sistem, dan struktur. Perubahan yang berasal dari luar lebih sulit dikontrol dan dimanipulasi. Contohnya adalah perubahan-perubahan dalam ranah lingkungan bisnis, regulasi, dan iklim bisnis internasional.

Sebagai pribadi dan pelaku bisnis yang melakukan migrasi dari Tanah Air ke Tanah Seberang (dari Indonesia ke Amerika Serikat) ketika mengalami Krisis Moneter Asia 1997 dan Resesi Amerika Serikat saat ini, dua kali perubahan eksternal drastis telah dan sedang saya lalui. Migrasi pertama dari Indonesia ke AS membawa guncangan perubahan eksternal yang tiada tara karena selain perubahan lingkungan bisnis, juga dijumpai perubahan tata cara melakukan bisnis serta iklim bisnis dan iklim regulasi bisnis. Untuk ini, penyesuaian diri terutama dalam hal mindset, perlu dilakukan secara sadar.

Perubahan mindset secara umum di dalam masyarakat dan di dalam dunia bisnis lokal merupakan tantangan tersendiri. Secara umum, budaya AS sangat inspiratif dan positif, di mana masyarakat Kalifornia sangat terbuka terhadap imigran dari segi apresiasi budaya dan apresiasi terhadap individu. Kata-kata pujian sangat sering terdengar setiap saat dan perlindungan konsumen ditunjang dengan aplikasi hukum yang tegas seperti penukaran (exchanges) dan pengembalian (returns) produk-produk yang telah dibeli. Selain itu, asumsi “semua orang adalah orang baik” atau “praduga tidak bersalah” sangat terasa. Sebagai contoh, tidak ada bagian penitipan barang di pasar-pasar swalayan sebagaimana di Indonesia. Contoh lainnya adalah otomatisasi pengecekan melalui sistem online point-of-sale (POS) cek individu yang diterima di setiap tempat transaksi yang memberikan rasa aman.

Perubahan mindset dari kultur Indonesia yang ketimuran restriktif menjadi kultur Amerika yang kebaratan terbuka membentuk gaya bisnis adaptif yang diterapkan dalam strategi dan kepimpinan. Dari dua bidang ini, mengubah strategi bisnis jauh lebih sederhana dibandingkan dengan mengubah gaya kepemimpinan. Perencanaan (planning) menjadi lebih fleksibel dengan mempertimbangkan faktor-faktor yang sebelumnya tidak terpikirkan. Sistem operasional juga direvisi menjadi lebih bertahap sehingga bisa dengan fleksibel dibongkarpasang jika diperlukan.

Dalam kepemimpinan, faktor-faktor kultural sangat menentukan keberhasilan. Sebagai contoh, target (goal) dan tenggat waktu (deadline) jauh-jauh hari sudah ditekankan. Gaya komunikasi juga memperhatikan nuansa-nuansa Amerika yang sedikit banyak berbeda dengan kultur negara-negara barat lainnya. Yang paling dirasakan perbedaannya adalah kesetaraan antar jender laki-laki perempuan, kesetaraan antara manajer dengan pegawai biasa, kesetaraan antara penjual dan pembeli.

Tidak ada “office boy” di Tanah Seberang, terutama di perusahaan-perusahaan kecil dan menengah. Setiap manajer bertanggungjawab untuk menjaga kebersihan ruang kantor dan kamar kecil. Serta seorang sekretaris bisa saja seorang laki-laki. Profesionalisme dengan ditunjang kesopanan tanpa guyon-guyon seksis, rasis, dan ageist (mentertawakan orang berusia lanjut) didukung dengan hukum antidiskriminasi di tempat kerja yang diimplementasikan oleh negara. Jadi, hati-hatilah berguyon sebagai seorang manajer, karena hukum siap melibas Anda.

Sebagai pelaku bisnis yang mengoperasikan bisnis-bisnis berbasis Hak Atas Kekayaan Intelektual (HAKI) dan investasi properti, faktor-faktor eksternal sangat mempengaruhi mutasi pola pikir, strategi, dan kepemimpinan. Antisipasi saja tidak memadai tanpa disertai dengan implementasi perubahan baik secara seketika maupun bertahap. Sekarang mari kita bicarakan perubahan besar kedua yaitu di masa resesi global saat ini.

Dalam bisnis HAKI, faktor eksternal perubahan daya beli masyarakat sangat terasa di masa paceklik ini. Konsekuensinya antara lain adalah adaptasi harga otomatis (automated pricing adaptation) dan diversifikasi produk skala raksasa (colossal product diversification) dengan menggunakan konsep The Long Tail, di mana bukan lagi Teori Pareto 80/20 yang berlaku, namun menyediakan sebanyak mungkin produk yang siap untuk dibeli dalam jumlah minimal.

Dengan kata lain, dengan menyediakan ratusan maupun ribuan produk yang siap dibeli beberapa unit saja akan menghasilkan revenue yang sudah patut diperhitungkan. Contoh nyata keberhasilan strategi ini adalah Amazon.com, di mana jumlah produk yang dijual mencapai ribuan namun mayoritas hanya terjual beberapa unit saja. Ceruk mikro (micro niche) sudah menjadi model bisnis yang umum.

Perubahan teknologi penerbitan, format dan pendiseminasian produk-produk intelektual juga sangat terasa dengan semakin menjamurnya dunia Internet dan perangkat baca elektronik mutakhir seperti SmartPhone, iPhone, iPad, eReader, Nook, dan Kindle. Ini mendorong peremajaan format produk sehingga memadai untuk mengikuti perkembangan teknologi (technology advancement). Siapa yang mengikuti perubahan format teknologi mempunyai kans yang besar untuk menjadi pemenang.

Selain itu, respek terhadap HAKI merupakan perlindungan bagi pebisnis produk-produk intelektual. Faktor eksternal regulasi bisnis ini masih sangat minim di Indonesia, sedangkan di Tanah Seberang sudah menjadi bagian dari perangkat bisnis yang siap untuk dipakai jika diperlukan. Untuk itu, biasanya setiap perusahaan mempunyai legal advisor yang handal dalam hal-hal yang bisa menjadi legal issue. Asuransi perusahaan biasanya juga mencakup biaya-biaya hukum yang mungkin timbul.

Dalam bisnis properti, resesi global mengubah pandangan tentang apa itu hutang baik (good debt) dan hutang tidak baik (bad debt). Sesungguhnya resesi global dunia yang dialami saat ini bersumber dari bisnis hipotik yang semrawut dan beresiko tinggi di Amerika Serikat. Hipotik seperti ini dikenal sebagai pinjaman subprima (subprime loan). Dalam masa jabatannya, mantan presiden George W. Bush mengeluarkan kebijakan bagi dunia perbankan untuk memberikan prioritas bagi para imigran dan mereka yang berdaya rendah untuk mendapatkan hipotik rumah dengan mudah. Alasannya: setiap individu berhak untuk memiliki rumah.

Dengan prinsip kapitalisme, lampu hijau bagi bank-bank retail yang sudah bergabung dengan bank-bank investasi ini disambut baik dengan menerbitkan program-program pemberian kredit agunan rumah (hipotik) yang kreatif. “Kreatif” di sini berupa persyaratan sangat mudah, dengan bunga introduksi yang sangat kecil, dan segala macam iming-iming diskon bahkan amortisasi negatif. Dengan kemudahan mendapatkan pinjaman inilah, iklim bisnis di masa “property bubble” ini semakin riskan.

Kebijakan-kebijakan perusahaan banyak terpengaruh oleh iklim bisnis, termasuk keputusan-keputusan yang saya ambil. Investasi properti tampaknya sangat menarik saat itu karena nilai rumah dikondisikan untuk terus melambung karena kemudahan pinjaman menelurkan demand yang tinggi. Di masa puncak harga properti, saya melakukan investasi beberapa milyar Rupiah, yang sekarang sudah tidak bernilai sama sekali.

Sebagai pebisnis imigran, kerugian ini sangat besar dan membalikkan kembali roda perjalanan bisnis saya ke bagian bawah siklus. Di masa-masa sulit seperti sekarang, kembali fleksibilitas pola pikir diuji. Strategi bisnis dan gaya kepemimpinan kembali mesti disesuaikan. Pada saat yang sama, keberanian untuk “berjalan di atas api” perlu dipertahankan. Singkatnya, perlu tekad baru. Misalnya, kalau dalam masa pasca-krisis ekonomi dulu kredit agunan properti dipandang sebagai “good” loan, maka sekarang harus dipertimbangkan masak-masak untung-ruginya ketimbang menyewa.

Akhir kata, keberhasilan menjalani perubahan tidak pernah terlepas dari keberhasilan mempertahankan mindset yang sesuai. Walaupun tidak ada yang absolut, namun prinsip bahwa mindset seorang pelaku bisnis idealnya adaptif dan fleksibel perlu dipertahankan. Mindset sukses demikian merupakan kunci bangkit dari kegagalan, baik kegagalan sebagai pelaku bisnis sebagai individu maupun kegagalan perusahaan sebagai organisasi.[]

Jennie S. Bev adalah pengusaha, kolumnis internasional dan intelektual berbasis di Kalifornia Utara. Ia bisa dijumpai di JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, August 31, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

The Indonesian Health Ministry claims to have spent eight years drafting a universal healthcare bill, but has been facing a series of hurdles: lack of funding and other technical issues. The 2008 health insurance scheme for the poor, Jamkesmas, is notorious for its complex procedures and documentation requirements.

For Indonesia to pursue universal healthcare is constitutional, as it is stated in the 1945 Constitution amendments of Article 28H and Article 34 (2) and (3), as the poor’s healthcare is assured by law. The underlying premise is the financially able should assist those who are not.

The notoriety in defining “poor” in Indonesia is: it is based on a local authority’s letter stating one’s poverty (surat pernyataan miskin). Compared with the USA, where one must show annual tax report statement that quantifies the exact taxable earnings. Such a subjective statement of being “poor” in Indonesia must be revised, which brings with it implications for tax-reporting procedures.

What is exactly “universal healthcare”? Why is it appealing? Is it the answer to all healthcare issues? Is it the same as America’s forthcoming healthcare system, known as “Obamacare”? What are the issues surrounding healthcare systems in general?

Universal healthcare is a system of organized healthcare for all citizens in a country. The funding comes from both, or either, taxation revenues and private contributions. Countries using taxation revenues to finance the system entirely include the UK, Italy, Spain and Scandinavian. The Canadian government pays for 70 percent of its citizens’ healthcare, with the other 30 percent coming from private insurance. The Canadian government, however, manages the overall system, while the private insurances’ roles are minimized as healthcare providers.

The appeal of universal healthcare is that every individual is promised adequate healthcare.

The big question is how adequate is “adequate.” As a minimum, universal healthcare promises minimal healthcare. Now, what is “minimal” healthcare? Does it mean a patient is given painkiller medicine for throbbing pain in the stomach? Or, does it mean a patient is given the best therapy and the most appropriate treatment available for his or her stomach pain, which might turn out to be colon cancer after proper screening using the latest technology available?

Healthcare is no laughing matter. It is a serious life-and-death issue, requiring very careful handling using the most humane approach. Above all else, humanity must be upheld, which is the greatest challenge.

A major downside in universal healthcare, alas, is limited funding, especially when the government is in charge of everything. This results in a lower quality of services provided and insufficient incentive for medical scientists to work on cures and new technologies.

In Canada, for instance, patients with rare and advanced-stage diseases are referred to US hospitals, because they do not have the specialists, medicines and technologies for curing and treating them. It is also common knowledge that the waiting list for surgery within a universal healthcare system is extremely long, which may result in unnecessary deaths. An issue of “who should be treated first” also occurs whenever two or more individuals are equally sick but the funding is limited.

Obamacare can be summed up as the tightened version of the existing healthcare system. Starting in 2014, all American citizens will be required to purchase minimal health insurance coverage. Failure to do so will result in fines. Government subsidies will be given for those who cannot afford insurance.

Health exchanges between US states will come into operation and insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for those with pre-existing conditions and children born with specific needs.

US government subsidies will be funded with higher taxes for those earning more than US$200,000 annually (an increase of 2.35 percent of the Medicare tax rate and 3.8 percent of dividend and interest “unearned” income); from drug manufacturers (will pay $16 billion); from insurance companies (will pay $47 billion); and from medical device manufacturers (a 2.9 percent excise tax).

Before Obamacare comes into effect in 2014, the US has an almost non-existent healthcare system for the middle class, only for the poor and the old, who are protected by law and eligible for government-assisted health insurance premiums. The poor and senior citizens in my county, for instance, are guaranteed by Medicare (federal), Medi-Cal (the state of California) and Medical Assistance Program (San Joaquin county). To qualify for Medical Assistance Program health coverage requires proof of gross income of less than 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

When dealing with healthcare systems, patients’ wellbeing must be placed at the top of the agenda. Doctors and medical scientists must receive adequate incentives to keep up their high standards and morale. Other healthcare providers, such as hospitals, clinics and medical technology suppliers should be equally respected to ensure high quality of services.

It remains to be seen how Indonesia is handling this complex issue. Play not with people’s health and life.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, August 19, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

I visit Las Vegas whenever I want to watch my favorite singers perform. A few years ago, Celine Dion dominated Caesar Palace’s center stage, now it is Cher. Barry Manilow at Paris Las Vegas and Jubilee at Bally’s are two other top shows to see. Another show worth watching is Zumanity by Cirque Du Soleil.

Jubilee is a lavish cabaret show with topless dancers wearing beads, furs, and enormous glittery headdresses.

These flexible dancing girls are in top physical condition, and the ambiance is sensually acrobatic. Most performers wear skimpy attire. Only Barry Manilow wears a full tuxedo when performing.

Is morality determined by the length of someone’s clothing? Should we bother thinking about what people wear in Indonesia? Why, or why not?

It is not my place to judge morality or values, other than praising these Vegas dancers as top-notch international performers. Their cultured skill and stamina have been tested and appreciated by audiences for years.

In Indonesia, talkative and communicative ministers like Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring and Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar have taken to dictating Indonesia’s “high moral values.”

In his latest statement, Patrialis urged western women not to wear only their bras when visiting Indonesian markets because it doesn’t adhere to Indonesian values. Tifatul has committed to blocking porn websites during Ramadan.

We respect our Muslim brothers and sisters who are fasting in the holy month of Ramadan. Perhaps blocking porn websites is a logical precautionary action to ensure Muslims fast without thinking about sexual intercourse or masturbation. Yet I believe “temptation” is a good test of one’s faith.

I appreciate a person who may be surrounded by bad influences but still prevails by choosing faith and true piety.

If all temptations are removed, leaving someone in an empty room, I’m sure they will be pious by default, but not necessarily by choice. Such “piety” is cosmetic.

What bothers me more is Patrialis’ statement on western women who wear only bras to Indonesian markets. Frankly speaking, I have never seen any western woman wearing only a pair of bras while shopping.

I travel considerably to western countries and live in California. Los Angeles, where sensual Hollywood movie sirens live, is merely a one-hour flight away from home. If it were true that western women merely wear bras everywhere they go, I surely would have seen them in my 13 years of living here.

Patrialis, who is supposed to show great tolerance and impartiality in his position as Indonesia’s Justice and Human Rights Minister, has instead expressed intolerance and prejudice.

Perhaps he is not a fashion critic. Western women may wear tank tops, which are sleeveless shirts, or backless blouses when shopping. Neither are brasseries. They may wear bikinis at the beach, but they aren’t brasseries either.

All women should freely have the right to wear whatever they want, and their morality should not be judged by their choice of clothing. If one doesn’t like what others are wearing, simply don’t look at them.

We own our own eyes, so let us control what we choose to see, rather than attempting to control what others wear.

Remember, Indonesia is not a theocracy. Indonesia is based on a secular constitution, which is contrary to misconceptions that Indonesia has an Islamic government. In Indonesia, fashion is not used as a form of control, unlike in Iran, where hair styles are pre-determined by the government.

Tala Raassi, an American-born Iranian fashion and swimsuit designer, was lashed 40 times for celebrating her sweet 16th birthday wearing a miniskirt while partying with co-ed friends in a private home in Iran. Fashion is now her way of expressing freedom and equality, which is also her ticket to success with her fashion line carried by boutiques in Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego and Dubai.

I would love to take both ministers Tifatul Sembiring and Patrialis Akbar to a cabaret show in Las Vegas. There they can see how the human body is beautiful, and near-nudity is not trashy. From those flexible Cirque Du Soleil performers who wear skimpy and body-hugging leotards, we can learn to appreciate the hard-working muscles we all have. Their muscles are just like ours, only theirs work better because of years of training.

We can see remarkable things when we look beyond the obvious. During the holy month of Ramadan, let’s see beyond what our eyes observe, and look deep into people’s hearts by appreciating their achievements, no matter how small or how different they may be from our expectations.

The true spirit of Ramadan isn’t based on judging people by how they look on the outside, but instead, respecting who they are on the inside. Marhaban ya Ramadan.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

by Jennie S. Bev

Integrity is a rarity in Indonesia, which explains why it’s ranked the 111th in the corruption perception ranking according to Transparency International.

While many kinds of efforts have been undertaken to prevent and eradicate corruption, appropriate workable solutions haven’t been found.

Interestingly, other countries, such as Angola, Latvia, Kosovo, Nicaragua and Haiti have been able to collect state revenues in an efficient and proper manner.

The key is outsourcing integrity, when other methods have been exhausted.

First things first, there are three types of corruption: bribery, extortion and nepotism. All these result in considerably lowered state revenues.

In Corruption: Its Nature, Causes and Function, Prof. Syed Hussein Alatas stated the functions of corruption: transactive to win business, extortive as threatening harm, defensive to avoid harm to self or family, investive as a way to look for future rewards and nepotistic that favors family or friends.

In short, any behavior abusing public trust for private gain is a form of corruption.

In Indonesia where corruption has reached its highest level, as posited by Alatas in The Sociology of Corruption, the internalization of forms of corruption have destroyed more than trust, failing the society entirely.

When acts of corruption have been accepted as normalcy, corruption has become a culture. Naturally, containing, preventing, and eradicating corrupt acts would eventually show futility.

For this, workable interventions are required. We can combine external and internal interventions.

Now, let’s talk about external intervention. Angola, which is currently ranked the 162th in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, has outsourced its customs collections to Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations. After a few years of using this British nonprofit’s services in collection, their tariff revenues have tripled.

In 1904, the president of the Dominican Republic, Carlos Felipe Morales Languasco, collaborated with the US government in managing the country’s customs.

The US team set the country’s tariff rates and collection regulations. This showed that outsourcing collection and tax management to other countries was not something new and enigmatic.

Such success stories are replicable in Indonesia, as most obstacles are likely attitudinal. If we are serious about containing, preventing and eradicating corrupt acts in Indonesia, we should consider this bureaucratic reform option.

According to Stanford Hoover Institute Fellow Kris James Mitchener and Harvard Business School professor Noel Maurer, the three advantages of outsourcing tax collections are: power reduction in public officials, increasing resources available in government posts and transparency and professionalism in managing collection reforms.

Outsourced professionals are highly paid and highly trained in the field, thus they are more likely to adhere to institutional standards in getting a job done.

The Dominican Republic asked for the assistance of the US government, while Angola uses the services of a private UK institution named The Crown Agents. Both come with pros and cons.

The most obvious disadvantage of utilizing the assistance of a foreign government is in the matter of national confidentiality and other political interests.

The most obvious advantage of using the services of an independent institution is its independence, impartiality and professionalism.

Political, cultural and educational interventions are necessary at this point, in addition to legal reform.

While the decision to outsource is in the hands of policy makers, we have the power to influence them through engaging in ongoing pressing lobbies.

At the grassroot level, communicating an awareness of acts of corruption should be done early on, which should begin from childhood. After all, young generations with strong, good characters are key to future integrity.

Mochtar Lubis once said a cultural transformation is imperative in eradicating corruption, which can be done with internalization of cultural values distinguishing private and public matters, separating private and public belongings, and detaching familial solidarity from public solidarity.

The result expected is heightened awareness on what constitutes corrupt acts and why cultivating integrity is the most dignified thing to do. When we don’t have much trust left in the Indonesian government, we can invite impartial third parties from overseas.

When we are fed up with a culture of corruption, we can transform it into a culture of anticorruption.

A concoction of external and internal interruptions might as well be what Indonesia needs in fighting corruption.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, August 3, 2010.]

[Note: This article is an example of my attempt in peace-building and creating better understanding in a pluralistic and multicultural society.]

by Jennie S. Bev

In Indonesia, clerics and their “political” organization Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) have been making headlines with their so-called “fatwas.” Even though some fatwas make sense, like forbidding smoking, which is bad for one’s health, other fatwas sound trivial.

Their edicts on haram (forbidden) and halal (not forbidden) are often interchangeable, making them sound like a group of lost people who change their minds quite easily. Some of these clerics are also known to be anti-pluralism and anti-multiculturalism.

In short, some members of this group of religious leaders have been creating instability and confusion among laypeople in Indonesia and fear among Indonesian minorities.

Thus, it is preferable to understand the process of interpreting something with valid reasoning and interpreting skills. This way, people can learn to be more mature spiritually and believe in their conscience more. And we all can see that being anti-pluralism and anti-multicultarism is a fallacy.

The interpretations of Islam for political purposes are likely to be singular and rigid aiming at controlling the people (ummah) or constituents, ranging from a certain dress code, to conformity in public behaviors, to uniformity in a moral compass. Such a phenomenon has been creating an ongoing misconception of the Koran as a feudalistic, closed and stillborn text, and Islam as an oppressive religion.

Contrary to popular belief, the Koran is a living text and an ongoing discourse with pluralism as the default state of framework.

To refresh our memory, Islam was born and grew in lively trading heterogeneous environments, not in a silent homogenous surrounding. The Prophet Muhammad was a successful businessman who traveled considerably.

Pluralistic cosmopolitanism was the backdrop of the birth and the spreading of Islam worldwide, which is often forgotten. Islam is an adaptable and modern religion and system.

With “pluralism” as the fundamental spirit of the Koran, it is encouraged to interpret (tafsir) with hermeneutics. Cited from Farid Esack, hermeneutics is the science of reflecting how a word or an event in a past time and culture may be understood and became existentially meaningful in our present situation. This method brings together various cultures and time spans for better understanding.

Hermeneutics reveal the etymological and terminological elements because time changes meanings regardless of its original purpose. Spatial and temporal continua, thus, should be considered within a cultural relativity framework.

In general, the Koranic verses can be distinguished into two groups: Universal and particular, and sufficiently clear and requiring further interpretation. The first group refers to the applicability and the second group refers to depth of understanding. The first verse of Koran, “In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy” is a universal and clear verse. This verse is the underlying principle of all other verses. However, other verses aren’t that simple to interpret.

According to Abdul Moqsith Ghazali in the Religious Pluralism Argument, two interpretation (tafsir) methods are chronological and thematic. The first method is meticulous elucidation from the beginning to the end, which requires Arabic language mastery to ensure no nuances and meanings are lost or overlooked in translation.

The second method uses systematic categorizations because the Koran was not delivered in a chronological manner. This method is more complex and idealistic.

In interpreting jurisprudence (fiqh), Al-Ahkam Al-Khamzah or the cycle of halal-sunnah-wajib-haram, serves as the underlying principle. Due to its cyclical nature, nothing is absolute when it comes to reward and punishment, according to Prof. Dr. Muhammad Daud Ali in Islamic Law.

A classic example is the notion of kufr or non-believer. The spectrum ranges from a complete non-believer of God, a non-Abrahamic religious believer, a non-Muslim, to a Muslim who doesn’t practice fundamental Islamic teachings. Such colorful interpretations of a non-believer have implications in implementing minority protection, for instance.

Another example of Al-Ahkam Al-Khamzahin action is on women’s dress code and the obligation (wajib) of marriage. The notions of aurat vary from one culture to another, thus what constitutes “polite” and “modest” also differs. An individual will be considered “obligated” to marry after reaching adult age, which differs from one place to another.

Today, Islam as a religion and system of living has been overridden by Islam as a political instrument. Proper interpretations of Koranic verses, laws, and fiqh have been deliberately made unpopular.

It is time for ummah to realize that the Koran is a living text and an ongoing discourse that was historically bred and grown in pluralistic environments.

A movement to return to intelligent interpretations of Islam must be communicated and popularized.

Islam is beautiful. And its beauty lies in the multitude of colors illuminated by the Mercy of Allah, where people and religion coexist peacefully. Whenever in doubt, recite this verse, “Had Allah willed, He could have made you one community. But [He did not] that He may try you by that which He hath given you” (5:48).[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

by Jennie S. Bev

The world is both rational and irrational. Specifically, the world of politics is full of irrationality throughout the history of mankind. Thus, it might attest that men are intrinsically irrational, or at least those with power are.

In Laws, Plato said, “Peace is only a name; in reality, every city is in a natural state of war with every other.” Peace is the rational choice, yet those in politics have been deliberately choosing violence in the name of security and maintaining power status quo.

To balance this out, idealists have been using diplomacy as its antidote. But why doesn’t diplomacy always work? Is diplomacy over-rated? Some diplomatic missions are even abandoned due to no result. What are alternatives to diplomacy in building and maintaining peace?

Indonesia is renowned for its “playing it safe” foreign policy, bordering insecurity. Often, for the sake of protecting national interests, which might have stemmed from diffidence due to various reasons, the focus is on domestic affairs, instead of active international relations. For some reason, parochial nationalism still exists among government officials, which is reflected in over protectionism in things that matter, such as medical advancement, while being over liberal in harvesting non-renewable natural resources, such as the mining industry.

The Democratic Party of US, to the contrary, is known for adherence to activities based on “supranational constraints on unilateral policies and the progressive development of community norms” based on the Kantian perspective. Such philosophy opens many doors for Barack Obama in his attempt to join the European Union’s leading position in soft power diplomatic missions.

Whether Indonesia should be more active diplomatically goes without saying. Diplomacy is an instrument for both the strong and the weak to build and maintain peace while achieving their goals.

Frankly speaking, while Indonesia has many things to offer other than its strategic location, it is less favorable when it comes to building collaborations in achieving a harmonious world community.

Indonesia should be more diligent in strengthening its mediation and persuasion standpoint pertaining to world issues, which might not necessarily affect the country directly. Being environmentally conscious is a good start and maintaining leadership in this might prove to be beneficial in the not-so-distant future.

The importance of such a standpoint is to join the circle of idealistic internationalism, which was inspired by Immanuel Kant’s “Perpetual Peace” essay. The benefits will pay off over time in the long-term, while at the moment it may simply increase the existing workload of professional diplomats.

Of course, other than language and diplomatic skills, such idealism requires commitment and strong peace building awareness. Personal behavior might receive much attention, but fighting for injustices at various levels might be key.

Diplomacy itself has been used by Indonesia to create an impression that things are going the way it should be and to buy time. Words, after all, are politics’ most useful tools. It’s inexpensive and flexible.

Meanings can be hidden and deeds can be undone as long as the mannerism reflected in wisely chosen words makes sense. Just make sure not to insult any body’s intelligence, as it is common knowledge that many Indonesian government officials don’t necessarily see themselves as equal partners with their peers from other countries.

Also as a tool for the strong, diplomacy can be used for oppressive purposes. Rounds and rounds of talks, summits, and agreements have been deliberately betrayed by Manila in centuries-old Mindanao conflict and in Israel-Palestinian conflict. However, we should keep optimism intact and improvise with diplomatic missions rather than ignoring it all together.

It might have been human nature, at least in the realm of politics, to be irrational and to use threat and violence to reach the destination. Interests, at best, should be directed for people’s well-being, which require intense oversight. And for this, citizen diplomacy is key.

The core of diplomacy is words. Words in action are words that give meaning and words in action are attitudes and behaviors. Mark Twain said, “the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”

The core of soft power is also words. Words mark everything, both spoken and unspoken, projected and injected. Words literally make world goes round and words have the privilege to convey the messages of life or death. Using correct words in a diplomatic mission is likely to do more than buying time and creating a favorable image. It literally resolves conflicts and deepens peace, assuming they are followed through with proper deeds.

Anything that violates human dignity, humanity and peace is irrational. It’s my standpoint and I believe it wholeheartedly, because violence — the opposite of peace — doesn’t give the required stability for normalcy and livelihood.

Indonesian leaders and policy makers must return to a peaceful conscience and be less insecure about the past or the future.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, July 19, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

News on corrupt officials, intellectuals who work for oppressive conglomerates and businesses causing extreme pollution and catastrophe have been selling newspapers and magazines.

Indonesia is in crisis and we aren’t talking about finances or its poor international image. We are talking about of the lack, or even a non-existence, of knights (the closest Western analogy to ksatria) in modern Indonesia.

It is as if not being corrupt is stupid, because corruption has reached a cultural, not merely structural, level. Stealing has become a “last resort” that can be justified. How anarchic such a mind-set is.

Merriam-Webster defines mind-set as a mental attitude or inclination or a fixed state of mind. For instance, a winner’s mind-set says don’t give up after losing a match. A loser’s mind-set says give up instead of trying again.

A corrupt person sees handling a budget as an opportunity to steal, while an honest individual sees such a privilege as an opportunity to prove his or her skill and efficacy.

We might have heard about the Betawi legend of Si Pitung, a man with advanced silat (martial arts) skills who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, as some sort of Indonesian Robin Hood.

There are elements of “stealing” and using martial arts in the process, which are not so noble and may be interpreted differently by children and adults.

While I admire Si Pitung’s intentions (the why), I don’t approve of theft or violence as methods to achieve the noble goal (the how), regardless of how rich the victim is.

The notion of legitimizing theft “as long as it is from the wealthy” is unacceptable, simply because a true compassionate hero is a knight who respects everybody the same way indiscriminately.

Those who steal, thus, are not heroes in the full meaning of the word, but a discounted one.

The mind-set of a knight refers to chivalry, a mental attitude in which an individual would choose to use the most compassionate and the most ethical methods in solving problems.

He or she doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself or herself for the greater good as long as the attainment process is based on principles of dignity, humanity, and compassion.

Indonesia needs more original stories of courage and compassion that do not have dark or unethical elements.

For instance, western superhero stories, such as Spiderman, Batman and Superman, each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Out of those three heroes, the squeaky-clean role model for children, is Superman.

Spiderman has a dark element, in which alter-ego Peter Parker was bitten by a spider prior to becoming a jumping-and-swinging superhero wearing red-and-blue tights and a matching mask to keep his identity secret.

Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, is a playboy and the heir of a millionaire. He keeps his identity secret beneath a dark mask and drives a flashy black sports car that looks like a 1960s Impala.

Superman, on the other hand, is an aristocratic orphan from another planet. He was adopted and raised by a loving middle-class couple, goes to school, works as a reporter, and doesn’t cover his face with a mask.

He doesn’t have any obvious dark side requiring secrecy. Clark Kent even has a smart reporter girlfriend.

In society, an elite group of people in power possess privileges are similar to superheroes: They can make things happen. As social contract theorists Thomas Hobbes and John Locke believed, individuals in a society are bound by an “invisible” contract, which is aimed to ensure equality despite different levels of power and ability held by each member.

Alas, it is common knowledge that many Indonesian government officials abuse the social contract. Thus, instead of being superheroes for the people, they become supervillains.

I know several individuals of the Indian Sikh “ksatria” class, which they call sardar. While their appearance doesn’t differ considerably from those of other castes, their mental attitude is obvious. The males tend to sit erect, calm and are assertive.

They serve others in a dignified style. It explains why they were impressive when serving as infantry in the British colonial army.

Sikh women are strong leaders as well, which is reflected in their choices. While it may sound like a generalization, the values instilled in them are similar, if not identical, which are reflected in their choices.

A knight (ksatria) doesn’t require wearing body-fitting elastic outfits like a gymnast, a mask, and a cape. What Indonesia needs is more people with a knight’s (ksatria) mind-set.

These people should groom themselves to bring about positive changes, be living role models whose achievements and actions are fundamentally compassionate and ethical indiscriminately.

In a pluralistic society like Indonesia, chivalry is a must, as it tests the minority to be courageous and the majority to be compassionate and accepting. We can never have too many knights.

Remember, a knight’s voice is a voice of reason.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California.

From time to time, I write about writing. Here are two of them published by MediaBistro.com:

• Publish Your Freelance Work Abroad
• Teach Online to Raise Your Writing Profile
  

[This article is previously published in The Jakarta Post, July 7, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

I live with a strong sense of awe and wonder. I love and adore mysteries. They are all around and inside me. Things unknown, things in the future, things far away, and things I keep close dearly to heart.

Mysteries keep me alive and craving for more.

In the end, they give me ecstasy.

We might have been looking for answers throughout our lifetime, yet answers are actually not what we are looking for.

Answers are finite; they close cases and books. Answers are closure, despite the following questions requiring new and more elaborated answers.

Sometimes the best things in life can’t be answered. Some things are better left unsaid, untouched and unanswered.

Many things are better left as illusions. Illusions of grandeur, illusion of Utopia and illusions of darkness.

What we are longing for is to live with mysteries. Look without and within. We are consumers of mysteries and we are also creators of mysteries.

Culture feeds our hunger for mysteries and illusion of closures. Films, books, news and schooling quench our thirst for them.

We have the urge to understand them all. Yet, we understand none.

Certain subjects pique our interest: Death, crime, blood, catastrophe, war, anatomy, galaxy, and – what else – sex. They are intriguing because to understand them takes more than an ordinary comprehension and willingness to delve into their cores and essences.

To understand them requires a deep sense of curiosity and complex imagination to begin with. Then it takes a few deep breaths to compartmentalize our existing shelf of knowledge to ready it for riddles and conundrums.

These things keep our blood boiling and heart warm. They give us a mysterious reason to love and to attempt a deeper understanding for life. Perhaps they are the murals of our dark side, or simply our curious hemisphere of the brain.

Death and sex are two favorite mysteries of all time. They have been exploited for centuries in various forms and stories. Just like the story of vampires and werewolves that has been popularized recently by Stephanie Meyer’s The Twilight saga with Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black.

In this saga, death is anticipated by Bella as it would “resurrect” her into vampiredom. And sex is the most forbidden thing as it is not only “morally” wrong but also anatomically wrong.

How come something so dark provide so much anticipation? Is it the ultimate illusion? Or is it simply our human psyche that is so thirsty for mysteries?

Crime, blood, catastrophe and war often come as a package. They make us cringe, curse, weep and get mad as hell, but they also make human civilization move forward to new ages and close the periods prior.

Great civilizations have always been tarnished – or even embellished – by great battles.

Battles for power, battles for prestige, battles for ideology, and battles for the mere notion of winning over others. And these battles breed both winners and losers, erect symbols of triumphs as well as weep innocent casualties.

Battles prove us to be rulers or bystanders, the powerful or the powerless. We are human, after all, part angels, part devils. Complete mortals.

We are capable of doing good as well as bad things. We are capable of loving as well as hating. We are capable of consuming mysteries as well as creating illusions. Which one are you, by the way?

The dominant part, either the good or bad, determines our overall outlook on life. Hence, it doesn’t stay that way for good, as things flow, nothing stays the same. At one point we are good boys with a tiny spot of bold intention, at some other point we are bad girls with illusory hopes and wishes.

We are humans. I am human. And we all love mysteries. In fact, life itself is a mystery of the highest order. We breathe, we love, we loathe, we procreate, we get sick, we suffer, we are happy, we are grieving and then we die.

The first and the last breaths are milestones. How we live with mysteries in between, colors who we are and our choices.

I live with a strong sense of awe and wonder. I love mysteries. They keep me engulfed with the passion to understand who I am and what the world is all about.

Above all, I am also a part of the grand mystery of life. The reason for my birth has not unfolded. And it is my mission to solve that mystery.

What an ecstasy.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, July 4, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

Raphael’s painting The School of Athens depicted Plato pointing to the sky and Aristotle pointing to the ground. It encapsulates the two approaches in how we perceive the world: perfection and grounded reality.

These perspectives divide the world into unconstrained and constrained views, using terms used by Harvard professor of behavioral studies Tal Ben-Shahar.

In psychology, they become perfectionism and optimalism; in politics, they become communism and capitalism; in everyday arguments, they become can-do and cannot-do.

Plato’s unconstrained view distinguishes the world into the perfect model and the one we’re experiencing as mortals. He believed that an archetype always precedes the perceived world.

An idea comes first, experience comes second. Aristotle, however, saw the world as one big reality, in which experience must precede perception and our senses don’t follow certain expectations. Experience comes first, synthesis of ideas comes second.

Understanding how human nature works both at the individual and collective levels may shed some light on how to approach social and political issues, including current issues in Indonesia.

Thomas Sowell in A Conflict of Visions, called “unconstrained” and “constrained” visions. He stated,
“A vision is what we sense or feel before we have constructed any systematic reasoning that could be called a theory, much less deduced any specific consequences as hypotheses to be tested against evidence. A vision is our sense of how the world works.”

This explains why certain systems based on an “unconstrained view” place people as powerful and unlimited beings, while other systems based on the “constrained view” claim that people are limited and bounded by nature and natural laws.

Of course, there is a spectrum of visions or views, which also give place to hybrid systems. And most likely a system is not purely unconstrained or constrained either.

Notions of utopia, such as communism and socialism, are based on the Platonian unconstrained view, in which people are believed to be able to do good deeds for others because they are unlimited beings with altruistic intentions. Capitalism, on the other hand, is based on an Aristotelian constrained view, in which people are limited to their own self-interest, a view which was popularized by Adam Smith.

One thing, which unconstrained and constrained views are not, is the swing of the left and right spectrum or good and bad.

The unconstrained view may sound leftist, but it’s actually referring to the control and uncontrollable elements of deeds. Thus, whether Indonesia is Platonian or Aristotelian isn’t important.

What’s important is how to balance both unconstrained Utopian hopes and wishes with constrained actions and behavior. At the state level, this must be properly acknowledged by policy makers in their activities resulting in fair and just policies. At the public level, we should strive in understanding how things work and when and where a constrained vision is more appropriate than an unconstrained vision and vice versa.

Pancasila itself is a set of noble principles with God as the ultimate model, just like how Plato believed in heavenly ideas.

However, the performance of the Indonesian government is by far “a bad example” of Aristotelianism, as noticeable in the culture of corruption and massive human rights abuses. Such culture is an example of the worst type of self-interest.

Extremist groups’ vision, such as the FPI (Islam Defenders Front), is unconstrained as they believe in the noble qualities of humans, which — unfortunately — are based on their version of virtues. Too much idealism tainted with violence, however, makes this noble intention a fakery worthy punished by law. Altruistic motive doesn’t mean much when it’s not supported with factual altruistic deeds. And when violence is the chosen path, the notion of nobility is a fallacy.

At this point, we may have been spending too much emphasis on the importance of noble intentions and virtues by adhering to some altruistic notions based on religious creeds and teachings. The recent Ariel-Luna sex video scandal also shows how the Indonesian government places excessive emphasis on its people’s private domain and morality.

We need realistic fair and just policies, as much as we need realistic and doable acts, to help people, or at least to “do no harm”. John Stuart Mill said it well, “A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”

Let’s cultivate a calm and conscientious heart to find a balance between unconstrained and constrained views of the notions of how the world should be and what we should act upon.[]

The writer (JennieSBev.com), is an author and columnist based in Northern California.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, June 20, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

In 16 years after the apartheid ended in South Africa, Johannesburg has already become the host of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This achievement has made Africa proud as it is the first time this continent has hosted a prestigious sporting event like this.

Historically speaking, South Africa has been colonized for 300 years by the English and the Dutch with 48 years of apartheid rule. In 16 short years, South Africa already built 1.1 million houses for the poor and has a rising number of middle class, although Caucasians still dominate the publicly traded companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

What an achievement unlike others. Something Indonesia should learn from and implement.

The movie Invictus played by Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon is a reminder of how deep Nelson Mandela’s reconciliation works have been carried out prior to and after the apartheid system collapsed.

Though no peacebuilding and reconciliation works are perfect, many things can be learned from Mandela and South Africa’s triumphant story.

First things first, violence breeds more violence. This is the principle of peacebuilding and reconciliation, which is key to South Africa’s impressive success story. A light-hearted inspiring anecdote that we can emulate is when Mandela was called by his prisoner’s number, 46664. He refused to respond to the prison guards. Instead, he demanded to be called by his name.

Such peaceful disobedience was similar to Rosa Parks who didn’t give her bus seat to a white person, on Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, which triggered the Civil Rights Movement in the United States short after. Such a natural response to reject oppression is often forgotten.

After all, peace work involves philosophical, psychological, cultural, educational, policy making, legal and political concentrated efforts on both the individual and communal levels.

According to Johan Galtung, the founder of peace and conflict studies, violence can be categorized into direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence. Direct violence is defined as direct harm.

Structural violence refers to harm directly or indirectly undertaken by sociopolitical structures by depriving access to basic needs, such as ongoing poverty and neglect. Cultural violence is a form of cultural justification of direct and structural violence.

The antitheses of these three types of violence must be placed and implemented properly in society. South Africa so far is showing healthy signs of implementation of direct nonviolence, structural nonviolence and cultural nonviolence.

Abolition of the apartheid is an important form of direct nonviolence in South Africa. In Indonesia, an “apartheid” occurs in a more subtle manner, such as in segregated pluralism and s strong patriarchal culture. The antithesis of “segregated” pluralism is “integrated” pluralism, which we should strive for. In South Africa, distribution of resources has been increased considerably, which is evident in more than 1 million new houses for the poor and the rising middle class. In Indonesia, Papuans have been simmered in poverty while their natural resources are depleting due to irresponsible capitalistic interests.

Through his fascination with sports, Mandela’s dream of soccer is that it is used as a tool of deep cultural work in the field of cultural nonviolence. Psychological and emotional connections must be created between parties in conflict in order to preserve direct nonviolence and structural nonviolence.

And what’s better than using an activity that is as color blind as soccer. Genius.

The Dreamfields Project is a non-profit organization whose goal is socializing the positive aspects of playing soccer. It has given out 20,000 uniforms and pairs of shoes to give hope and a reason to excel to South African children. The dream of soccer has trickled down to the children and they are the leaders of the future.

Other than sport, the arts can also be used as strong and inspiring tools. Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye calls them “soft power” instruments. Indonesia owns tons of such tools that can be used to peacefully bridge differences, eradicate conflicts and foster a culture of nonviolence.

Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher, wrote about the politics of friendship, “What is proper or essential to friendship, can be thought and lived without the least reference to the beloved, or more generally to the lovable – in any case, without having to set out from there, as from a principle.” In a democracy, the notion of the politics of friendship lies in fraternity or brotherhood.

The love affair between South Africa and soccer is an advanced work of politics of fraternization. Politics is never separated from building relationships, which provides a valid framework for friendship to cultivate.

Invictus is one of Nelson Mandela’s favorite poems written by an English poet William Ernest Henley, “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” We all are captains of our own fate and soul, so why succumb to violence?

Stand up and strive for nonviolence. Influence others to do the same, so Indonesia can have a success story like South Africa.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, June 16, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

The historical backdrop of the Israel-Palestine conflict can be traced back 5,000 years to 3000 BC. The story of struggling Jews is part legend, part scriptural, part psychological, and entirely political.

Religions happens to be in the picture because the Middle East is the birthplace of three monotheisms — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — thus making it “the cradle of civilization.”

This “cradle” status ensures the region is continuously in the limelight. Religions are involved, yet they are not the main concern. Instead, this conflict is a humanitarian issue of massive proportion. Like the Mindanao conflict, the Israel-Palestine conflict also centers on a piece of land.

The notion that Jews are highly regarded because of the notion of “the chosen” people is not a valid argument, to begin with. A religious belief, after all, is simply a belief.

Many things can be learned from the Jewish Diaspora, which started 3,700 years ago. Contrary to popular belief, such Diaspora was not induced by the Romans in 70 CE.

The story of this people is more of betrayals and preservation of culture, something we all should acknowledge and be aware of.

The politics of the Jewish Diaspora, however, has resulted in a tremendous amount of casualties over the centuries, including Jews and Arabs. Thus, it would not be fair to point fingers, as both might feel that they have been unfairly treated.

Muslims and Jews were close brothers until the incident in Medina when Jewish influences were eliminated for not accepting Islam. It is distinguishable that a religion is both a spiritual vehicle and a political instrument. When it is used as a political instrument, the scripture is likely to show such an inclination.

Now fast forward. The birth of Zionism, which was a movement of renewal for Jews by Theodore Herzl is meant to be the antithesis of antisemitism, which started a whole new ball game that continues to this very day. With the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which the United Kingdom officially recognized the Jewish people’s right to a homeland in Israel, and Woodrow Wilson’s notion of self-determination, the dream of unity provoked the Pan-Arabism movement, which created more antisemitism.

During that period, the Turks, then the Ottoman Empire, loosened up immigration regulations, which resulted in waves of Jewish migration to Palestine. Such influxes brought some level of prosperity to Palestinian Arabs who sold their lands to the highest bidders, and eventually better healthcare and longer life expectancy. Yet some Palestinian Arabs saw the Jews as a threat to their sovereignty due to UK and US influences. Since then, widespread riots have been used as instruments of revolt.

The UK and US have been involved in the region in rounds of talks. Harry Truman supported Zionists due to the promise of the Balfour Declaration and belief in humanity to compensate holocaust survivors.

In 1947, the UN General Assembly declared the division of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.

Minority Jews the Irgun and the Lehi did not accept the partition. Soon after, both Jews and Arabs evacuated due to ensuing wars. Then there was war over Suez, the capture of Gaza, and Eisenhower’s opposition against Britain’s, France’s and Israel’s resistance against Egypt.

In 1964, the Palestine Covenant was drafted. It redefined who “Palestinians” were and declared Zionism a political movement bred for imperialism and fascist in nature. It also nullified the partitioning of Palestine in 1947. Next, UN Security Council Resolution No. 242 was rejected by PLO for failing to mention that “all” would withdraw from occupied territories. Attacks and wars followed with the US and the Soviet Union on one side and Egypt-Syria-Lybia-Sudan-Algeria-Morocco on the other side. An oil embargo to the US ensued.

A subsequent breakthrough attributed to Jimmy Carter was a catalyst resulting in the Camp David Accords on Sept. 17, 1978. Still, rounds of peace, war, and ceasefires occurred with the rise of the terrorist armies of Palestine, until now.

The recent raid on the “Freedom Flotilla,” resulting in nine deaths, diffused hopes for peace and severed Israel’s relationship with Turkey. Israeli said they were protecting themselves against terrorism including in open waters. San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea Clause 67 was used in the argument. This argument was not valid, as Hamas is not a state and the vessel’s flag was Turkish. With international laws now more normative than “actual” laws, new rounds of creative conflict resolution are expected.

Johan Galtung, a mathematician and a sociologist, and the father of peace and conflict studies, proposed a six-state solution using Transcend’s “creative formula”, in which he focused on equal rights of the parties in conflict. The six equal states he proposed are: Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria as full members.

At last, remember to use a “peace” approach, in every conflict situation, not merely a “security” approach. The former focuses on resolving and transforming conflicts, while the latter focuses on punishment.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

We can choose whether a writing career is solely for the sake of writing. Or, it can be used as a vehicle in attaining other goals or as a stepping stone.

So far I’ve been writing for love and change, just for the sake of writing and love for humanity. I’m happy with this privilege.

Perhaps someday I’d be able to write vampire books prolifically.

Artikel ini merupakan terjemahan dari “Anniversary of Indonesian riots spurs talks of pluralism” yang diterbitkan oleh Common Ground News Service Washington DC, May 25, 2010.

Read the English version of this article here. Translated by staff of Common Ground News Service.

Peringatan kerusuhan Mei 1998 dan wacana pluralisme
28 Mei 2010
(Diterjemahkan oleh staf Common Ground News Service.)

oleh Jennie S. Bev

San Francisco, California – Pada Mei ini genap 12 tahun kerusuhan Mei 1998, sebuah peristiwa penting dalam sejarah Indonesia. Menyusul meninggalnya empat orang mahasiswa yang ikut berunjuk rasa menuntut mundurnya Presiden Suharto saat itu, orang-orang pun ramai turun ke jalan, membuat kerusuhan dan melakukan penjarahan.

Meski banyak orang menyatakan bahwa kerusuhan tersebut adalah buntut dari kekecewaan terhadap rezim yang berkuasa dan adanya pengangguran massal, komunitas orang Tionghoa-lah yang langsung menjadi sasaran amukan massa, di mana, menurut berbagai laporan, hampir 100 perempuan Tionghoa diperkosa.

Memperingati tragedi ini, kita harus mengambil kesempatan untuk meninjau kembali pluralisme etnis dan agama – toleransi terhadap keragaman kelompok dan budaya – dalam masyarakat Indonesia saat ini.

Jemma Purdey dari Jurusan Ilmu Politik University of Melbourne, yang juga penulis buku Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia 1996-1999, mengatakan bahwa orang-orang Tionghoa menjadi sasaran dalam kerusuhan ini karena pandangan umum di Indonesia bahwa mereka lah yang mengontrol ekonomi dan korup. Mispersepsi berbahaya semacam ini tersebar luas pada masa pemerintahan Suharto dan sayangnya tetap berlanjut setelah lengsernya.

Berbagai kendala untuk menghilangkan stereotip ini dan mewujudkan pluralisme sejati di Indonesia bisa dikaitkan dengan kemunculan ideologi ekstremis tertentu dan tata pemerintahan yang buruk. Dengan memahami berbagai sebab menyebarnya anti-pluralisme di Indonesia, kita bisa melihat lanskap pluralisme Indonesia dengan lebih baik, dan mudah-mudahan menginspirasi perubahan perilaku dan sikap terhadap orang-orang yang berbeda.

Misalnya, Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) – yang didirikan pada 1975 dan menjadi lembaga ulama paling penting di Indonesia – dikenal dengan fatwa-fatwanya yang melawan pluralisme, sekularisme dan liberalisme.

Dalam Islam, sebuah fatwa adalah pendapat ahli yang terpelajar dan berwawasan, namun tidak mengikat secara hukum. Meskipun demikian, banyak orang Indonesia memandang bahwa mengikuti fatwa merupakan kewajiban moril. Karena itu, fatwa-fatwa ini memengaruhi perilaku dan pikiran Muslim arus utama di Indonesia yang sebagian besar sebenarnya moderat dalam sikap dan praktik keberagamaan, yang penerimaan atas ajaran-ajaran Islam tergantung pada yang disampaikan para tokoh agama kepada mereka.

Para ulama atau kiai mempunyai tanggung jawab mengklarifikasi bahwa sebuah fatwa didasarkan pada pemahaman tertentu dari ulama terhadap sebuah masalah dan terbuka untuk ditafsirkan – atau bahkan dibantah. Nyatanya, semua ulama klasik mengakhiri fatwa mereka dengan mengatakan, “wallahu a’lam” (dan Allah lebih tahu), dan dengan demikian tidak memaksakan keabsolutan dari pendapat mereka.

MUI mestinya bisa berbuat lebih banyak karena MUI memiliki para anggota yang punya cukup kharisma untuk mempengaruhi publik dalam masalah toleransi dan pluralisme. Namun sayangnya, MUI justru diam dalam kasus-kasus penganiayaan minoritas etnis dan agama, seperti pada kasus pengusiran orang-orang Tionghoa miskin dari rumah mereka, dan penutupan paksa sebuah gereja Protestan di Bekasi.

Selain itu, para ulama dan tokoh agama tidak menjadikan ajaran-ajaran yang berorientasi pluralisme sebagai prioritas. Ini harus diubah. Sekolah-sekolah agama di Indonesia harus lebih memfokuskan kurikulum mereka pada pengajaran pluralisme dan koeksistensi damai, sembari juga menawarkan pelatihan partisipatoris tentang penghormatan terhadap multikulturalisme sehingga para murid bisa secara praktis menerapkan ajaran-ajaran ini dalam interaksi keseharian dengan orang lain. Saat ini, sekolah-sekolah ini masih membatasi diri pada menekankan kajian al-Qur’an, hadits, bahasa Arab serta sejarah dan peradaban Islam.

Yang Indonesia perlukan adalah agar semua lapisan masyarakat – dari pemerintah hingga orang awam – mendukung secara aktif dan vokal toleransi dan pluralisme beragama. Semua rakyat Indonesia harus percaya bahwa tidak ada budaya ataupun agama seseorang yang lebih baik ataupun lebih benar dari budaya ataupun agama orang lain.

Ada banyak cara untuk beramal dan beribadah. Keragaman harus diakui dan dihargai dengan dialog dan kerjasama antarkelompok etnis atau agama sehingga masing-masing dipandang sejajar dan sah.

Menyebarkan semangat pluralisme di Indonesia membutuhkan upaya yang fokus dan kemauan politik yang kuat. Rakyat Indonesia harus mendukung perubahan kesadaran dan pembaruan dalam masyarakat dengan meningkatkan kepedulian terhadap pentingnya kesetaraan dan koeksistensi damai, dan jangan sampai sebuah tragedi seperti Mei 1998 terjadi lagi.

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* Jennie S. Bev (JennieSBev.com) adalah penulis yang tinggal di San Francisco dan kolumnis The Jakarta Post. Artikel ini ditulis untuk Kantor Berita Common Ground (CGNews).

Sumber: Kantor Berita Common Ground (CGNews), 28 Mei 2010, www.commongroundnews.org
Telah memperoleh izin publikasi.

[This article was previously published by Common Ground News Service, May 25, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

San Francisco, California – This month marks the 12th anniversary of a critical event in recent Indonesian history – the May 1998 riots. Following the death of four university students who were participating in a protest to demand the resignation of President Suharto, people took to the streets, rioting and looting.

Though many claim the riots were a result of frustration with the current regime and mass unemployment, the ethnic Chinese Indonesian community quickly became a target of mob violence, including reports of nearly 100 Chinese Indonesian women being raped.

On the anniversary of this tragedy, we must take the opportunity to look at ethnic and religious pluralism – toleration for a diversity of different groups and cultures – within Indonesian society today.

Jemma Purdey, a fellow at the University of Melbourne Department of Political Science and author of the book, Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia 1996-1999, says that Chinese Indonesians were targeted in these riots because of a widespread belief in Indonesia that they control the economy and are corrupt. These kind of harmful misperceptions were pervasive during the Suharto administration and unfortunately have continued after its fall.

Obstacles to overcoming these stereotypes and achieving true pluralism in Indonesia can be traced to the emergence of certain extremist ideologies and to poor governance. By understanding the underlying reasons for widespread anti-pluralism in Indonesia, we can look at the landscape of Indonesian pluralism with fresh eyes, hopefully inspiring a change of behaviour and attitude toward those who are different.

For instance, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) – which was founded in 1975 and serves as Indonesia’s topmost Muslim clerical body – is notorious for its fatwas against pluralism, secularism and liberalism.

In Islam a fatwa serves as an informed and educated expert opinion, but one that is legally non-binding. However, many Indonesians believe following fatwas are spiritually compulsory. Thus, these fatwas affect the behaviour and thinking of mainstream Indonesian Muslims who are mostly moderate in their outlook and practice, and who accept Islamic teachings as relayed to them by religious figures.

Religious clerics or scholars have the responsibility to clarify that a fatwa is based on a particular scholar’s understanding of an issue and is open to further interpretation – or even disagreement. In fact, all classical religious scholars conclude their fatwas by saying, “And God knows best”, in other words, not insisting on the absoluteness of their opinion.

The MUI must do more, as it is comprised of members with enough charisma to influence the public in matters of tolerance and pluralism. Unfortunately, however, it has been silent on cases of alleged persecution towards ethnic and religious minorities, the eviction of poverty-stricken Chinese Indonesians from their homes and the forced closure of a Protestant church in Bekasi, a growing suburb in West Java.

Furthermore, Indonesian religious leaders and scholars have not made pluralism-oriented teachings a priority. This must change. Religious schools in Indonesia should focus more of their curriculum on teaching pluralism and peaceful coexistence, while also offering hands-on training on respecting multiculturalism so that students can practically apply these teachings in daily interactions with others. Currently, these schools emphasise primarily the study of the Qur’an, hadiths (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad), Arabic and the history of Islam and Muslim civilisations.

What Indonesia needs is for people at all levels of society – from the government to the general public – to vocally and actively support cultural and religious tolerance and pluralism. All Indonesians must come to believe that neither one’s culture nor religion is better or more valid than someone else’s.

There are many ways to act and worship. Diversity should be acknowledged and cherished with ongoing dialogue and collaboration between every ethnic or religious group so that each one is considered equal and valid.

Spreading a spirit of pluralism in Indonesia requires a concentrated effort and a strong political will. Indonesians must support a change of consciousness and reform in their society by increasing awareness of the importance of equality and peaceful coexistence instead of waiting for another tragedy like the May 1998 riots to remind us.

###

Jennie S. Bev (JennieSBev.com) is a San Francisco-based author and columnist for The Jakarta Post. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 25 May 2010, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, May 23, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said recently the Indonesian government was no longer prioritizing the search for the culprits responsible for The May 1998 Tragedy.

He said, “It’s a bit difficult for us to look for who is responsible. However, we agree to hand out compensation [for the victims and their families], such as the chance to get a job. I even guarantee a job at the Justice and human rights ministry for them.”

Yeah, right.

This statement is outright appalling. Monetary compensation and job benefits sound good, but they cannot replace the men and women who were killed, the raped women, and, most importantly, the loss of trust in the government.

Do not punish the victims and survivors of an atrocity by discontinuing the search for culprits. They have suffered more than enough.

A simple “test of trust” would do. Just ask any pedestrian on the streets of Jakarta. Most likely they would say that pemerintah or Indonesian government officials aren’t representative of the people.
Some wealthy and corrupt businessmen are also known to support greedy politicians, who for some reasons, find “easy money” extremely tempting.

Just like the Indonesian Military (TNI) isn’t the people’s military, citing activist Coen Husein Pontoh, I would say the Indonesian government isn’t the people’s representatives either.

In Indonesia, it is common knowledge that politics are sold to the highest bidders, including saving the human rights abusers. How sad.

While it’s not my place to judge Patrialis’ reason on why the government is no longer prioritizing the search for The May 1998 Tragedy atrocity, I daringly make a subjective and speculative conclusion that he is allegedly involved in “saving faces” of certain powerful people in the government or who intend to run in politics.

Please note that I’m using the word “allegedly” in this statement. It is simply a reminder, not an accusation.

It is implied that the Justice and Human Rights Ministry of Indonesia is not interested in genuinely protecting the human rights of all Indonesian citizens and residents. Of course, I will be extremely happy to be mistaken in this.

We are sure that the minister will be very happy to prove us wrong by continuing the search for culprits of the May 1998 Tragedy. Can we get a handshake from you, sir?

Such an insensitive statement is quite mind-boggling considering Indonesia is an elected member of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) among 47 members of 63 contenders, of which other 12 Asian countries are Bangladesh, Bahrain, China, India, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.

One of UNHRC three vice presidents is Dian Triansyah Djani of Indonesia. The other two are Carlos Portales of Chile and Andrej Logar of Slovenia. It is obvious that Indonesia looks pretty good on paper, as they will be serving until June 18, 2010.

For this year, however, the “Coalition for an Effective Human Rights Council” comprising several NGOs including Human Rights Watch have made a joint statement that five UNHRC membership candidates — Angola, Libya, Malaysia, Uganda and Thailand — do not fit the criteria for selection.

Iran has withdrawn in April 2010 due to pressure of human rights abuses. The other countries elected are: Mauritania, Maldives, Qatar, Moldova, Poland, Ecuator, Guatemala, Spain and Switzerland.

Judging from this year’s candidates, the election of Indonesia as a member was probably a mistake since grave human rights abuses in various forms are still occurring to this very day, including killings, discrimination and unfair laws and regulations.

While the UN is a respected organization, politicizing elements also occur, just like in any other organization.

Hillel Neuer, the executive director of the UN Watch in Geneva, who leads the coalition said, “By electing serial human rights violators, the UN violates its own criteria as well as common sense.”

I have high hopes for Indonesia and the betterment of the human rights condition in this beloved country where I was born and raised.

For now, let me remind the Indonesian government through its Justice and Human Rights Ministry that one violation against humanity is a violation against all members of the human race.

Unless the search for the culprits of The May 1998 Tragedy atrocity continues, Indonesia will never receive its deserved respect as a humane and democratic nation.

Minorities and all human lives must be respected and protected in a fair democracy. At this point, Indonesia isn’t a democracy. It’s a tyrannical country.

Families of victims and survivors of the May 1998 Tragedy are waiting in tears, still.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, May 19, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

Along with Serbia, Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the peace-building approach in Indonesia is both polarizing and dualistic. In a term used by Johan Galtung, these traits are “manicheistic.”

Manicheism itself is a term originated from religious studies referring to a dualistic system of good and bad. In this case, it is referring to a preference in a security-oriented approach, rather than in a peace-oriented approach.

In Indonesia, the state prefers to see “security” as identical to “peace.”

Indonesia must learn to adopt peace-oriented approaches in both daily living and policy making activities and attitudes. Failure to do so will exacerbate the already tarnished face of peaceful Indonesia with ongoing violent incidents and persecutions of minorities. By adopting a peace-oriented rather than a security-oriented approach, Indonesia will be able to cultivate peace from the ground up, where human rights — including minority rights — are upheld respectfully.

First things first. What is “peace”? Is it the absence of war? Is it the absence of conflict? The opposite of peace is not conflict, but violence. Thus, a peaceful situation transpires when violence does not occur, even though conflict might still exist. It is impossible to eliminate conflict entirely as it is needed in the transformation process toward a more mature democracy.

The definition of “peace” itself has undergone a lengthy evolution. In the Hobbesian paradigm, peace is an individual and collective means fostering ethical transformation and aspiration to eliminate human-inflicted destruction. Ideally, in a healthy democracy, “positive peace” continuously guarantees the people’s pursuit of happiness, in which justice, equity, and liberty serve as the underlying background.

Second, the peace-building approach adopted in Indonesia is security-oriented, in which polarization and dualism — referred to as “manicheism” by Galtung — are used as the framework. For instance, Pancasila, the state ideology, is good, communism is bad. Having a religion is good, not having a religion is bad. Indonesian conservatism is good, neoliberalism is bad. Indonesian customs are good, Western influences are bad. And so on.

In this approach, the “evil” entity or action deserves to be punished legally or through social sanctions. And the militaristic involvement in handling conflict is the highest form of violence based on this approach.

Such a security-oriented approach should be substituted with — or at least should be instilled with — a peace-oriented approach. A peace-oriented approach doesn’t polarize or dualize an entity or an action as either good or bad.

An entity or an action is neutral, while the only difference is whether the conflict caused has been resolved or transformed or not. Don’t blame the individuals, blame the situation. Work on the situation to make it better.

A peace culture is, thus, an important element in socializing a peace-oriented approach. It should aim at conscious and subconscious levels and on individual-level and state-level plateaus. Public arts and cultural synergies are oftentimes overlooked, yet they serve important roles.

In cultural synergies, every culture must be respected equally without any dominance over others.

Learning from the United States, the philosophy of “otherness” has diminished considerably over the years. While isolated hate crime incidents still occur, the national philosophy over “otherness” has changed dramatically, especially with the election of Barack Obama as president. In multiethnic states, such as California and Florida, “otherness” is minimized.

The recent statement by Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar saying that the government is no longer searching for the perpetrators of the May 1998 tragedy responsible for the rape and death of Chinese-Indonesian women, is a classic example of the state’s clever usage of a misconception in the security-oriented approach. Here, upholding human rights contradicts the misconception of “peace.”

Let me reiterate that conflict is not the opposite of peace. Violence is the opposite of peace. The minister wants us to believe that peace is the opposite of conflict, as investigating the perpetrators would definitely cause new conflict. Truth is, failure to address this issue is a sure way to new violent incidents.

Quiet forgottenness is not the same as peace either.

Human rights come in two forms: negative and positive. “Negative rights” refer to rights that need to be protected, such as the fundamental right to live and minority rights to exist. “Positive rights” refer to rights that need to be provided, such as rights to healthcare, education, and welfare.

As a minimum, Indonesia must always uphold fundamental rights, which are rights that need to be protected. Failure to do so serves as a fertile ground for violence, hence disrupting the overall balance of peace.

We can start as individuals by adopting a peaceful lifestyle, insisting on respect for fundamental human rights, and respecting other cultures as much as our own. []

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, May 14, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

Reality is the one word that Vladimir Nabokov said shouldn’t go without quotation marks, despite the fact it is something that most artists and writers have been pursuing and imitating as closely as possible.

This explains why every artist’s movement has been sprinkled with dashes of credo to return to reality. Reality, after all, is the canvas – no matter how full it has been filled – and the raw material.

An interesting noteworthy version of “reality” is aphorism, which is one of the oldest forms of literature. Aphorism is basically a collection of sayings and criticisms, just like Heraclitus’ fragments, Confucius’ musings, Aurelius’ snippets of wisdom, and Franz Kafka’s notebooks. These fragments and musings were results of observation and reflexive activities to encapsulate “reality” and “realities.”

To encapsulate reality, one needs to have a calm and critical mind. A peaceful heart is another prerequisite, which is oftentimes rather hard to attain, since the ambiance of an environment affects the overall experience.

Surely, loneliness might be the other side of efforts in encapsulating reality. A writer might look lonesome, hence be labeled a “lonely” individual. Such superficiality might be an undeniable first impression, or after a thousand appearances, yet most writers don’t feel lonely. Aloneness isn’t identical with and should not be mistaken for loneliness.

As a writer, I must work alone to produce something with substance. Even when I’m around people, my auto-pilot mode within is independent of crowdedness.

My innermost core is like an absorbent sponge: solid yet fluid, rocky yet watery – thus, perhaps “lava” is a good analogy.

Sometimes, I would excuse myself to a corner and start taking notes, or typing on a laptop or iPhone. In a crowd, I can still feel aloneness, yet never loneliness.

The former gives a stance to where my writing perspectives come from, while the latter gives a crippling feeling of hopelessness and entrapment.

Most writers are introverted by nature. And by “introverted,” it is not referring to a quiet and staring and nodding individual who doesn’t speak a word unless he or she is asked.

According to psychologist Dr. Marti Olsen Laney, an “introvert” is an individual who finds alone time as charging time. “Extrovert” individuals, however, find the company of others and being the center of attention to be empowering, thus “charging” their energy.

Both introverts and extroverts can be quite talkative and love the company of people. The only difference is how they “recharge” their energy. Politicians Al Gore and Abraham Lincoln, actresses Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep, and TV personalities David Letterman, Barbara Walters and Dianne Sawyer are examples of talkative and people-oriented introverts, as their careers require.

Many successful writers are introverts by nature, which can be observed from their independence, being highly analytical, being highly reflective, and being studious, all of which are imperative in this solitary career.

Talking is not required in this profession, except when dealing with a publisher or a literary agent on the terms of a publishing agreement. Or when doing a reading in a nearby bookstore or book club.

For a writer, “reality” is a perceived phenomenon that has penetrated, been immersed, filtered and processed heavily within an introverted mind using a complex web of intricately weaved multidisciplinary frameworks.

Even whenever a writer writes fictional accounts, he or she bases the characters, structure, and plots of the story on reality and actuality, regardless of their vagueness. In works of fiction, “novel” itself is an ambiguous term, as it means “having no rules.” Therefore, whether reality or actuality is a prerequisite or not is irrelevant.

Vignettes or stories are brainchildren of solitary activities: analyzing, synthesizing, writing and rewriting. And they are conceived out of love for knowledge and knowledge creation, not merely within the impression of “loneliness.”

Loneliness can make a soul lost, while most writers’ souls are strong and independent. Such strength and independence making being “lost” the last resort for uncertainties and grief, which often occur in depressive people, regardless whether they are writers or not.

As a writer, I live by rules created in my mind. As a writer, I am aware of many “realities”, as Nabokov mentioned. And no one “reality” is better than other “realities.”

Yet of course, we need to adhere to one universal “reality” that would blend all “realities” into one universal virtuous grand universe of reality.

That is the one universal reality based on compassion.

It might be true that most writers have their own missions and many of them are both apologetic and narcissistic, as George Orwell once reckoned.

We all, after all, are writers of our own life stories. As a writer, I live with a mission: disseminating messages of compassion and self-reliance. I write to inspire, to ripple the calm waters, to breed new thinkers and doers.

After all, the mission of life is to have a life of mission.

A writer might look lonesome, hence be labeled a “lonely” individual.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

Download From Golden Bridge to Golden Monument: Essays on Humanity, Fairness, and Peace in PDF here.

by Jennie S. Bev

Twelve years ago, our family and my parents’ house were saved by a mosque. A mob came to torch down the neighborhood but a good Muslim neighbor shouted, “Don’t torch our homes. There is a mosque nearby!” I was fortunate I was there and not on the way to my house in Tangerang, West Java.

Afterward, I heard many cars and their occupants were violently attacked on Kebon Jeruk toll road. One of those cars could have been mine.

Questions on forgiveness and justice have been haunting me since.

As a triple minority, based on my ethnicity, gender and religious affiliation, I belonged to “the weakest link” group, which explains why women of Chinese-Indonesian descent were targeted.

At that time, being at the right place at the right time saved me from harm, while 1,338 people were killed and 92 Chinese-Indonesian women were raped and sexually assaulted. It is common knowledge that for centuries, rape and other forms of sexual assault have been widely used as instruments of war and terror worldwide.

This blessing of survivorship left me with the so-called “survivor’s guilt” and trauma. For months, I had nightmares of the pitch black sky of Jakarta, buildings and houses on fire, and cars being attacked by angry mobs.

For months, I had to live with the faces of dead Chinese-Indonesian sisters who looked so innocent and hopeless when being raped.

I could have been among them.

The May 1998 Tragedy incident directed me to philosophize about what’s important and to have a life of mission: educating people on crimes against humanity and inspiring them to change the world for the better breath by breath and word by word.

Many people have experienced a similar heightened level of consciousness on their identity, political standing, and victimization and survivorship as minorities.

We often hear comments that there are many “native” Indonesians among the May 1998 Tragedy casualties, which I acknowledge.

When there is social unrest, there are “direct” and “indirect” as well as “targeted” and “not targeted” casualties, which no one can discriminate against.

However, to be fair and clear, we need to be aware of the facts that “the targeted” and “the directed” casualties were minorities, not the majority.

Other historical facts and scientific literatures also validly revealed that Indonesia is a weak democracy in which incidents of persecution of minorities have occurred for centuries during Dutch colonization and after the declaration of independence, including recently.

Failure to admit such wrongdoings is more than being ignorant, it is called adopting the mindset of the “banality of evil.”

This term was coined by Hannah Arendt in 1963 referring to the notion of ordinary people who accept the premises of their state and participate without questioning the fundamentals.

In other words, those who numb their minds and hearts belong to this category.

As members of a society, Immanuel Kant reminded us of obligations. Two types of obligation are “perfect” and “imperfect.”

An obligation is considered “perfect” when an individual possesses and can perform effortlessly a specific skill, talent, or power that can save member(s) of a society.

In other words, the more one has, the more obliged they are to save or, at least, attempt to save fellowmen and women. A “perfect” power comes with a “perfect” obligation to work for humanitarian causes. Thus, people with enormous power such as US President Barack Obama and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should naturally be strong humanitarians.

An “imperfect” obligation occurs when an action that can benefit a society must be performed with some effort — either big or small.

In the case of an individual with a very low power to assist others, they are the least obliged, such as children and sick people.

Such “imperfect” obligations are relative, of course, but “relativity” is also a mindset. Whatever the mind sets as “truth,” our physical body usually follows.

The notion of “forgiveness” is not being melancholic nor a form of repentance. It is a measure of the people’s mourning of the past that should be kept extraordinary, not merely normative, as Derrida said in On Forgiveness. Whether “silence” of the majority on this incident is forgiveness or a simple form of amnesia remains a question mark.

At last, allow me to remind ourselves that justice comes with fairness and it can only be achieved with liberty and acknowledgment of differences, as John Rawls posited.

To be fair, minorities must receive more and stronger protection so the balance of justice doesn’t tip favorably toward the majority.

After all, the protection of the minority’s rights is an important element of democracy.

Let’s never forget the May 1998 Tragedy and demand for justice for all minorities, victims and survivors. For now, let’s not forgive the actors until they are brought to justice.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

In a recent interview with a VOA broadcaster Jimmy Manan, I talked about anti-foreclosure housing activism that the residents of Mountain House, California, has been doing. Listen the radio interview segment here: VOA Breakfast with Newsmaker Jennie S. Bev 05-03-2010

I hope it is useful and inspiring.

[This article was previously published in Tracy Press, May 5, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

We Americans are fortunate. We live where ideas of democracy, equality and freedom live on. It is a privilege that I can’t stop being grateful for.

In other parts of the world, such as Indonesia, the country where I was born and raised, even breathing and worshipping are oftentimes a risky business.

This month marks the 12th year after the May 1998 Tragedy in Indonesia, where looting and rioting resulted in 1,338 deaths and the rapes of 92 Chinese-Indonesian women, shaking the nation.

As a triple minority — based on gender, ethnicity and religious affiliation — I was among the targeted group. I am grateful to this very day that I escaped the incident and now enjoy cultural and religious freedom in the United States.

At least 8 million Chinese-Indonesians and a few more millions of religious and sexual-orientation minorities in Indonesia still reside there. They are experiencing religious, sexual-orientation and ethnicity persecutions and hate crimes on daily basis.

For instance, in March, an LGBTQ group was scheduled to have an International Lesbian and Gay Conference in Surabaya, East Java, which was forcefully closed down due to violent acts performed by an Islamic fascist group named Islamic Defender Front. Though Muslim extremists are less than 1 percent of the overall Muslim population, they have a strong voice, and the majority tends to be silent due to fear and other unknown reasons. The police, military and government officials have been condoning their barbaric acts through omission and silence.

In April, a poverty-stricken Chinese-Indonesian community named Cina Benteng, which has been living in an enclave in Tangerang, West Java, for more than two centuries, was allegedly evicted by the local government on the basis of illegal housing. While the government officials’ reasons made sense, people of this community had been discriminated against in obtaining building permits and other residency-related documentations.

Recently, the local government of Bekasi, West Java, forbade all worship of a Christian church, Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church, after the congregation held a service outside the church building, though the service was only outside because the building has been sealed without due process. The pastor was forced to sign an agreement to promise not to have worship in the future, as the activities “disrupted” the local community.

These are merely a few examples of ongoing persecutions experienced by minority groups in Indonesia. More reports can be found on Human Rights Watch’s website.

As Edmund Burke once said: “To love our country, our country ought to be lovely.” The United States isn’t perfect by far, but it is where dreams are made and can come true. Here, I feel at home, and I can stand tall without bending for fear of being persecuted. I believe in America and its ideals.

It has been 12 years since the May 1998 Tragedy, which gave birth to a “reform era” period in Indonesia. Yet, we can still sense that laws and regulations aren’t on the people’s side. They are designed to preserve politicians’ positions. After all, the Indonesian term for “government” is pemerintah, or one who gives an order or command. In the United States, laws and regulations go through a lengthy process to ensure they represent the people’s demands.

I love America as my adopted country wholeheartedly, and I care about the country where I was born and raised. I would love to see Indonesia grows into a mature democracy where the people are the rightful owners of the country, just like Americans.

Let us Americans set the example of a great nation. It is based on rules of law and respect for liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness, all of which are based upon an important underlying principle: compassion.[]

Jennie S. Bev is a five-year resident of Mountain House and a columnist for The Jakarta Post. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

by Jennie S. Bev

Barack Obama has not confirmed when he’ll be visiting Indonesia, thus it is not too late to remind ourselves that Indonesia is interested in promoting liberal democracy alongside the United States.

It is good timing for Indonesia to end its ambiguity in world politics by supporting Obama’s cause. Especially with recent persecutions against minorities – LGBTQ, non-Muslim and Chinese-Indonesian – and the continued condonation of violent acts performed by Islamic-fascists, the Indonesian government needs to express repentance and utmost support toward minorities and its people. By the time Obama arrives in Indonesia, we should be prepared to present that we are ready to change.

Yes, change is the name of the game. To initiate change, we need to be aware of the people’s power in influencing policies assisted by external forces and be aware of the harmful and coercive effects of “quasi secular” or “pseudo theocracy” under the beautiful name of “Pancasila”.

First of all, Indonesia is (or isn’t?) a secular state, though Pancasila (Five Principles), the UUD 1945 Constitution and a myriad of laws and regulations clearly state that Indonesia is a country based on belief in God. One obvious example is the goal of national education according to Article 3 of the National Education Law No. 20/2003, which is “to develop students’ potentials related to creating faithful and pious individuals under God as well as noble, healthy, learned, skillful, creative, independent, responsible and democratic persons.”

It is quite mind-boggling that students in Indonesia are expected to go to school so that they can be “faithful and pious” individuals, not to become “smarter”, “skillful”, or “more intelligent” individuals with strong skills and knowledge to compete in 21st century globalized world. This alone makes us think pretty hard.

Indonesia is a country created on an agreement that God is what the people should strive for. Everything must be directed at God, including our children’s education. What if we don’t want that? Because religion and religiosity are a private matter, thus no one has the right to coerce us into it. Perhaps we simply want to have smart, positive and disciplined children because we can teach the notion of “God” and faithfulness at home.

It is evidently implied in the “introductory” section of most Indonesian laws that there is no place for an atheist – even a child must have a religion. Apparently, in this “undecided” and somewhat blurred notion of democracy, harm and coercion have been the name of the game played solely by the powerful state under the pretext of “being faithful and pious to God”.

John Stuart Mill in On Liberty stated that a state has no right to coerce an individual’s choices unless it is required to eliminate or reduce harm. In Indonesia, it is common knowledge that most laws contain “rubbery clauses”, including the above National Education Law. Such “rubbery clauses” can be easily manipulated to serve specific agendas, including a political party’s agenda, most of which prioritize – what else – faithfulness and piousness under God.

Consequently, extremist groups have been growing exponentially in the last few years. This is an indirect result of such “pseudo theocracy-ness” and “quasi democracy-ness”.

Concerned citizens should be aware of the narrowing “moral sphere”, in which people are free to choose whatever they believe to be moral, regardless of the state’s coercion veiled as “Pancasila-based laws”. Mill argued that such a sphere must protect individuals from harmful and coercive powers of the state and other entities. With “rubbery clauses and laws”, the government possesses a great – if not unlimited – power to trample upon and entrap the people.

What we need for Indonesia is a liberal democracy and all laws must be based on the Rules of Law and lie under the umbrella of compassion, in which non-killing policies must be placed as the underlying principle. It is simply irrational and unfair for the state to hide behind the notion of “godliness” in everything we do from the cradle to the grave. Morality and choices of religiosity and spirituality should be placed within an individual’s discretion without any coerciveness from any entity, including the state.

Such “pseudo theocracy-ness” will eventually breed more extremism and fascism, as this notion can be easily bent and manipulated for their benefit. When a state hides behind the notion of “God”, anyone – most likely extremists and fascists – with a strong case that would add “value” to such a notion, – the people are the ones who will suffer the most.

Indonesia might have the so-called “pride of being unique” for having Pancasila and being the most populous Muslim country, hence being “secular”. Yet the very first principle of Pancasila, “There is only One God”, itself a fallacy as even the official religions are not limited to monotheism, such as Buddhism. Thus, such an explicit referral to monotheism in Pancasila is an implicit endorsement of political and politicizes monotheism, in which Islamic-fascism is a strong case.

Let’s promote liberal democracy and compassion, just like Obama. And let’s have our voices be heard worldwide.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

Here is the list of 2010 Pulitzer Prize winners. As most writers strive to win a Pulitzer, some are simply happy to be making a living from writing full-time and be well-fed. Like me!

A Pulitzer is probably just a wishful thinking for me, but I’m grateful with my columns, books, and e-books. One small victory a day keeps frowning away.

Thank you for subscribing to this archive blog where I post published articles, books, and announcements. I notice, however, many new subscribers did not confirm their subscription, for some reasons.

If you did not receive a confirmation email, please re-subscribe here. Check your email Inbox afterwards and confirm immediately.

Have a great great weekend to you and yours.

[The edited version of this article was published in The Jakarta Post, April 16, 2010.]

Below herewith is the unedited version.

by Jennie S. Bev

Immanuel Kant posited that not all humans are considered as persons. He argued that being a human isn’t sufficient to make one and to be considered as a person. A human being is considered a “person” when he or she possesses more than rationality, but more importantly a community in which he or she has a place to experience consciousness, reason, motivation, communication, and presence of self.

Arguably, in Indonesia, being a member of minority groups, based on faith, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and political affiliation oftentimes places one in a difficult position where he or she is “discounted” person, even a “discounted” human being.

The recent clash between poverty-stricken Chinese-Indonesian community called Cina Benteng, which is an assimilated minority group, in Tangerang, West Java, with the authority evicting their homes on the basis of 2000 bylaw on cleanliness, orderliness and beauty by erecting permanent buildings along the river bank, is allegedly believed as a form of legalized persecutions done by the government of Indonesia towards minority groups, especially the ethnic Chinese.

Another incident in March, the government has been allowing violent acts to be suffered by those belonging to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer) minority group. The recently cancelled The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) conference in Surabaya is a strong indication of Indonesian government’s impotence, ignorance, and unwillingness to protect this minority group, among others.
By allowing the police to bow down to Islam Defenders Front (FPI) by allowing violent acts and declaring the conference didn’t have a permit –which is not required by law as quoted from Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, Indonesian government has failed minority rights, human rights, and humanity.

Both incidents underscore Indonesian government’s ignorance on equality before the law and equal rights for minority. After all, human rights should be adhered to all human beings, regardless of their acceptance by other groups as “persons” or not.

Assuming the allegation of “orchestrated eviction” can be proven, the clash between government authority with the Cina Benteng minority group is a form of direct (active) persecution because it is done by the government or a government body. According to Article 7 of The Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, “persecution is defined as the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law, which is committed against an identifiable group by reason of its politics, race or culture.” Persecution is a form of crimes against humanity.

Three important elements of “persecution” are: serious attack on human dignity, not isolated incidents but done or condoned by government authority, and widespread systematic practice. These three variables can be found in the Cina Benteng incident, assuming the allegations can be proven. In a weak democracy like Indonesia, it is always a challenge to prove wrongdoings of government and its officials, especially pertaining to human rights.

In March incident of cancellation of ILGA conference in Surabaya, the hands of government were not directly involved, instead they simply condoned the violence performed by an Islamo-fascist group named FPI. This incident, thus, is a form of persecution, not merely a “hate crime.”

Many people confuse “hate crime” with “persecution.” There is a fine line between the two.
Hate crime occurs when the motive of a violent or not-too-violent crime is hatred towards the victim’s membership in racial, religious, political, sexual, and other orientation(s) groups. A hate crime is an isolated incident and is not approved, condoned, or performed by the government or governmental bodies. A hate crime is not a systematic practice, but done to satisfy the doer’s satisfaction.

Thus, in a robbery targeting victims of a particular group, then it is a “hate crime.” However, whenever the visible or the invisible hands of government take part in a particular incident, then it is a “persecution” for sure.

Alas, in Indonesia, “hate crime” is something foreign, and “persecution” is oftentimes considered “normal” due to Suharto’s administration that had been systematically persecuting minority groups using legal and non-legal measures.

We should educate ourselves to identify and to stop spreading forms and seeds of persecution and hate crime.

One of the most common forms of ignorance by the majority is “rational discrimination.” According to Dinesh D’Souza in The End of Racism, “rational discrimination” is based on generalized group conducts, not biological inferiority. Examples of “rational discrimination” can be found in usage of certain terms in the media when referring individuals belonging to certain minority groups, such as identifying a person as a Chinese-Indonesian or “a man with slanted eyes.”

“Rational discrimination” itself should be distinguished from racism, because one is possible to become a racist without being discriminatory. What we disapprove is “rational discrimination,” in which membership of belonging to a particular group is used to generalize, hence persecute.

In Indonesia, all human beings are persons. No one is better than the others. []

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, April 4, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

The motivation and self-help industry is worth US$64 billion worldwide. People, who are seeking for a voice of reason and enlightenment, turn to print, electronic, and audio books and videos of motivational learning.

It taps a huge market for the optimization in human achievement, which can be attained more efficiently through positive psychology and liberated learning.

It is something to ponder upon pertaining to optimization of dissemination of democratic learning opportunities throughout the Indonesian archipelago. By narrowing the digital divide throughout Indonesia, we should be able to implement effective liberated learning through an online environment based on positive learning psychology.

While many of self-help and motivation gurus are self taught, a few distinctive positive psychologists are making their marks in the scientific study of optimal human functioning. In a nutshell, positive psychology is based on understanding of creating an environment that fosters happiness while limiting anxiety. The state of happiness as a feeling must be translated into learning activities.

One of the most prominent positive psychologists and educators is Tal Ben-Shahar at Harvard. One of the popular topics he teaches is the pursuit of happiness, which is an underlying element in optimization of human achievement.

In his extremely popular class, Ben-Shahar defines “happiness” as the overall experience of pleasure and meaning. Happiness, after all, is the key to optimized, if not maximized, human achievement.

Pleasure and meaning play important roles in the optimization of human achievement, which are derived from Sigmund Freud (pleasure) and Viktor Frankl (meaning)’s theories. And for both elements to work in alignment, reconciliation of present and future benefits should be prevalent.

In liberated learning framework, both present and future benefits are also placed in proportionate importance. Using the latest information technology revolution, such as social networking and open source CMS (course management system) platforms, economical and instantaneous communication channels can be opened. Both synchronous and asynchronous interactions can be made and learning styles can be catered for without worrying about geographical limitations.

According to Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the future of American Educationby Terry M. Moe and John E. Chubb, in 2006 alone, almost three-quarters of a million K-12 public school students in USA took and completed online courses. According to SLOAN Consortium, a professional organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, in Fall 2008, with over 4.6 million college students took at least one online course.

Among the top universities in the United States integrating online with mainstream courses are Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Wisconsin, Columbia University, NYU, and California State University System. On K-12 level, California Virtual Academies provide free online public education curricula that would prepare students for future demands as guided by credentialed teachers using the promises of online technology. Learning is both individually tailored and mass marketed.

Learning is “individually tailored” as students and parents have the freedom to choose learning subjects and styles that fit their needs, while it is “mass marketed” as learning is no longer a scarce commodity in which one class of tens of students must be taught by a teacher who is a sage on the stage. Teachers are facilitators by the side whose main interest is ensuring a positive learning environment to optimize knowledge and skill retention. Here, Freud’s philosophy of pleasure and Frankl’s philosophy of meaning play a distinctive role.

It might take a while for Indonesian education policy makers to agree to adopt such advanced techniques in learning, particularly in distributed liberated learning. However, we should be aware of its highly applicable and effective nature. Positive psychology, after all, is something that does not require a lot of capital, instead merely dedicated soft skills advancement. And liberated learning with distributed online technology relies more than low-cost open source platforms.

University of the People, a new online university that doesn’t charge any tuition fees is an example of democratization and equalization of learning opportunities using open source instructional materials and low-cost Internet-based technologies. By not worrying about tuition fees and geographical location, a student has two fewer things to fret about, hence allowing increased happiness.

To advance to this stage, there is an overlooked urgency requiring a change of mindset among educators in Indonesia, where a teacher is not a sage on the stage any longer, but more of a facilitator by the side, and a change in policy that would foster Internet equality by eliminating digital divide as much as possible.

Let us push the direction of education policies in Indonesia to allow equality in learning opportunities by implementing reliable and affordable — if not free — Internet connections throughout the country. That’s an important beginning to a smarter and technologically-literate human capital prepared to compete in a globalized world.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author, columnist and educator based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

The Jakarta Post has confirmed that my opinion column will appear every other week either on Tuesday or Wednesday. So far it’s unnamed, but it may change in the future.

One more is about my forthcoming book on Electronic Commerce, which I have been brewing for quite a while. It will be completed within –fingers crossed– five months as of April 1, 2010 (not April’s Fool, though, it’s serious). The research focus is an exploration of successful e-commerce ventures, from which case studies are analyzed and synthesized. (No, it’s not about Internet Marketing or making money using blogs and publishing articles on Internet.)

Meanwhile, I owe myself to write prolifically on social and human right topics, my other idealistic passions. Thank you for your patience and enjoy my opinion column at The Jakarta Post –both in print and online.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, March 15, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

Barack Obama is a different kind of president. He is not merely a president per se, as he is also a strong activist and a reformist. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “We are reformers in Spring and Summer, in Autumn and Winter we stand by the old, reformers in the morning, conservers at night.” And like most, if not all reformists, his presence makes many people uncomfortable.

His planned visit Indonesia on March 20-22, 2010, has sparked much debate. For instance, Hizbut Tahrir said it would rally 5,000 supporters to stage a demonstration in Surabaya.

In Serang, Banten province, the Campus Islamic Proselytization Institute has also argued that Obama’s visit would not benefit Indonesian Muslims. It is obvious that hard-line Islamists don’t appreciate Obama’s reformist characteristics.

In a seminar I attended in 2007 at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Angus Hawkins of Oxford discussed three types of leader: anchors, fixers and visionaries. An anchor leader brings and maintains balance, and Harold Wilson belongs to this category.

A fixer identifies and fixes problems for workable solutions. Clement Atlee is a fixer. A visionary searches, finds, and provides renewed fundamental principles. Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher belong to this category.

Of those three, Obama belongs to the fixer and visionary categories. And to become a visionary leader, one must possess 3Cs: consensus, charisma, and control. Tony Blair belonged to this category as well. This charming English bloke was as captivating as Obama. And perhaps the latter can learn from his senior on how to be both captivating and practical.

As a fixer and a visionary, Obama is known for his concerns about various issues. After all, his charisma as an activist was what made millions of Americans fall in love with him in the first place.

Thus, it is only reasonable that concerned Indonesians bring up important issues with Obama during his visit. But of course, we should remember that power has limits and he might not feel obliged to put Indonesia on the top of his to-do list due to the current economic crisis and healthcare controversy in the US.

For instance, as a human rights activist and recently as a housing activist, I have been lobbying the American government at various levels both face-to-face and via correspondence. I recall when Tipper Gore responded to my letter a while ago, which inspired my activism. A recent visit to Congressman Jerry McNerney’s office has been another important milestone in my activism as well.

I sent a letter to Obama urging him to help underwater US communities that have been hard-hit by foreclosures, such as in my hometown, Mountain House, in Northern California. It has been a nagging issue and a forgotten war in the US, which this year alone will see 1.2 million homes foreclosed due to the deflation of the housing bubble.

Indonesia warrants greater, if not the same level of Obama’s urgent attention as he can be a good catalyst for change. And by “being a catalyst,” we should not expect his direct influence, but more from his ability to bring up issues about Indonesia with the right people and institutions.

In Indonesia, issues urging his attention include: human rights abuses, human and drug trafficking, terrorism, free trade, education and US investment in Indonesia. We might feel a bit “intimidated” about contacting a president, but it shouldn’t be so hard. We can bring issues to US embassy staffers, particularly the communications and politics departments, prior to his visit.

The culture of activism has been growing in Indonesia, but interestingly it is inclined to on-foot demonstrations and rallies instead of lobbying with laser-sharp focus. We should change this by courageously creating a culture of face-to-face and correspondence lobbying.

Speaking from experience, American government officials answer any pleading letters sent to them. If it is in alignment with their platforms, they are likely to respond enthusiastically and either invite constituents to a meeting or a series of follow-up meetings.

The late Democratic congressman Tom Lantos who was a holocaust survivor, for instance, was very concerned about human rights issues in Indonesia, and he called me personally whenever he saw an important event that I should be aware of.

It is time to be our own activists and advocates, even our own citizen diplomats. Every single one of us is an agent of change. And while Barack is visiting his old kampung in Menteng, we should grab this rare opportunity to capture his attention with a lot of class and clarity.

Welcome to your old kampung, Barry!

Jennie S. Bev is a Menteng-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, February 25, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

We all live as avatars. The term “avatar” refers to the projection of one’s personality, particularly over the Internet. While in Hinduism, an “avatar” is a reincarnation of Vishnu, in today’s society, it is nothing more than an image of ourselves that we wish to convey to the world. “Avatarism” is probably an appropriate term to refer to the practice of using a particular persona in a particular circumstance.

Most people wish to be recognized by at least one of their strong qualities, be they artistic, intellectual, musical or inspirational qualities. However, not all of them are fully aware of “packaging” their avatar.

Media personalities, for instance, are aware of their overall position and projection. We might see Paris Hilton as a “dumb, blonde, poor little rich girl,” but is that really the case?

In 2009, Paris Hilton’s perfume line alone totaled US$200 million (Rp 1.856 trillion) in revenue. What an impressive achievement for a “dumb blonde” who couldn’t even boil water in one episode of her Simple Life TV series. An insider claims that Paris is, in fact, an impressive chef whose recipes are admired and enjoyed by close friends and relatives. The “dumb blonde” is her avatar.

Another classic example of a successful avatar personality is the amazingly dumb Mr. Bean character played by Rowan Atkinson, who is in fact an electrical engineer by by training, and a graduate from Oxford University. He has been so successful in projecting an image of a “super dumb” individual that people have forgotten that he studied at the most prestigious university in the world.

Millions of Internet users also have their own avatars. In online interactions, an “avatar” is simply the part of the projected personality that we wish the public to see, symbolized by a tiny snapshot of the Internet user.

Interestingly, Internet avatarism comes with pros and cons. One obvious advantage is the anonymity that generates honest and blunt comments essential for increasing civic participation.

One of the cons of broadcasting one’s self over the Internet is the chance for being censored. China’s infamously tight Internet censorship laws and its 30,000 Internet police is an extreme example of the lengths authorities can go to to control information.

Whether the need for such stringent censorship is genuinely required remains a topic of discussion as it would violate the principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. What is more urgent, on the other hand, is securing the public from electronic transaction crimes and securing the safety of children online.

In China, country-wide content filters have been in place since 1991. Nine years later, a government regulation set forth the first content restrictions on ICPs (Internet Content Providers) regulating China-based sites, forcing them to be independent and not linked to overseas websites carrying news information without prior consent from the government.

Such a draconian approach in filtering information is in direct opposition to China’s flourishing economy, as the government is showing a lack of civic and political maturity.

Indonesians should not want to follow in China’s footsteps toward any level of content censorship. While avatarism is somewhat harmless in the online world, a mechanism geared to pump up pop culture, it can become a real concern when it causes real damage, such as crimes pertaining to fraudulent financial transactions, consumer information security and privacy, child pornography, and intellectual property rights infringement.

In these areas, cyber law principles must be adhered to as a way to ensure legal basis for prosecution. Because in an anonymous world, anybody can use a masquerade or simply project a different image when preying on others.

First things first, while the Internet is global, three jurisdictions must be taken into account when an Internet transaction occurs. In this case “transaction” does not solely refer to financial transactions, but to any activity involving the content provider, domain hosting, transaction channeling, intermediary and end user.

Those three jurisdictions that must be taken into account are the laws of the nation and the state where the user resides, the laws of the server where the Internet site is hosted and the laws applying to the business transaction.

In a nutshell, any cyber-related regulations must seriously consider the international playing field, regardless of the Internet’s current state of mimicking the “international waters” concept. Any cyber law issued by a nation or a state will not be the only law used in handling legal issues that occur.

Indonesian regulators, thus, should not confuse Internet content that is protected by law, such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press, with fraudulent and criminal intentions. Let me reiterate the four major Internet crimes are: fraudulent financial transactions, consumer information security and privacy, child pornography, and intellectual property rights infringement. These four areas must be given priority.

Avatarism is in action and we must protect our businesses, intellectual properties, consumers, and children. But let free speech finds its own equilibrium.[]

Jennie S. Bev is a columnist based in Northern California. She can be found at JennieSBev.com.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t live the lifestyle of a “celebrity.” I live in a suburb-rural area of Northern California, where there are acres of land and nature surrounding me. Occasionally, I travel the world for business meetings, family visits, and pleasure.

At the moment, I’m writing 3 major books: one on compassion, one on electronic commerce, and one memoir based on my life story. To have them published by a reputable NY publishing house, I would need a reputable literary agent. A while ago, I was approached by Jessica Faust of BooksEnd, LLC pertaining to writing a how-to book on Robert’s Rules, which I declined due to my limited familiarity in the topic. I might want to beam her again regarding my new manuscripts (most likely available by fall this year).

In between writing books and columns, I’m learning to fly a Cessna and preparing for the launching of an online university. The legality of the university has been completed and I’m currently working on curricula and technical infrastructure.

Wish me luck that I can finish all these gigantic tasks this year, so next year I can focus on applying for a PhD program in California –my home state– (and Harvard, just because my mom wants me to) and preparing for the launching of a cosmetics and fragrance company.

Thus, please accept my apology to avid readers who would like to meet me in a “meeting with fans” event, as I simply don’t have the time and energy to organize one. Thank you for your kind understanding.

Namaste.

I love fashion. I was raised around fashion. While I’m a big nerd (read: a geek who reads and writes a lot of stuff and is literally surrounded by books wherever I go) by nature, I have a distinct fashion sense projecting both simplicity and inner goddess-ness.

In the last few years, I have been wearing a lot of bebe designs. And guess what, Kim Kardashian now has a design line with bebe. Above is my favorite. More on Kardashians’ collection for bebe here.

Hubby has been asking me whether we can have a wedding anniversary next year at a vineyard, like Wente. While I said it might be better to buy a car instead, we might eventually do it, as we didn’t have a proper wedding gazillion years ago. Well, for this occasion, I would like to wear a simple and chic wedding gown without all the fluff. David’s Bridal Gown by Galina below is something I’m looking forward to wearing.

Who said being a geek can’t be fashion-conscious? Behind these thick glasses, I’m still a girl.

It’s already mid February. How fast time flies. As much as I want to write more columns, living oftentimes gets in the way. I would need to focus on new start-ups and be on trips for business and family reunions overseas.

Still, it wouldn’t be a wishful thinking to write at least 10 short articles per month, if one article per day isn’t possible. On top of that, I have a few nagging manuscripts piling up waiting to be completed. I would like to complete that book on compassion very much, so I can have my overflowing thoughts cleared up and typed up for publication. It will be published in USA. My memoir “An American Daughter” will also be published in USA.

A balanced life, however, is key for productivity. For this, hubby and I are looking for a house with a swimming pool, so we can swim every morning and have pool parties with friends and neighbors. In this housing market, a house with a pool shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Welcoming springtime in California.

The above image is a scanned picture of an article on Indonesian bloggers, in which I was interviewed. The article can be found here.

Thank you to journalist Tasa Nugraza Barley, a good friend whom I encouraged to write for publications, instead of only for blogs. And, he did! He used to write for his blog GueBukanMonyet.com, The Jakarta Post opinion page, and now a feature writer for The Jakarta Globe. I’m so proud of him.

An interview with Jimmy Manan of Voice of American (Indonesian) on being a columnist can be downloaded below as MP3 file.

Breakfast Time Newsmaker Interview with Jennie S Bev 2-15-2010

P.S. I will be uploading a few more interviews with Swiss Public Radio on my housing activism in Northern California. The interviews are in German, since Switzerland is a German-speaking country.

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Thank you and good day!

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, February 8, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

Love and lust are addicting and intoxicating. Friendship keeps things grounded. In a good marriage, all these elements are present with friendship as the underlying principle, a lot of love as the building bricks, and a few dashes of lust to spice things up.

Things can become a bit too lethal when lust dominates a friendship or even in a lovingly romantic relationship.

Infatuation is probably best described as a low-grade, momentary, unfulfilled, lusty obsession between people of opposite sexes — straight — or of the same sex — gay.

At one point, I asked a friend who seemed to be showing such an indication and he said, “What we’re having is a temporary infatuation with things we both know we can’t have.”

Romantic love may grow out of simple and innocent friendship, which is something beautiful between two single people.

It may pose a dangerous element when this type of love, when sprinkled with lust, occurs between married people or those in other types of long-term partnership relationships.

And it is likely to start with a deep and mutual admiration.

A few years ago, a friend wrote, “Love, like admiration, is a blessing. It is the voice of the heart that no one can reject when it speaks.”

The notion of togetherness and having someone who completes us is probably what we all seek throughout our lifetime.

We know that we are in a good relationship when we are the happiest and the calmest and whatever we do is multiplied in a manner that only a miracle can explain.

On the contrary, we know we are in a bad relationship when things are spiraling down and our peace of mind is compromised.

Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise, gave birth to an extremely popular pop culture, quote, “I love you. You complete me.”

Ever since, we have been infatuated by the notion of infatuation itself. We have been trying too hard to find the one true love who completes us. But is this “soul mate” even a valid notion?

First of all, is there such a thing as a so-called “soul mate”? What if the spouse or the partner we have today isn’t our soul mate?

What if there is someone out there who is our true soul mate? Those are the questions we ask whenever we are attracted to someone other than our own partner.

After all, a heart is fluid. It doesn’t stop searching just because one is married or in a long-term relationship. But then, of course, a solid friendship makes all these temptations look trivial.

A friendship should override any temptation of a short-term fling, because after all, being good friends is what matters.

Friendship keeps us grounded, while love and lust give us an illusion of grandeur. Recently, a friend who was infatuated wrote me a beautiful love letter, “It is very hard for me to love you without owning you. I can only imagine making love to you, embracing you, and kissing your lips.” Friendship evaporated as soon as he expressed his erotic love, because it was a desire to possess, an instinct to mate, and an impulse to encage. An obsession masked as devotion.

The Bengal poet Rabindranath Tagore said it well, “Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law.” Romantic love comes with responsibilities.

And the highest of all is committing to fidelity. By being loyal, our gift of love to our partner is immortalized. Being loyal is not a sacrifice, but a privilege.

I may be infatuated with many men. I may even love them in my own way. But loyalty is both earned and given whenever we make the promise to be together.

I love that friend, who is now infatuated by a mirage that looks, sounds, and feels like me, because his love is innocent and powerful. He simply couldn’t stop the direction in which his heart was flowing, but I had to.

The lifetime love for a friend is more valuable than a short-time infatuation with things that we
both knew we couldn’t have. No matter how hurtful and aching our hearts are.

We might not have met our real soul mate in life. And we might continue to search for him or her throughout our lifetime. But we should remember that life is a series of decisions.

Whenever we have chosen, we have promised to be loyal. And it is more than about romanticizing a relationship, be it with our soul mate or not.

Friendship and love are about honor. Lust is about betrayal, unless it is placed in a marriage or any other long-term relationship with a partner.

Infatuation is about an urge to own, a desire to possess, and an impulse to encage — briefly.
As a woman, I guard my fluid heart.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and a columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at http://www.JennieSBev.com.

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Globe, February 8, 2010.]

Blogs are a Global Forum For Homespun Ideas
by Tasa Nugraza Barley

“Blogs are naked conversations where you have no editing process. Communication can be very objective or biased,” said Jennie Siat Bevlyadi, 39, who has been blogging since 2004.

Born and raised in Indonesia, but now based in Northern California, Jennie is famous among Indonesian bloggers for her posts on social issues, human rights, minority rights, gender issues, entrepreneurship, writing and online learning.

She has described blogs as a way to exercise free speech that is cheap and easy, but can have a great impact on society.

As such she has tackled important topics, including a recent article on her blog at www.jenniesbev.com titled “Peaceful Pluralism and Non-Killing Policy” where she voiced her support for people in Indonesia living in harmony. She wrote: “But we have come to a point where we can no longer tolerate violence and killing. Even in the name of politics.”

Her writing has reached a wide audience and stirred up mixed responses; she has received fan mail — even love letters —from supporters, as well as threats from extremists. She also received an award in 2007 at Pesta Blogger, an annual gathering for bloggers in Indonesia, for best celebrity blogger.

Bloggers with personal rather than political motivations also benefit from the ability to communicate and form connections with people from across the world.

Anita McKay, 30, an Indonesian woman currently living in Perth, Western Australia, began a blog in 2005 to share her own feelings. But as her blogging and writing skills developed, she started to write posts on expatriate and women’s issues as well.

Her blog, www.finally-woken.com, now has posts ranging from discussions of her daily life to her take on political and social issues.

One of her pieces, “What Makes You an Indonesian?” was inspired by a comment she read on Twitter which claimed many Indonesians living abroad pretend to know more about their homeland than they actually do, and that while they like to criticize their country they do nothing to help. Her post challenges her readers to examine what makes them Indonesian.

“Blogs can also be an alternative form of information for people making decisions such as picking a restaurant [to eat at],” Anita added, saying the information that bloggers share is usually detailed and personal which means it can be trusted.

Ian Badawi, 26, is another young Indonesian who has used blogging as a way to stay in touch with his roots. Living in Washington he was frustrated with only ever reading bad news about his home country, so he began blogging with www.goodnewsfromindonesia.com.

“Good News from Indonesia is a blog by a group of young Indonesians who are committed to spreading positive news about Indonesia to the rest of the world,” Ian said.

He said the blog aims to show the strengths of the nation and to help Indonesians, especially young people, to be proud of their country.

Created in 2007, Ian said Good News from Indonesia has followers from places as far away as Norway and Brazil.

Blogging has exploded over the past years as it has become increasingly easy for people to put their thoughts online.

In 2001, local blogger Enda Nasution, 34, wrote an article titled “Apa Itu Blog?” (“What is a Blog?”), explaining the concept and giving people practical advice on how to start their own blogs.

According to his article, the term “weblog” was first introduced by an American blogger, Jorn Barger, in 1997 to refer to commentary Web sites that were updated regularly and contained links to other recommended sites.

His article was one of the first on the topic and since then blogging has become increasingly popular in Indonesia.

“Now there are probably more than one million bloggers in this country,” said Enda, whose efforts to promote blogging in Indonesia include helping initiate Pesta Blogger in 2007.

One of the first companies to give free blog service was Pyra Lab. In 1999 it launched www.blogger.com, which allowed people with little knowledge of Internet coding to start their own blogs.

Enda, a former advertising consultant who now works as a Web consultant, said he has always been a writer at heart and as a teenager he kept a diary of his activities and thoughts.

He said what made blogging remarkable was the way it allowed people to connect with others from across the globe, showing that regardless of religion, nationality or race, people are connected in unimaginable ways.

He once posted a piece about facing a quarter-life crisis. “Now that I’m not experiencing that anymore, I still keep getting comments from people who say things like ‘I have the same feeling’ or ‘Thank you for sharing this,’ ” Enda said.

Of all the many blogs he has created, Enda mostly posts on www.enda.goblogmedia.com, which is made up of his daily observations, mostly on political and cultural issues.

Anita on the other hand, said her blog focuses largely on the “culture shock” experiences that Indonesians, including herself, face living in a foreign country.

“For example there are behaviors that are considered normal in Indonesia but funny to people in other countries, such as dressing up to go to a mall,” Anita said.

Advertising consultant and blogger Ong Hock Chuan, 51, who was involved in organizing Pesta Blogger, said that it was a mistake to say that blogs offer new kinds of information to what can be found in newspapers and magazines.

“What blogs provide is a [different] context to the existing information,” Ong said.

He added that Indonesian bloggers had a uniquely communal nature.

“Bloggers elsewhere do their thing and don’t like to meet up. But in Indonesia bloggers like to meet [face to face] and do things together,” he said.

“Hence you get strong blogger communities.”

Ong said the popularity of blogging in Indonesia is growing. “Last year [Pesta Blogger] attracted 1,500 bloggers from all over Indonesia. We had whole communities of bloggers coming to Jakarta from as far away as Makassar and other parts of Indonesia just to meet with other bloggers,” he said.

This compares with 500 participants in 2007, the inaugural year of the event, and 1,000 in 2008.

Ong said that although there were many ways for people to communicate on the Internet, such as Facebook, Twitter and Kaskus, a local online forum, these tools are not necessarily in competition with each other.

“Each social media platform allows people to do different things, often in a complimentary manner,” he said.

Enda said he would advise new bloggers to use blogging as a tool to find their passion.

“Be original, never give up to keep writing,” Anita said.

“Popular bloggers who have loyal readers are the ones who are passionate about the issues that they bring up, while those who only try to follow the trend will run out of ideas and their blogs will lose their audience.”[]

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, January 29, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

The world of politics is based on violence, within which killing — as a form of violence — is a major component in gaining and maintaining power.

Throughout the history of political philosophy, from Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Hobbes’s Leviathan, Locke’s Two Treaties of Government, Rousseau’s The Social Contract, Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto, to Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation,” all agreed that killing is a necessary form of force used in a power struggle, if not as a last resort.

Weber even defined “a modern state” as a “human community that claims the monopoly use of physical force within a given territory.” He also added: “He who seeks the salvation of the soul, of his own and that of others, should not seek it along the avenue of politics, for the quite different tasks of politics can only be solved by violence.”

In a nutshell, according to Weber, only those with the heart to perform violent acts are suitable for the world of politics, while the soft-hearted ones should choose a different path.

But we have come to a point where we can no longer tolerate violence and killing. Even in the name of politics.

In today’s violent atmosphere, the premise of “violence and killing are the world of politics’ inseparable elements” must be balanced with a nonkilling paradigm. The term “nonkilling”, which was recently popularized by Prof. Glenn Paige of the University of Hawaii and a founder of the Center for Global Nonkilling, is to specify an important aspect of non-violence, so as to distinguish it from Gandhi’s non-violence movement (ahimsa).

Among all violent methods, killing occupies the apex of the pyramid as the most notorious and having the most impact. Thus, nonkilling is a natural antidote, even though its concept is oftentimes considered unthinkable, esoteric, and undoable.

In Indonesia, minor conflicts can be blown up exponentially to serve specific political agendas whenever needed. Proper recognition of pluralism and multiculturalism as an integral part of Indonesian culture that cannot be disconnected from other elements should be realized. It is required in the light of a proper shift toward a nonkilling policy.

Culture itself is a concrete and bounded by a world of beliefs and practices. And it is common knowledge that in Indonesia, which can be regarded as a “cultural” element, that minorities are preferred to assimilate into the mainstream majority. While it comes with pros and cons, we should be aware of the consequences of such a mindset. At an extreme level, it may translate to killing.

The umbrella paradigm is simple: all policies should be based upon the understanding that any use of force on people that can translate to violence and killing is unacceptable, thus should be banned.

For instance, the use of military power in Papua is unacceptable as it is unnecessary and inhumane.

With nonkilling as the ultimate goal, the underlying principle must be carefully weighed upon many possible choices, among which is “survival through cooperation.” In an experiment at Tulane University, it was proved that a rat-killing cat and its prey, the rat, could be trained to eat side-by-side from the same saucer. It might sound drastic, using this method to teach human beings and groups how to live in harmony, but if these two natural enemies can make it work, so can we.

Next, contrary to the political scientists’ belief that the world of politics is violent and thus killings are a natural phenomenon, human beings are not killers by nature. Statistically speaking, throughout history, the number of those who are killed outnumbered the killers.

In short, there are only a few killers in society who kill fellow humans. With this logic, we should focus on what the majority has been doing — or not doing — in this respect, which is not killing.

Interestingly enough, some societies are more peaceful than others. In such peaceful societies, the people adopt a strong sense of peaceful self. Among them is Tanah Toraja, South Sulawesi, which can be used as a case study for further peace and nonkilling studies in Indonesia.

Killing itself can be seen from multiple levels of internalization, from philosophical and societal concepts, psychological permission, to individual enactment.

The notion that killing is a solution or even a natural phenomenon in dealing with conflict should not be entertained, even within hypothetical discourses. A gradual shift to diplomacy and other nonkilling alternatives and non-violent methods should be socialized and implemented early on.

In conclusion, peaceful pluralism can be achieved with a nonkilling policy and vice versa. And for this, revolutionary concepts and conduct must be realized from the normative, factual and theoretical to the applied educational perspectives. After all, remember, humanity was created out of love for togetherness, not for hatred.

Rabindranath Tagore expressed it well: “Men are cruel, but Man is kind.”[]

Jennie S. Bev is an author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

Join my FaceBook Author’s Page here.

In my life, there are two powerful emotions: anger and love.
Both give me the fuel to move on everyday.
Both give me the motivation to wake up every morning.
Both give me the courage to pursue justice, fairness, and equality relentlessly.
But, of those two, one is more powerful than the other.
Love.
(Jennie S. Bev)

[This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, January 10, 2010.]

by Jennie S. Bev

A kiss is not just a kiss. It is more and sometimes it is less than itself. A kiss may mean many things, yet we all are so infatuated with kisses. We kiss and are kissed.

We love watching kissing movie scenes and cheer whenever we see lovebirds kiss each other. Kisses make us happy, meaningful, accepted and – occasionally – betrayed. Most kisses are warm and cheerful, but others are dry, cold and dreadful. While kisses make things happen, they also kill.

What a kiss means at any given time depends on how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. A kiss has the power to heal and to sicken. In a romantic relationship, a kiss is the arrival of two souls, two hearts, two minds, and of course, two warm lips.

Other kisses aren’t so literal or physical; some even are utterly vague, giving away no hint of sincerity. A kiss can be deadly too.

A mother kisses her baby as soon as they are born, signifying unconditional love and promise as a parent. A courtship is started with an anxious kiss. A groom kisses his bride to mark the beginning of their lifetime relationship. Friends kiss to greet each other.

Human conception is usually started with a kiss between two lovers followed by something else. Some kisses are wet, others are airy, telling of nothing more than selfishness.

Many cultures adopt kissing as a way of life. The Maoris of New Zealand, for instance, use their nose to kiss in friendly greeting. Among my friends, the gay ones give the best camaraderie kisses.

They give away a good amount of warmth and touch on the cheeks. Sometimes they greet me with a “Hello, Sweetie,” and a big smile as well.

New Yorkers are known to like kissing people they meet and have just met. Californians are more of huggers. They hug and, sometimes, they kiss too. The kiss, however, is slightly different. Californian kisses are more relaxed, while New England ones are quick, brief and oftentimes quite airy.

Indonesians don’t kiss much, as they are likely to be reserved in public life. Kissing hands, however, is strictly reserved for younger people toward their elders and wives toward their husbands. What an opposite to English gentlemen, who kissed ladies’ hands in the olden days. No “enchante” gesture for Indonesian ladies.

I recall how I “accidentally” grabbed a religious leader’s hand for a shake, which was quite an embarrassing incident. In his belief, touching a woman is considered sinful. I couldn’t change what happened, so I just wished that this sin of his be transferred to me, as I didn’t mind carrying it on his behalf. Then I wondered how heavy his sin could have been if I had accidentally kissed him on his cheeks. I didn’t want to know, to be honest.

Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, a deadly one. The type of kiss we don’t want to encounter ever. Yet we do stumble upon such a kiss from time to time. Whenever we are betrayed, we feel like a part of ourselves has been hammered into pieces.

A kiss from someone we love who is having an affair usually does it. But Judas’ kiss was much more than that. It was a kiss from a trusted friend.

Marilyn Monroe, the ultimate femme fatale, once said, “A wise girl kisses, but doesn’t love. Listens, but doesn’t believe. Leaves, before she is left.” Such a kiss is a loner’s kiss. Monroe was a lonely woman despite the admiring men around her and alleged affair she had with an American president. She died alone in her bed at a young age of 36. A wise girl’s kiss might have been the culprit of her loneliness and lonely passing, but who am I to think so?

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt is an example of the immortalization of a kiss in painting. This masterpiece is illustrated in gold and bronze, sprinkled with mosaics. The lovers are depicted on the edge of a bed of flowers.

The locking embrace makes this painting complete. The elements of trust and lust create an ambience of fairytale romanticism, hence the female lover is believed to symbolize a femme fatale. The sensuality of The Kiss travels beyond the canvas, building a tension of wanting to kiss and be kissed. A kiss can be divine too.

A kiss is a kiss, but it might not just be a kiss. A mother’s kiss is the purest and the most unconditional. A lover’s kiss completes our desire to be wanted.

A lonely soul’s kiss is a cry for sincere kindness from others. And whenever it is time to leave this world, we will receive kisses of farewell, other than a kiss from the Angel of Death.

Life is a series of kisses. Indeed.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

This year, my writing goals are: publishing at least 100 column articles (preferably one per day, so ideally 300+ articles –but it might be too much) and finishing two books. And, hopefully, a few journal articles.
Is it possible? I think so, despite other gazillion things to do.

You can expect to find my writings regularly in The Jakarta Post, The Brunei Times, Tracy Press, and Tempo English. Someday, whenever I have more time, I would like to write in Indonesian again, preferably upon invitation by editors.

Have a fruitful and joyful 2010.

by Jennie S. Bev

2009 was filled with drama. A high wall between the Indonesian people and their government continued to exist. Great divides were present between hope and reality, between policy and implementation, and between the powerful and the powerless.

We all have been puzzled on the fact that Indonesian political landscape is either getting more complex or simply getting worse, and the rule of law has not improved either.

In short, is Indonesia progressing? Indonesia has been enjoying the accolades of becoming more democratic. But are we progressing at all? At least within the realm of political playground what can be done and by whom?

The answer of “by whom” must be answered with “by those with the greater good in their minds.” These individuals are virtuous and benevolent by nature as they are representatives of the people.

Thus, the selection process might need to be replaced with selective leadership succession and training processes.

While the notion of virtue may sound useless in today’s politics and is often considered archaic in the study of politics, it is most likely crucial to fix the decaying playground. John Stuart Mill in Considerations on Representative Government said, “If we ask ourselves on what causes and conditions good government in all its senses, from the humblest to the most exalted, depends, we find that the principal of them, the one which transcends all others, is the qualities of human beings composing the society over which the government is exercised.” Quality of individuals would make a big difference.

The thing is, depth and width of Indonesia’s political conservatism can never be answered in a simple manner, which causes difficulty in guessing the other side of the coin: depth and width of liberalism.

And in such a vague atmosphere, some politicians have been deceiving the people with “virtuous” acts, such as pledging under God’s name in front of public. And it also happened with policies, such as the Anti-Pornography Law and the Information and Electronic Transaction Law.

Whether the tendency is toward conservatism or liberalism, virtue is a valid notion nonetheless, so long as its occurrence is the result of embracing personal freedom or liberty and equality. And by “virtue,” it refers to genuine characters of individuals. Within the realm of liberalism, in which freedom to be virtuous or not does not matter, virtue serves a purpose as the society’s well-being rests in the hands of representatives. Good representatives would determine level of freedom and equality enjoyed by the people.

Practically speaking, virtue can be replaced by the so-called “rational control” as recently introduced by Harvey Mansfield. As Cass R. Sustein and Richard H. Thaler in Nudges described, “virtuous nudges” are self-conscious attempts to move people in directions that will make their lives better. And these are forms of rational control. Ideally, rational influencers are individuals with the greater good in mind.

With simple-minded individuals making up the majority, the notion of representatives as rational influencers is simply an extension of existing tasks. The natural requirement is having people with high level of reasoning skills and high level of progressivity, including in the areas of morality. By “morality” here, it refers humanity-based universal morality, not patronizing or simply based on a particular religion’s standards of morality that can be easily corrupted by leaders with agenda.

Mansfield mentioned that placing automatic instruments and placing good choices strategically give people the so-called “auto-pilot” virtuousness. In one example, Sustein and Thaler mentioned placing healthy food in front of junk food shaped people’s choices tremendously and is highly effective in successful healthy diet. In Singapore, for instance, every automobile driver is an organ donor except if he or she chooses otherwise. In other countries, like the United States and Indonesia, however, one must specifically select to be a donor.

Implementing rational control comes with its own challenges.

First of all, if it ever was implemented, in which genuine virtues are likely to be replaced, rational control may or may not be implemented properly as it requires strict safeguarding laws.

Secondly, rational control numbs people’s ability to express themselves creatively and individually that Alexis de Tocqueville referred as “taking away the trouble of thinking and the pain of living.”

Let’s conclude with the correlations among virtue, liberty, and rational control. Virtue is a necessity, even in the most liberal shade of society, as without it, the quality of liberty would not be responsible enough to implement rational control. Despite Tocqueville’s opinion, being a positive influencer is a rational choice as a genuinely good representative of people. Now the challenge is how we can filter in candidates with genuinely good characters whose interest is for the betterment of the greater good and filter out bad candidates wearing angel suits.

May 2010 open a new path.[]

Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born author and columnist based in Northern California. She can be reached at JennieSBev.com.

Former Indonesia’s president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid has passed on December 30, 2009 at 18:45 Western Indonesian time due to complications of diabetes and kidney failure. My condolences to Indonesia, family, relatives, and close friends. You will be greatly missed, My Knight.

More on Gus Dur at Wikipedia.com.