LUDRUK, ART AS MEDIA

Ludruk is a traditional stage play from East Java. The plots of the play circle around common people which differ it from other form of traditional stage play in Java which most of them take Mahabrata and Ramayana story as its basic source. Its earliest form was developed among common people, but in the course of time, it was enjoyed by a lot of number of admirers ranging from the common to the elite. In this respect, Ludruk is greatly contrasted to the Central Javanese Ketoprak, a theater of the same genre in as much as that the latter has been born amidst the ruling class environment of the past. Ludruk could reach more audiences rather than Ketoprak since most of its story deals with everyday issues.

Ludruk has spread fast from Surabaya (now capital of the Province of East Java) to its contiguous towns, such as Jombang, Mojokerto and even as far as Ngadas in Tengger since Ngadas is a village located upcountry about 20 kilometers south of the volcanic Bromo. However, with Government transmigration campaign to various areas in Indonesia, Ludruk does not only exist in Java but also in the areas where the settlement established. Later, Ludruk develop to a new form where the early Ludruk use East Java language in its dialog, the recent form takes Indonesia language in its dialog.
In its traditional form, various components have worked together to bring forth Ludruk in its present setting. The first is "Pencak Silat", a traditional form of self-defense, combining physical agility and semi dance like movements performed to the monotonous beats of kendang or kendangs (Kendang is an oval, relatively small drum struck by a seated player). Occasionally, this art is also accompanied by more elaborate orchestra in which bamboo flutes and gongs have a share.
Secondly, there is the "Bandan". This magic imbued play demonstrates the performer's physical invincibility. The man's body, tightly roped, is beaten with a piece of hard metal, a cudgel, or a sharp-edged whip. To thrill the audience more, the man would lick a glowing piece of metal, swallow burning charcoal or crack his head against hard stones. A "Bandan" performance is normally confined to tradisional ceremonies for the purposes of expelling crop-devasting insects, pleading the deities for soil fertility or as an expression of thanksgiving when crops have been bounteous. Ludruk, however, cannot be reckoned as standard unless "parikan" makes its unique contribution.
According to traditions popular among the elderly people of East Java, "parikan" has over the years seen many modification before emerging in its present "lerok" form. "Lerok" is a humorous theatrical art based on verse dialog played by males only. Thus, "lerok" has an added attraction, being "teledek lanang", meaning theater by men only. Its main themes are taken from life's day to day problems: the hardships of job seeking, broken love affairs, ridiculous domestic quarrels between husband and wife, the age old generation gap between parents and children, etc.
"Lerok" entertains audiences on festive occasions such as wedding ("pengantenan"), circumcisions ("khitanan" or "tetakan"), and thanksgiving ("kaulan"). As far as accompaniment goes, "lerok" is primitive. The music consist of only one kendang, one set of "pekings" (small "gongs" set on strings) and a big bamboo called "gong bambu" blown at the upper part. The actor who portrays a woman character dresses in a red blouse and "batik sarong", with a "sampur" on the right shoulder. He must be exquisitely made-up so as to give a strong impression of feminity and beauty. Graceful gait and coquettish "ogling" at the audience are always supposed to be defining characteristic of "lerok". It is from this frequent ogling or "lerak-lerok" in the dialect of East Java that this art got its name. For a male character, a red fez, red coat and red trousers are donned by the actor while his left ankle bears a "gong seng" or a set of small bells.
A more sophisticated branch of "lerok" is without doubt the younger "besut" or "besutan". Originally, "besutan" means 'coating' or 'elaboration'. This is in keeping with the popular belief that anything wrong or scandalous, involving important community leaders and magnates should not be revealed publicly. Fault-finding with higher authorities is discouraged, or, if considered really necessary, criticism should be subtle. This new art of "besutan" is believed to have proven it self to be an effective means of ridiculing the personae non gratae of the community, yet leaving no room for either formal or informal indictment against the actors. In this veiled atmosphere, the performers are untouchable.
Spontaneity is so indispensable as element in "besutan" that should there be a disreputable character among the audience, the "besut" would unfalteringly and skillfully put the man in a laughing stock position. Meanwhile, the audience would fully enjoy the mocking while the mocked can do nothing but frown in displeasure.
During the Dutch colonial period, "besutan" developed fast and posed as the major means of recreation in East Java, especially in the neighborhood of Surabaya. The performance can take place anywhere outdoors as long as the weather permits. The main reason for this open-air preference is very simple because
everybody likes it. People of all classes, old and young, enjoy this theater. A concealed hartred of cruelty and an oppressed longing for vengeance find their outlets through this cathartic play. In the days of the Dutch, it was the local native rulers who were most resented, because of their willingness to collaborate with the foreign, arrogant administrators, for their priggish attitude towards their own kinsfolk, and disgustingly servile behaviors towards the alien superiors.
The overture is presented by the appearance of the "Besut" on the gloomy stage. He sings melodic verses depicting the wretched social and economic conditions of the time. Simple dance movements break the monotony of the overture. Personal misery is also frequently narrated, but this should be viewed as a facet of a general portrait of people's life. The overture is succeeded by a quite unexpected change of atmosphere. The "Besut" runs hastily and excitedly to spots where bamboo torches are set. He sets the torches in flames, symbolizing an ardent desire to create a bright future, after which the life of the people would be free from oppression, both feudal and colonial.
In later years, the "Besut" was given a new status. He became a fixed figure playing the most important role. Two or more actors are added to the play. The two extra actors are "Paman Jamino" (uncle Jamino), and "Asmunah", borrowed from a popular tradition of "Jombang", or "Rusmini", according to the version of Surabaya. "Asmunah" or "Rusmini" is "Besut's" fiancee, personalized by a male actor. She is described as beautiful and intelligent, balanced by "Paman Jamino" who is wise and considerate of his kinsfolk's suffering. "Besut" him self, represents all positive qualities like bravery, heroism, idealism, perseverance and loyalty. His only trifling flaws are his youth and immaturity, especially when faced with grave danger. On the stage, his bold, and often careless words are corrected by "Man Jamino" and "Asmunah". In the general context, these three personages complement each other so well that the performance is one smooth, vivid portrait of reality, always with human suffering as its main focus.
Up till now, "besutan" has managed to maintain its original plot and setting: There are bamboo torches set alight by "Besut" plus songs full of insinuation accompanied by improvised dialogs to enliven the mood. A new element is, however, in the form of a very simple narrative. This development is often said to have been the result of the nationalistic movement in the 30's which exploited besutan as a means of education of morality and nationalistic awareness. During that period, a piece of white unhemmed cloth was worn, fastened around the waist with a red ash. Again, these colours bore a symbolic function, standing for purity of mind and valor, which were at the same time, the color of the nationalist-proposed banner, solemnly avowed in a Congress of Indonesian Youth in 1928. In the course of time, the white cloth was replaced by a shirt, whereas the black trousers were overlapped with a "sarong". "Paman Jamino" wore ordinary villager's clothes. "Asmunah" wore a red blouse with glaring make-up. More musical instruments were introduced in this later stage, the "gambang" (wooden xylophone), "sarons" (metal xylophones), metal "gong" and zither.
In nowadays, it is possible to use Ludruk to inform its audiences about various developments in their community. Since the characterization in Ludruk is relatively loose, it means that it is easy to introduce a new character that could explain such developments. Even by using the existed character, development could be inform in Ludruk as a daily issue.

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STUMBLED...
TRAMPLED...
and
BROKEN....

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PARADOX NATION

Maybe the most paradoxical nation in the world is Indonesia. Everything in this country is a contradictory.

Indonesia has been elected as the leader of UN human right body. Of course, lots of things have changed since there was a shift of power in Indonesia but the changings are not significant enough to give Indonesia this kind of responsibility. Less state's power abuse, sure it does but human right is not only in physcal abuse but also in the right to gain self emancipation politically, socially, culturally, and economically.

Politically, this restriction is not obvious but in the substantial phase, discrimination to political access is still exist in Indonesia. Not everybody has the ability to be part of any political power without finacial back up. This practice is a major issue since most of Indonesian does not have this kind of support since they live in poverty. This mean that the access has been neglected by economical capability. The problem does not stop here, lack of financial ability will cause them the opportunity to have a better education and health service. The result? Absolute poverty. And poverty is one of the major issue in the war againts discrimination.

Like it or not, Indonesians are still in learning process in how to live civilizely in a democratic atmosphere which give Indonesia a status of apprentice. There is no way a mere apprentice could lead an enormous movement where even the mentor does not give a high value to the subject.

There is another paradox in Indonesia recently. Indonesia will held UNFCC conference in Bali in December 2007. Just the other day, local high court in Medan has discharged the lower court decesion in illegal logging case. Adelin Lis, the suspect, with his PT. KNDI has been freed from all of his legal conviction. The higher court decide that all of attorney's accusations are not proven and the defendant are free of all charge. The only guilt that Adelin Lis done is administrative failure and it's not a crime.

What they considered as administrative failure has added Indonesia's sin as one of the world leading carbon producer. Thousands of hectares of forest had been swept away by PT. KNDI in Mandailing Natal District. The enourmous lost will reduce Indonesia' rain forest conservation to a dangerous limit. The economic value of this Industry, in the long run, does not enough to justified its practice.

Indonesia should do what Uruguay does. Instead of deforesting their rain forest, Uruguay plants more and more trees to substitute their lost. In this project they are able to gain economic benefits in carbon trading.

These paradoxes are only a small examples of Indonesia's inconsistency in their reformation which done only in surface level. The biggest question is not who should be blame for this but will we keep on doing this?

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WOMAN AND PEAGANT

Only last day, Miss Indonesia Peagant overed and another "lucky" Indonesian women received the privelege to be awarded the most beautiful woman in Indonesia. Apart from the controversies surrounding it, this kind of peagant has become media to promote tourism and culture of the country concerned. And this year, Putri Raesmawati of East Java had won the place in the exclusive group of Indonesian women.


But is it really necessary to have this kind of competition among women? Most feminists may say "NO" and even for them who do not really believe in feminism movement may say the same thing.

From its history, beauty peagant was started in the USA in 1921, with the goal to give scholarship for women. But from its sponsorship history, by Catalina Swimsuit, the peagant just looked like a swimsuit competition up till 1950 when the peagant official made the swimsuit as the less important part of the competition (http://wikipedia.org). so, just like shoap opera which got its name from its sponsor, fortunately this peagant did not assumed in the same way.

In case of Indonesia, there is no swim suit section of the competition because culturally, Indonesia will reject this peagant as soon as it put swim suit comptition as its main event.

In his book "Sarinah", the first Indonesian president, Soekarno, classified this event as women movement in the first catagory where women are more give the important of their physical beauty. Even this competition promotes their jargon,3B (Brain, Behaviour, Beauty) but in reality the most important of the three is beauty.

Women are not yet enlighted in this event. In most cases, they are the objects in the competition. We can see from the configuration of the judges in each competition in every country, almost 75% of the judges are men. And, naturally, their judgement will be affected by the physical beauty of the contestants. And this means that their intellectual and behavioural talent are the side value of the judgement.

In the last few decades, every element of world community tries to promote gender equality and in its process, a lots of resources have been spent. In this equality, women and men should be judge by their capacity and ability, not by their physical superiority or incapabality. But in an event where physical appearance take the most important, it seems that the effort to promote equality becoming useless.

Of course, we can argue that it is women's right to choose to take part in the competition, by economical, principle, or popularity reasons. but by the end we can see that not much of benefits can be achieved in the event apart from the promotional value for sponsors of the event. And by this reason, women become the object of commercialism of their beauty.

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ELIMINATION OF A GENERATION

26 June is commemorated as the International Anti-Drug Day. According to the latest survey, around 1.5% of Indonesia population are inflicted in drug abuse. However, the result number in this survey, does not show the real problem in the society and the number may increase when we consider the actual drug abuse in community. In every major cities in Indonesia, drug problems become the main element in moral and physical decadence especially among youths. Even this problem has penetrated small town which for long time considered as drug-free area. Government along with evry social elements have drained a lot of resources trying to solve this problem but uptill now, the number keep on growing instead of falling.

There are many factors why Indonesia has to face such a hugh problem. for many years, Indonesia was considered as the transit area between The Golen Triangle area of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar to East Asia and Australia. But now, Indonesia has become one of the mai producer in Asia especially for drug in Amphetaminae class and ecstasy. Indonesia's geographical situation which close to Mallacan Peninsula and Australia has give the advantage as the bridge between the two region which in result, to cut the production cost, the production is resettled in Indonesia. The loose border control has make it easy for the international narcotic network to smuggle their product in and out Indonesia.


The factor above is only the external geograpical element of the problem. Internally, the obstacle to eliminate drg abuse are more complicated. Strong effort has been shown by Indnesia government - institutionally. But it is a common knowledge in the society that most of drug lords are backed by persons in the army and the police corp. Even in some cases, drug lord whom jailed for years stil able to control his business from inside prison. Tis fact show us that even punishment system in Indonesia is not strong enough to strangle drug network in Indonesia. and also this is the proof of how corrupt is law enforcement in Indonesia. This reality will lead to unimplemented policies of the government. So many cases where persons inthe enforcement agencies are inflicted in drug abuse either as user or dealer. The persons inflicted were not stricted in low rank level but also up to the high rank level.

So much so, the permissive behaviour in the community only worsen the problem. In urban area where the life complexity is higher than in the rural area either in composition wise or in economical demand, the permissive attitude has become common phenomena. It is so easy to rive an issue from a simple one to a more complex one. And also cultural differences between ethnics which comprise urban population make communal control loose.

In a polpulation where poverty an unemployment rate are so high as Indonesia, te economic burden has become the main factor to psh drug abuse and drug trafficking. Betwen youth in Indonesia, it is easy to earn money in drug business where they could easily get the supply and consumer among themselves.

Hugh amount of money is circulated in drug business in Indonesia itself. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent ach year in drg consumption in Indonesia which if this money is invested in education will surely give a better standard of educationas well as cheaper education in Indonesia.

If the drug problem in Indonesia ould not be solve or at last reduced, in a decade, one generation of Indonesian will loose their ability to compete in international market. it is not only government's responsibility to solve this problem but everyone shold joint forces to destroy drug network in Indonesia.

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Indonesian Press

Democratic life in Indonesia is not as develop as we expected in the recent decade.Since 1998, Indonesia has undergoing the period known as 'The reformation Era'. This era was started by the down-falling of Suharto after his 32-years reign. However, after almost a decade of reformation in every aspects of livelihood in Indonesia, not much of significant change can be observed. Of course, there is much of differences in what we had a decade ago but for common or 'grassroot citizens', life is as harsh as beforew. Number of poverty still increasinf either in stastic value and in real life fact.
Living cost is increasing fast due to de-subsidiziation policy of Indonesian government. This policies are taken to fulfill the necesity to reduce government burden in their fiscal responsibility but most of the time government release their policies in the wrong moment. It is important to reduce subsidies either to reduce government cost or to make people become accustom to a real global price which by the could increase their income itself.

But from time to time, the real problem in Indonesia is corruption rate which consider as one of the highest in the world. Many effort has been done either by government or by any element of community to find the solution to get rid of this problem but none of it could give a significant impact. this is due to that corruption has become part of our culture so, it is rather hard to broken the chain of corruption in Indonesia.
The one that make reformation moving in slow phase is the role of press. Although there are some media which has tried to take the role of public informer and educator to democracy but this role is still not the dominant part of their responsibility to the public. By law, government hand has been a little bit tied up by the elemination of force liquidation of media and licensing. But capital control still became the major cause of self-restriction in Indonesia media. because of their necesity in capital some media have sold their ideality as the public informer and educator to democracy.
There are so many cases where media had put down an issue because of their capital bargain position. the issues might relate directly or indirectly to the capitalist behind the media or someone who are close to the capitalist. When the issues are put down, public will loose their awareness of the issues which will lead to the condition where public pressure become weak and the legal action or solution of the issue will be considered as unnecessary by the policy maker due to public ignorance. In contrast with major media in developed countries, most of media in Indonesia is part of a company which their main business is not in media but in different field. This fact has cause that the flagship company will not able to risk their main business only to maintain the ideality of a fragment of their organization.
Ideally, press should become the bridge between government interest and public interest. However, when press lose their space to move freely, their role as the bridge for both side will lose its meaning. Press position as the third power in democracy should give their true benefit to the public. But in Indonesia, this role will put media in a dilematic circumstance.
Apart from their dilematic position to become trult free, Indonesian media also has to face the fact that most of news content is not substancial. Indonesian public give more interest in issue related to entertainment and the illogical field of supernaturality.
There are some reason for this fact. The first reason is that Indonesian public has have enough of political of any nationalistic drama which do not give them any direct benefits. Most of the political drama in Indonesia has been going on and on without any real solution which make public has to use all of their emation and concentration on the issue just to find out that by the end the result will be far from their expectation. By this reason, Indonesian public would prefer entertainment issues which would not require much attention to it.
The second reason is that culturally, Indonesian public is an agricultural public which is logically will give more attention to their surrounding. And also the low education has made Indonesia public prefer illogical issue which give them diversion of their real life problem. And because of this reason, Indonesia public give their biggest interest in news or program related to supernaturality.
By the end, without a free press and a logical public, reformation in Indonesia will face the fact that it is useless to keep on their movement into democracy.

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POLITICAL INDONESIA

It’s been nine years since Suharto’s falling in May 1998 and Indonesia started the new era of civil life. Preceding Suharto’s falling from his 32-years reign, Indonesia had become one of the worst countries hit by monetary crisis turbulence in 1997 and this economic phenomenon had changed Indonesia in every aspects of its life, in positive way and in negative way.

Nine years and four presidents later, Indonesia still struggles to overcome the damage done by this crisis. Politically, Indonesia now is miles away from a decade ago. Ok, we might not as democratic as what so-called the champion of Democracy, USA, because we are not a liberal state. But we are in the right track to start for a much more democratic life. A free election, freedom of speech, freedom to gather, and many other freedoms, now, have become a practical discourse in Indonesian daily life, not just a theoretical discourse as before.


Of course, life has changed a lot in the last decade. The last time Indonesia had more than three political parties was in 1973, but now more than forty political parties participate in two general elections after 1998, in 1999 and 2004. The increasing number of political parties in Indonesia shown that seed of democracy has grown rapidly but this circumstance also creates more problems where the winning party will have a little chance to win the election as the sole winner. To form a strong government the winning party should form a coalition power to have a proper parliamentary support in each and every policy it will make.

This reality force the new president to think more of his or her political support from a fragile coalition than to think of the actual necessity when it is time to choose person in his or her cabinet. The political bargain in forming the new cabinet may cause instability in the cabinet itself because we cannot put aside the possibility of double loyalty of the person chosen to fill the position in the cabinet. In one hand, the person has to pledge of loyalty to the president and the state but in the other hand he or she also has to show their loyalty to his or her party. And this double loyalty in one point will face the person in conflict of interest.

We can observe this kind of political bargain in the recent cabinet reshuffle. Most of the people chosen are politicians from party which is part of the ruling coalition. Their political support is more important than their capability to run the government.

The other thing is that more than fifty percent of people taking part in active politic in Indonesia have relation with the old regime. This relation influenced their way of thinking and acting in political stage. We might see a lot of new faces in national level but in regional and local level, the faces are the same. They might in different vehicle but they are the same person.

In real life situation, regional and local level politicians have more effect and interest to common citizens because these people are the one who interact directly with grass root community. So, whatever political decisions made in the national level, the implementation still rely on much to these people. And most of the violations are happening in this level and most of the time out of reach of our spectacles.

Again, the political reality in Indonesia is not a pleasant scene especially for them who have no claws in it. But still, we can expect that in the near future some more of positive changes will happen in Indonesia. At this time, Indonesia is still in transition period especially in political concern. Many among the people are still dreaming of the golden era in the past when everything was certain as long as people did not try to disturb the power and it’s hegemony or if the person was part of the power. In the past, stability and certainty only on the surface but below the surface, the float of unjust swept away freedom and justice.

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WHAT IS MAN?

An existentialist is someone who focuses his or her mind merely in the pursue of his or her sole purpose in the world. Many renowned philosophers define the term existence. Most prominence of these philosophers is Jean Paul Satre. Satre proposed his superb terminology of existence precedes essence. His opinion, human comes to the world without any pre-conception of his purpose in the world. His essence is solely built by his existence. Human define his/her own reality.



Existentialistic view of human reality come in opposition of the traditional believe which has come way back since the Greek era where human existence comes after his or her essence already there. In this believe, human already has a purpose even before he or she exists.

Hard core existentialists such as Satre, Hegel, etc denied the existence of God where as other existentialists such as Paul Tillich, Gabriel Marcel, and Martin Bauber who their existentialism based on Christian theology except the existence of God. However, both atheistic and theological existentialists share the same themes and tenets in their existentialism. The choice of believe or not believe of God is a personal choice.

Apart from atheistic and theological existentialism, the third group is the agnostic where in this side; they do not claim to know or not knowing the ‘great picture’. The existence of God for agnostic is something beyond human comprehension. And because of this reason the pursue of explanation of relation between human and God has little interest for them.

In his Essay In Existentialism, Satre said that if man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward he is something, and he himself will have made what he will be. In this sense, it is not God or any other thing will responsible for human action but it is man himself responsible for what he does and become. Later Satre argued that human consciousness is the one which responsible for human action from the choice he made regardless any consequences will follow. Human is condemned of his free choice and he himself will receive the consequence of his choices. Following Satre’s guideline, man could only be what he be when his consciousness leads him to a state where man decision becoming reality.
Consciousness in Satre’s term is a being for-itself where as being for-itself, consciousness may change into what it is not. However, further, Satre divide consciousness into two as positional and non-positional. Positional consciousness will create man awareness of his surrounding because it will put consciousness in relation of its surrounding. In the other hand, non-positional consciousness is only being conscious of man surrounding.

Satre stressed his existentialism in the subjectivity of man since man is the one who form and build his purpose. But he did not deny the objectivity of man where man tend to think of something based on other thought rather than purely rely on his own thought. And this reality creates clash of freedom where one’s being become object of another subjectivity. In this case, although a man is responsible of his own choice, the choice he made is under influence of other’s gaze. And man’s existences become ‘in-itself’ or object rather than the subject of authority.

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SURPLUS OF MEANING AND EFFECTIVE HISTORY

In philosophy, there are two branches which try to explain the relation between the past and the present/future. They are Paul Ricoeur’s theory of ‘surplus of meaning’ and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s theory of ‘effective history’.


Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) is a French philosopher and anthropologist. He proposed that the ‘semantics’ career of a text would last longer than its ‘semiotic’ status. A text becomes the trace of the past in the present and future from which people in the present and future can try to experience the past. An event in the past will become a discourse in the future which can represent the past. The ‘surplus of meaning’ of a text arise when the text distanciated from its author and its original context.

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) is a German philosopher. He proposed the theory that between the past and the present, a dialogue is exist. The present belongs to the past just like a listener belongs to a speaker. The meaning of the past is not complete without the present. The past continues in the present with an incomplete meaning. The people in the present could see into the past through the text until the limit of the horizon.

After trying to understand Paul Ricouer’s theory of ‘surplus of meaning’ and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s theory of ‘effective history’, I find that what we know as present is the result of the past. The present prepares the ground for the present to exist. However, the past itself will not be complete without the works in the present as Gadamer said in his theory. The continuity of the past depends on the interpretation of the people in the present. The way they interpret works of the past is effected by how they receive their understanding of the past itself.
The works in the present are not merely the repetition of the works of the past but they are the outcome of the present’s creation in interpreting the past. Through time, the meaning of works of the past keep on folded and folded. The ability of the present to re-create the meaning of the past is also folded by the modification of tradition passed from generation to generation.
When we observed the work of the past, we try to re-create the meaning of the object observed and try to re-define the meaning of it. The result of the re-creation and re-definition in the present will never be the same as the result created by the people before us because the atmosphere of the re-creation and re-definition is different.

As the past does not bring its complete meaning itself to the present, it will never appeared completely to the future of it because the effort to re-create and redefine the work will never recovered the true meaning of the work. The result of these efforts will always be the modification of meaning which will prepare the ground for the future works.
In the other hand, the present itself will not be complete without the work of the past because without the past, the present will not have its root in our consciousness. This root is important to state the position of the work of the present in our consciousness. The present is the reflection of the past but it is not like our reflection in the mirror; the reflection of the past in the present is distorted by the modification of tradition.

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T.S ELLIOT AND TRADITION

No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. This literary observation is proposed by T.S. Elliot in his essay ‘Tradition and The Individual Talent’ published in 1917. Tradition, according to Elliot, is a price of great labour. People in the present do not have tradition just like that but they have to gain it with the effort to understand the tradition itself. Tradition is something that passes down toward generation boldly because each generation will try to learn and understand the tradition from they has in their historical sense.

Elliot described in his observation that in any work of art, there must be the trace of the work in the past. And also to analyze a work of art, we should put it side by side with the work from the past. We do this thing not to judge which one of them better than the other but to compare and to contrast one to another aesthetically because from the very beginning there is already a structural order of art in every culture. The aesthetic value of a poem which we try to compare and contrast is purely about the poem itself, not then life of the poet.
The work of art in the present is only the continuation of the existing order of art. If we try to measure the work of art without the previous work, we could not find the real value of that work because the value of a work of art is in its position in the simultaneous order of art in tradition. The work of a poet in the present contains the poet’s appreciation toward the works of the earlier poet. This appreciation is the result of the poet’s historical sense. The historical sense which the poet has is not only deal with the pastness of the past but also the presence of the past in the present. The historical sense of the artist is the result of his knowledge upon the work of artists in the past and his experience in his youth period.
The poet could takes he past as his standpoint in creating his work. The poet should be aware that the order never changes; the existence of the art itself never changes but the material to build the art always changing. An artist should always aware that he should become the part of this order; he will never stand alone as an individual in art. That is why an artist should have a good knowledge about this order, about artists who came before him. He should sacrifice himself, his personality to acquire his position in this order.
The good criticism of art should always put the work of art as the main point of analysis in its criticism, not the artist’s life. A good work of art will always apart from the artist’s life. The artist should be able to create his work as his manifestation of his observation. The better the artist, the more he depersonalizes his work. The good criticism will show the work in the present’s position in the existing order of art. The good criticism will try to find the race of the work in the past in the work of the present.
The mind of the artist just becomes the media to produce the creativity of art without making any obvious influence in it. In his mind, an artist will treat the emotion he discovers from external world to transfer in his work. The work of art is the artist’s creativity to materialize his observation toward the world. The emotion that he put in the work is not his personal emotion but it is the emotion that he extracts from the outer world. If an artist able to gather more emotion in his work, the work will be better. He artist should be able to arrange and organize the emotion in his work to make it more artistic.

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PHENOMENOLOGY OF READING

Phenomenology is the study of phenomena in which ‘phenomena’ refers to things as they appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings of things have in our experience. Phenomenology studies conscious experience as experienced from the object of the experience. Phenomenology is a branch of philosophy which studies consciousness as a result of human intuitive experience toward any object of their life. Phenomenology puts the intuitive experience of phenomena as its basic of analysis and tries to find the essential features of experience and the essence of what has been experienced by human beings.


Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was considered as the founding father of phenomenology. He was the pupil of Franz Brentano (1837-1917) and Carl Stumpf (1848-1936). The main concept which had given by Husserl was ‘intentionality’ which explains the relationship between mental acts and external world. This term describes that the main characteristic of consciousness is that it is intentional. The way it is directed through its content or meaning toward a certain object in the world. He borrowed the term ‘intentionality’ from his mentor, the philosopher and psychologist, Franz Brentano.

Every mental phenomena or psychological act is referring to a certain intentional object. The intentional objects are the manifestation of psychological consciousness. This difference as being an intentional object and an intentional object will distinguish the physical and psychological activities. This argument is very important since the key point of experience is that it refers toward an object. The consciousness gained from experience is the consciousness of an intentional object.

In this essay, I will try to elaborate some theories dealing with the phenomenology of reading in which it tries to explain about how the readers gain meaning of a literary text. This theory is part of the reader-centered approach where the reader is the one who fold the meaning of a text. Writing as ‘grammata’–the writing form, printed form of literary or graphic mark of pages –is not the accomplished fact of meaning. Writing as ‘grammata’ is the potential of meaning and it is characterized as the phenomenological expectation of meaning and required to become the object of he readers’ consciousness, literary text will only b the phenomenological expectation of meaning of literary text. The act of reading is a mental process since the figure in the text will become imaginative figures in the readers’ mind.

According to Georges Poulet (1902-1991) a literary text is the combination between author’s consciousness and reader’s consciousness. Literary text is not only an object of a single subject but it belongs to two subjects, the author and the reader. This means that meaning of a literary text does not exist if it is only in a book without anybody reading it. The meaning of a literary text is modified by the reader’s consciousness from the first meaning which is folded by the author’s consciousness. He supported his argument further; that all books are as dead objects until someone reads them. The book needs the reader’s consciousness to exist. The existence of a book is not only in itself but also in the reader’s mind.

The reality of a literary text is gained from the reader’s consciousness. The way in which the reader tries to create the reality is a mental activity. When a reader reads a literary text, the figure of words, sentences, ideas, images of the text will become mental images in the reader’s mind. The way the reader interpret a literary text is influenced by the reader’s consciousness which they gain from their experiences. The interpretation of a reader will be different from others’ interpretation in interpreting the same text because everyone has different experiences which also make them to have different forms of consciousness. This difference also applied in the case that the reader would also give different interpretation from the author since they do not share the same experience.

Wolfgang Iser (1926- ) proposed that an important idea of indeterminacy where inside a literary text there are gaps and blanks which stimulate readers to construct meaning. Furthermore, he said that literary text is two-sided which are phenomenological and neumenonical. The first side of the literary text is that it is appear in the reader’s consciousness after the reader has the experience of reading the literary text and in the other side; literary text brings meaning in itself. In phenomenology, literary text brings in itself the guidelines, clues, specification, and cues to actualize as maximum meaning by reading the text.

Iser described three main points of analysis in his essay ‘The reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach’: the process of anticipation and retrospection, the consequent unfolding of a text as a living event, and the resultant impression of lifelikeness and these points of analysis will explain the relation between reader and text.

When a reader reads a literary text, the reader will reconstruct the world of the literary text by relating every sentence in the text to make a reasonable meaning in the reader’s consciousness. However, a reader cannot materialize the world in the literary text visually, he will visualize it in his imagination. Roman Ingarden (1893-1970) was the one who gives theory that reading is the concretization of meaning. Literary text is not autonomous in the meaning and it is not concrete, it depends on the readers. He argued that the world presented in a literary text is constructed out of intentionale Satzkorrelate (intentional sentence correlatives). Ingarden said that sentences linked up in different ways to form more complex units of meaning that reveal a very varied structure giving rise to such entities as a short story, a novel, a dialogue, a drama, etc.

While reading a literary text, a reader tries to relate a sentence to the next sentence. Through this process, a reader is able to fill he gaps which occur between sentences. The sentences in a literary text cannot fully concretize the visualization of the world in the literary text. In every literary text there is always a gap which should be fulfilled by the reader. If the author gives he full picture in his work, his work can be assume as a bad work of art since this kind of text will lead to boredom. The reader should be given spaces in literary text where they can create the world in their imagination. Their imagination is also part of their consciousness. Iser called the world presented after such act as the virtual dimension of the text. What the reader imagining in the act of reading is only the unwritten part of the text with the guidance of the written part. That is why if in a text there are no elements of indeterminacy, there are no gaps and blanks to fill, the reader will not be able to use their imagination to visualize the world in the literary text.

After reading a literary text, the meaning of the text will be absorbed by the reader’s memory and when the reader re-reads the text, his interpretation of the same text might be different. This thing happens because the reader already has the experience of the world in the literary text and it will effect their expectation in the second reading. The reader will be able to anticipate the relationship between ideas of the text and also there is a probability that the reader’s interpretation will be different because a text has potential of multiplicity interpretation. Meaning of a text is inexhaustible. The multi interpretation of a literary text will never exhaust its meaning. In the act of reading, the reader will connect the time sequence in the text. It will help them to construct the virtual dimension of the text. The process to build the virtual dimension of a text is a living process since the reader should continually try to relate one phrase to another in the text.

The text brings the nature of disturbance toward the reader’s expectation and this will lead to frustration of expectation of the reader. The disturbance can come in the flow of time sequence in the text. The reader will create different visualization of the literary world in every act of reading. The reader’s imagination will concretize this visualization by processing the information given in the literary text. The process of concretization of the meaning of literary text will lead the reader to form ‘gestalt’ of the text but ‘gestalt is not the true meaning of the literary text. ‘Gestalt’ is the result of the colliding of reader’s mind and the literary text. ‘Gestalt’ is merely a configurative meaning of the text.

The reader’s expectation upon the meaning of the literary text will lead them into illusion because he world presented in the literary text is not the true reality. This illusion appears because in interpreting a literary text, reader tend to restrict the polysemantics tendencies to have a valid form of the visualization because according to Wolfgang Iser, the polysemantics nature and the illusion making of the text are opposed factors. If the semantics factor of a text already fixed, then the illusion will be complete.

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LUBIS

Few years ago I read Alex Haley’s ‘Root’. A story of a search of origin of an African American with its main character Kunta Kinte, a African who was abducted by slave trader and brought to America. Reading that book I wonder where is my origin.

Ethnically, I am a Mandailingnese with surname or ‘marga’ Lubis. Mandailing is a tribe in North Sumatra, Indonesia and its region situated in border area of now North Sumatra Province and West Sumatra Province. If people see my name they will not see my ‘marga’ because it had been deleted from my name. My father used to say that he did not want an ethnic name and he did not want to known as an ethnocentric perswon, he preferred to be known as an Indonesian. I respect his nationalism but still I need to know where I come from.

From my research I come across with my ancestor’s legend. It’s more like a legend rather than an actual story because his story is covered with a lot of magical story in it. However, even in a legend must have a bit of truth in it.

A long, long time ago, there was a man named Namora Pande Bosi. He was originally from Bugis in South Celebes and he went from his village to seek for knowledge and experiences. One day he arrived in Singgalang area in South Tapanuli and he recided in that place. He was know as a master blacksmith. Then he married daughter of a local king, that princess was name Nan Tuan Layan Bolan (in ‘tarombo’ or family tree of Lubis family, she was known as Boru Dalimunte Naparila or Princess Dalimunte the Shy) and they had two sons, Sutan Borayun and Sutan Bugis.

One day Namora Pande Bosi went to hunt for bird in the jungle around his village. During his hunting trip, he met a fairy princess in the jungle and her beauty staggered him. After a long day shooting bird, he thought that he already got some bird but when he came down the tree where he waited for his preys, he could not find the birds that he shot. Then he hid again on the tree and shot another bird but this time he let the bird and watch it surrounding. He saw that a girl was picking up his prey. He jumped off the tree and caught the girl on her hand. Actually, the girl was daughter of the head of ‘orang Lubu’ where in some story was said to be fairy. Later he married the girl and live with those people.

From this marriage, he had twin sons, Si Baitang and Si Langkitang. Namora Pande Bosi , later went back to his first wife in Hatongga and lived there. Not after he returned to his village, his twin sons came and live with him. Like their father, Si Baitang and Si Langkitang also a good blacksmith and their ability had made their step mother felt jealous because she was afraid that the twins will made her sons lost their dignity in front of their father and people of their village. This jealousy had create a feud in their family and Namora Pande Bosi’s wife ask him to send his twin sons away from their village.

Namora Pande Bosi asked his twin son to go to find a river junction where the water run to different direction or in Mandailing it was called muara patontang. He gave them a blowpipe and a bullhorn; inside of these items he already filled some amount of gold for them to live.
Later, they found a place as their father described and started their own village. The descendants of the twin later known with the name of Lubis.

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EDUCATION REFORMATION IN INDONESIA

If you heard someone mention Indonesia, what is the first thing pop up in your head? Maybe for the last few years it will be terrorism and natural disasters. That’s also the same idea of Indonesia to the people I know here in India where I domicile for the last couple of years. Those people could not be blamed for that because most of news in international media only covers those issues.

But there is much more that happen in Indonesia apart from those things. Well, what can we say, bad news sales! Just like sex sales! That is the main jargon and principle in commercial broadcasting. However, there are also some positive movements in Indonesia which might skip international’s eyes. Slowly but sure the economic situation getting more and more conducive for a progressive recovery from the impact of financial crisis in the late 90s. Now, Indonesia has been considered as the third largest democratic nation in the world after USA and India.
But what is the main problem that Indonesians should solve before they can assume a prestigious place in International stage? It’s not corruption, collusion or nepotism which already destruct the whole social structure of the nation.

The first thing that Indonesians should do before try to solve all those problems is to reconstruct the education system in the country. It’s a common knowledge that educational system in Indonesia is as centralized as its governance during the New Order regime. This kind of education had limited student’s ability to develop their skill in suitable manner to their own interest. Students were not judged base on their practical ability but more on their theoretical knowledge. There is nothing wrong in it but what good of a theory without any practical ability. This practice had caused most of Indonesian students had to face a different reality from what they had learnt in school with what they have to do in the real world.

A centralized education could also cause student’s inability to digest local issues logically. In most cases, educational curricula in Indonesia were constructed by central government where sometime the focus of the curricula had put aside local needs. Intolerances to local needs in educational curricula had created a situation where student could not react to local demand immediately after graduation. There should be a system adjustment where education in an agricultural region is focused on agricultural topic rather than industrial matter and vice versa. But in practice there are many mismatches where an agricultural community was given an industrial based education. As a result this kind of mismatch would push the rate urbanization because school graduates felt that they could not practice their education in rural area where they were originated.

In the recent years, Indonesian government has started to reform its educational system. However, the emphasis of this reformation mainly in cultural education where student in the region are given lesson in ethnic language. The practical necessities of education are still put aside. There should be a national enlightenment to change the whole educational system and it will take a lot of time and financial back up but Indonesia should be willing to go through this change and pay all the price needed.

Corruption, collusion and nepotism problem will be solved when the whole Indonesian nation has been enlightened. The only way to enlighten a nation is through education.

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INDONESIA AND CENSORSHIP

From the beginning of its reign in 1966 to its fall in 1998, New Order regime had banned over 2,000 books. Under its censorship law, all works, which, in the view of the Attorney General, “could disturb public order”, are subject to censorship. Under this law, hundreds of novels, historical studies, religious tracts, and books on political and social controversies have been banned, including scholarly works on subjects from early twentieth century social movement, to liberation theology, to the rise of Asia as a center of global capitalism.


The broad censorship practiced by the Soeharto government has had a direct impact on scholarship and the academic community. The Indonesian National Library keeps copies of banned books, but such books are inaccessible without the prior approval of security authorities. Researchers and students are, in principle, able to apply for permission to use such books for academic study, but in practice they must obtain prior permission from the State Intelligence Coordinating Body (Badan Koordinasi Intelijen Negara or Bakin), the Coordinating Agency for the Maintenance of National Stability (Badan Koordinasi Bantuan Pemantapan Stabilitas Nasional or Bakorstanas), and the attorney general’s office. These authorities have untrammeled discretion to delay or refuse to issue permits for use of the books. Because of the permit requirements, the National Library is often forced to deny permission to students and others. Although many academics and intellectuals keep copies of banned books and there is an active market in photocopies of such works, they are rarely used in classrooms except by the most critical and fearless lecturers. References to banned works are absent from the works of all but a handful of scholars because publications of studies based on such sources could damage their career.

Book censorship in Indonesia did not begin with the New Order. In 1963, President Sukarno issued a decree, PP no.4/1963, requiring publishers to submit copies of all books to their local prosecutor’s office within forty-eight hours of publication. The decree vested the attorney general with broad power to criminalize possession and seize all copies of works which “could disturb public order [and] have a negative influence on efforts to achieve the goals of the [Indonesian] Revolution.” Within a month of the coup attempt, writers who belonged to the Indonesian Communist Party or its affiliates used this decree to ban all works. In 1969, the Soeharto government enacted the decree into law and subsequently built up a bureaucratic infrastructure to implement the law.

During the 1970s and 1980s, most censorship decisions were initiated by one of the New Order security and intelligence bodies. In October 1989, a “clearinghouse” was formed to study the contents of books and make censorship recommendations directly to the attorney general. The clearinghouse is composed of nineteen members, including representatives of the attorney general’s office and all of the leading intelligence agencies in the country, including the State Intelligence Coordinating Body (Badan Koordinasi Intelijen Negara or Bakin), the Coordinating Agency for the Maintenance of National Stability (Badan Koordinasi Bantuan Pemantapan Stabilitas Nasional or Bakorstanas), and the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency (Badan Inteligen ABRI or BIA), together with representatives from the ministries of information, education, and religion. Since early 1990s, the attorney general on the advice of the clearinghouse makes most censorship decisions.

A wide range of works is subject to censorship. In 1996, the Jakarta daily Kompas listed criteria used by the government in making censorship decisions. Works subject to censorship include those which: conflict with the state ideology or national constitution; contain Marxist-Leninist teachings or interpretations; destroy public faith in government leaders; are pornographic; are atheistic or insult a religion recognized in Indonesia; undermine national development; lead to ethnic, religious racial or inter-group conflict; or undermine national unity. Because there is no provision in the law for compensation for those whose books are seized, publishers and bookstores that carry controversial works take a substantial financial risk. Because banning also criminalizes possession, it can also be used to keep critics on the defensive. A prominent example occurred in 1989 when three students were arrested, convicted of subversion, and sentenced to jail terms ranging from seven to eight and a half years for, among other things, possessing and attempting to distribute copies of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s banned novels on the rise of Indonesian nationalism.

A study of the impact of the government’s censorship on scholarly inquiry has not yet been undertaken, but previous works have noted the impact of the policy on the availability of social science texts, poetry and fiction, commentary on and analysis of contemporary political controversies, and alleged government abuses. Because Marxist-Leninist teachings are banned, professors in the social sciences can be subject to harassment. In 1988, for example, Dr. Arief Budiman, a sociologist at Satya Wacana Christian University was accused by a university alumni group of teaching Marxism to students, and the complaint was forwarded to the regional armed forces headquarters (Korem). Dr. Budiman argued that someone couldn’t know if someone else a Marxist if that person did not know what Marxism is and he taught Marxism in his class because it was part of the theoretical and ideological study of development.

Virtually all works by authors alleged to have been communists or communist sympathizers continue to be banned, whether those works were written before or after the 1965 coup attempt. Prominent among such authors is Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia’s best-known novelist. More than twenty works of fiction, a memoir, and a number of significant historical studies by Pramoedya, including works on the Chinese in Indonesia and on important historical figures Tirto Adhi Suriyo and Kartini, are banned. Even his edited edition of one of Indonesia’s first novels, Hikayat Siti Marijah, by Haji Mukti, is banned on the ground that the novel emphasizes “social contradictions.” Students who wish to write their theses on Pramoedya’s works have been denied permission to do so by their advisors and university administrators. Pramoedya is accused by his critics in Indonesian literary circles of having denigrated and subjected other writers to abuse when he headed the literary section of the leftist cultural organization Lekra (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat or Institute of Peoples’ Culture) in the 1950s and early 1960s. Pramoedya was jailed for fourteen years after the 1965 coup attempt as a suspected communist based on his work for Lekra. None of these claims justify the continued censorship of his writings. Pramoedya is a prolific and respected author, and his works represent a gold mine for literary and cultural critics that were all but lost to the scholarly community as a result of the arbitrary censorship practices of the New Order government.

Publications in Chinese have been banned altogether. As described above, ethnic Chinese were made the subject of de jure as well as de facto government discrimination following the 1965 coup attempt, amid allegations that the coup plotters received support directly from Beijing through Chinese-Indonesian intermediaries. All Chinese-language schools were closed permanently in 1966. Because the closures were carried out almost overnight, many students lost the ability to continue their education. In late 1978 and 1979, a series of government decrees formally banned all imports of goods with Chinese characters, and forbade use of Chinese characters in all publications and circulation of any Chinese-language printed matter, absent the express consent of the authorities, with the exception of a government-run newspaper. Again, although there was an exception in the regulations for academic study of Chinese-language materials, the ban has had devastating consequences for the development of scholarship on China in Indonesia, and has all but closed off discussion of the status of the Chinese-Indonesian community and its role in early Indonesian history.

Historical studies have been a leading target of the censors. In almost every case, the rationale for censorship contained in the attorney general’s censorship decision is that the offending work “inverts the facts” which could “lead the public astray” and ultimately “disturb public order.” Censorship thus presupposes an official history. In at least one case, this was made explicit. In 1990, the attorney general banned Permesta: Kandasnya Sebuah Cita-Cita (Permesta, the End of Hope), by KML Tobing, an account of the Permesta Rebellion in Sulawesi during the late 1950s. According to the censorship decree, the book was banned because it “contains analyses that conflict with the work Cuplikan Sejarah Perjuangan TNI Angkatan Darat (Aspects of the History of Struggle of the National Army),” a work published by the Armed Forces.
As these censorship cases in Indonesia demonstrate, censorship played an important role in defining New Order ideological orthodoxy and frequently was used as a weapon against political opponents. Academics, students, and scholarship itself suffered as a result.

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AL JAZEERA AND FREEDOM

In a modern civil society, media has become one of the main tools of building the civil society itself. Every member of society, nowadays, has the ability to access every corner of information which by the end will create an enlightened society. With the development in media the opportunity for the subordinate group of society to emerge to the mainstream public sphere becoming more and more wide.

However, the opportunity for the subordinate group of society in some sense is still restricted either by availability of capital or by, in some case, states regulation. In Habermas bourgeois society the subordinate group’s opportunity might be eliminated by the availability of capital since media will be owned and control by the bourgeois group and in a weak society where representation of public in government is limited, state regulation will become the obstacle. But still when media become available to all member of society, it might drive perspective of its consumers/member of society toward a certain direction and with this ability, media hold an immense power to shape the public opinion toward an issue. The process of enlightening society should be preceded by freedom granted by the state to its people. This process comes parallel to Kant’s theory where he said, “If only freedom is granted, enlightenment is almost sure to follow”.

However, in most of authoritarian states, state control over news broadcast may jeopardize the forming of any civil society. Media become part of state control over its people. State will decide what and when any news can be broadcasted in media and as the result, media will lose its ability to control and criticize the state where as Habermas described in his essay ‘ The Public Sphere’, “the term ‘public opinion’ refers to the functions of criticism and control of organized state authority….”. When this ability lost, it means that state can shape public opinion in any way it wants because the state will only give one version of the news where as in a free atmosphere; people can choose their view from various sources of news.

In this background, Al Jazeera has become one of the major players in the news world especially in the Middle East. Before Al Jazeera comes, in most of Middle East countries, state control over news media was very dominant. As the result of this control most of Arab population become segmented apart from similarities in language and religion. The idea of Pan-Arab nation that had existed since the turn of 20th century seems lose its meaning because of this segmentation. The common identity and issues do not become common interest among Arab nation due to state restriction over freedom of expression. Maintaining its domination is the main aim of the state rather than enlightening its people.

However, after his bloodless coup in 1995, Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Ahmad Bin Khalifa tried to change this culture by establishing a free of state influence news station in 1996 and Al Jazeera was born. The Emirate of Qatar will fund the station but they will not make any restriction concerning news content of the station. The implication of this establishment was not only felt in Qatar but also among other Arab nations and worldwide. Al Jazeera has succeeded to keep all Arab nations in a same direction in issues concerning the region. Most of Arab people may feel that they can have valid news without any state influence in the truth of the news. In this case, it was not the member of society who made the first move to establish this tool of enlightenment but the state who took the initiative.

This can be understood because even in Qatar as a monarch country state control must be so strong that it must be the government takes the initiative or no one will. However, this circumstance should be judge carefully where since its government fund institution, obviously, more or less state influence will stir the direction of the news, at least news concerning the state itself. Some critics argue that Al Jazeera coverage about Qatar is limited to insignificant news. Outside Qatar Al Jazeera might play an important role in the changing of the society but inside Qatar it seems that the role is not significant enough. This phenomenon creates a pseudo-enlighten society in Qatar where the freedom only granted when it deals with issues outside Qatar, however, in Qatar itself the freedom simply not exists.

Since its establishment, Al Jazeera, has given an alternative source of news and information to the Arab world, which before much more relied on western news stations to get news from outside their area. Not only as an alternative source but Al Jazeera also become the media to amplify the Arabs’ aspirations toward issues in their region, especially when the issues that make them face the western civilization. In the case of Intifada in Palestine or Iraq war, Al Jazeera uses terms which might strange to western people. Al Jazeera uses term such as ‘martyr’ rather than ‘terrorist’, ‘assassination’ rather than ‘targeted killing’ which more familiar to western people since those terms used by western news media such as CNN, BBC, AP, etc. Although the terms seem strange for western’s ear but in Arab world terms which are used by Al Jazeera are more common. The uses of these terms, as the result, create the sense of commonness among the Arabs. The stress of common interests not only the main reason for Al Jazeera to grab its viewer. The uses of a variant of Arabic language that can be understood regardless dialect also enable Al Jazeera to unite its viewers. It makes not only Arabs in Qatar will understand Al Jazeera but Arabs in Yemen also able to comprehend their news.

Al Jazeera effort to give an alternative side of news during Iraq war can be seen in Jehane Noujim’s documentary film ‘Control Room’. This documentary tries to show Al JAzeera coverage of Iraq war with side story of other journalists in Iraq. The documentary shows how Al Jazeera was critized by both the American, in this film shown by Donald Rumsfeld complaining that Al Jazeera become propaganda tool for the insurgents and in the other side the Iraqis also accuse Al Jazeera as the mouthpiece of American propaganda. It also focusing on the bombing of Al Jazeera headquarter in Baghdad by the United State army. The film shows footage of the attack, including the firing of a missile by an American A-10 'tankbuster'; the film reports that the alleged target was a group of insurgents who opened fire on coalition forces from within the Al Jazeera building, thus justifying retaliatory fire. As a documentary film, Control Room, tries as much as possible to take a neutral side of any factions in the war although it is rather hard for the producer to maintain the neutrality of the film.

Al Jazeera’s political talk show programs enable its viewers to bring about their personal view to public where before they do not have any mean to do such a thing due to lack of opportunity. The Arabs can express their dissatisfaction to their government in this kind of program. They also could bring out their view directly to their government without any necessity of formal constitutional medium. However, this situation could also create a ‘street court’ where public could judge their government’s actions or policies. Their thoughts where previously only exist in their private chamber now have the way to emerge to more than private discussion. Not only the emerging of private opinion to public space but also now their viewers are able to see any uprising or movement in other place where as before such news will surely banned by their government. As the result, Arab viewers are becoming more and more critical toward their own government.

The unbiased point of view of Al Jazeera which become the main concern of its critics especially from the west can not be separated from Al Jazeera’s effort to create justice for the Arabs when they face the west. The United State official in few occasion accuse Al Jazeera as pro-Iraqi bias in their reportages. The notion of justice was lost when the Arabs deal with their regional issues such as conflict between Palestine and Israel or war against terrorism. Most of the Arabs feel that they are treated badly by the west and also they feel that not only their government restricts their knowledge of the world development but also they feel that western media always treat them badly with their news manipulation. The way Al Jazeera puts them in their news is able to bring back their self-esteem.

Although most of Arab populations embrace Al Jazeera with great joy, different greetings come from their government since government power of censorship has been eliminated by Al Jazeera’s satellite broadcast. Arab governments try to apply different kind of censorship when they deal with Al Jazeera; either by shutting down Al Jazeera office in their territory or making a formal complaint to Qatar government. Algerian government even went further by cutting down their cities power supply during Al Jazeera’ program dealing with massacre committed by their military. Even the champion of freedom of speech like United State of America accuses Al Jazeera as not fair in their coverage. In some occasions, American army in Iraq bombards and although the Americans say that it was a mistake but some critics consider it as a deliberate bombing.

During Iraq war, Al Jazeera shows a different side of the war to its viewers. Different from most of western media which mostly show the Coalition Armies as the victor of the war, Al Jazeera shows the opposition images. And these images create empathy and gain more interest from its Arab viewers but in the other hand a contrast reaction come from the western viewers and from the United State government, in their consideration, this reaction equals to black campaign against their policies in Iraq. Cabinet members and Pentagon officials critize and condemn Al Jazeera for frequently broadcasting civilian casualties as well as footage of American POWs where with this activities, Al Jazeera has revealed and shown to its viewers and the world everything about Iraq that the Bush administration did not want them to see. Even member of United State field army in Iraq may react in strong manner. This reaction shown dramatically in “Control Room” in a scene where a Marine officer was interviewed and mentioned his contrast feeling when he watched footage of Iraq war in CNN and Al Jazeera.

In comparison to other independent news media, the nature of Al Jazeera's independency, in the surface its government control does not so obvious but from its reportage performance toward Qatar, the control can be seen.

In this case, discourse of both stations is about government and private enterprise. In one hand, government control becoming lesser in private enterprise but the capital requirement will also create a restriction to what issue might interest its viewers rather than what issue might become important to its viewers. The choice of topic become restricted in profitable or not. This restriction will create a situation where an issue which concerning a subordinate group of society will not come into ‘spot light’ if the station consider its as unprofitable. On the other hand, when a station is funded by a government, although the control might be not so obvious, the opportunity for the subordinate issue is getting smaller because the consideration is not only concerning business decision but also whether it will offend the government or not.

In the era of capitalism as in the present, this dilema could not be avoided. The capital demand always haunt any news station to operate. The phenomena of industrialisation has come not only in consumer good products industry but it also come face to face to ideal discourse where the opportunity to present an idea to public space become restricted due to the availability of capital power.

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Summary and Analysis of Beyond the Nationalist Panopticon: the Experience of Cyberpublics in India By Ravi Sundaram

In this essay, Ravi Sundaram talked about the concept of modernism in post-independence India and its relation with cyber activity. The concept of modernism had been changed over the last century where the concept of border and sovereignty over it had shifted by the advance of technology development.


He assumed that West’s possession over modernity had come to an end and the power would shift to Asia in which it would most probably be China since the old state-system of modernity which is based on borders and sovereignty has collapsed. Through this shifting, the third world countries, India in particular, had seen the opportunity to gain its role in the process of modernity through the media of cyberspace. This new mode of space had enabled the Third World countries to travel without restriction of borders and sovereignty to the new area. The collapse of Western modernity and its products had given India the opportunity to move toward this new electronic space.

Sundaram proposed that to adopt a certain diffusionary model of the spread of cyberpractices in India, there are two things we have to consider which are a) The simple fact of India being a peripheral society in the capitalist world-economy: with one of the lowest saturation rate of telephones in the world; only a small minority of the population has electricity, b) India has no tradition of cyberpunk, in fact there is no indigenous science fiction tradition. Most existing cultural communities have remained ambivalent about technology. Historically, representations of science and technology have been state-sponsored and social-realist in form. Despite of these facts, the number of people linked to electronic network is getting larger every time and the term ‘cyberspace’ has become a significant term in public discourse in India. He further divided the user of this new public space in three categories which are those of the nationalist state, the transnational elite, and that of the space between the market and the state occupied by various bulletin boards, and social movement networks.

Ever since the anti-colonial movement in India, some visions of nation and nationalism had been contested. After independent in 1947, Jawahral Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, lead a new turn of acceleration process of modernization through the building of rational institution of state order. However, Nehru policies denied the previous concept of development in India which was laid by Gandhi where he took village as the starting point of his struggle against British imperialism or other development in India where he also stressed the necessity of cultural heritage. The post-independence nationalists incorporate the growing discourse of development into state policies and later this incorporation would play an important role in the development of cyberpublic.

The focus of these post-independence national was to represent economic development as part of the national identity. However, economic development became accessible only to a certain class of privileged and enlightened modernizers. This development also acted as the mean to achieve order in society by eliminating poverty and cultural ambivalence. And the result came similar to Bentham’s Panopticon where Panopticon was conceived as a prison where ‘rational’ methods of confinement were deployed to ensure the visibility of all the prisoners to the warden’s gaze, while he himself remained out of their sight. In this Panopticon the oppressed would not be able to visualized heir power and order would be achieved. In relation to India, Nehruvian’s modernism focused its goal in temporal acceleration, development and order.

In Nehruvian’s modernity, ‘Dam’ along with steel and electricity production was the symbol of development as opposed to Gandhian movement where village would become the symbol. The state policies over economic development became highly centralized and repressive state policies which resulted in loss of power for Congress party in the 1970’s but they regained power in the 80’s when Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister with similar policies but in different territory. The first was to ensure temporal acceleration while at the same time perform the task of emancipating the state-managers from the everyday, the interaction with place. In other words the annihilation of space through time would obtain without the messy political problems that spatiality and its associated politics produced. Further in these policies ‘development’ remained an issue but was reconstituted as a problem of communication. Government tried to promote and simulate this project via public lectures, television programs and press campaigns. The notion of nation had transformed from the problems of borders and sovereignty to the problems of speed accessibility and information.

The government introduced National Informatics Center (NIC) in the mid 1970’s to promote computerization in administration but it became an important project in the 80’s when it launched satellite linked network: NICNET. It links up all district, state and national centers, runs large databases on social science, medicine and law; it works all state research institutes in the country. It provided its users with web and internet access. The very goal of NICNET was to form a new public space not merely provided a new media of administration and education. The NICNET experiment tried to enhance the old grid of Nehruvianism which based on representational realism. Obviously, NICNET’s working scheme has similarity with the earlier panoptic where each district connected to state capital and state capital connected to the national capital.

In recent development of cyber public the idea of the Journey had changed where during anti-colonial agitation, Gandhi invented the idea of nationalist journey. This journey signified human interaction where only through walking that human came into interaction with different cultures and people. Gandhi transformed the journey as a vehicle to politically re-map the nation. This journey was also as dialogue, with conventions of public interaction, anti-colonial agitation and spectacle. Moreover, the journey also acted as a public journey with the attendant modes of representation constructing an imaginary community of nationalism. However, borders and sovereignty limited this kind of physical journey. In the era of cyber space the physical boundary had been eliminated since the notion of border which played an important role in the idea of state-nationalism becoming blurred. The virtual journey would create the state of de-stability in the hardening of national identity as what James Clifford described. The old landscape of nationalism underwent a double process. The first process was a certain de-territorialisation of the old nationalist space which was restrained by border and the other process was he process of trans-national territorialisation where in this process, a section of non-resident Indian tried to rediscover India in virtual space. The Indian state actively promoted this process. The state actively pushed a new category of identity in cultural/political discourse - the figure of the diasporic citizens, also known as the NRI or non-resident Indian. This new category of identity in result pushed the border outside the nation sovereignty. For NRI, the virtual journey to India could satisfy the need to return to their native land.

Although numbers of users in India kept on growing, but statistically the group of users dominated by male users from the middle and upper strata both in economic and social terms of community and caste and also a large numbers of network users still worked from offices, research institutions and from public terminals. In term of economic development, Indian company could take these borderless advantages in their expansions. In the Indian case, the commercial message was clear: to be a genuine ‘national” capitalist, you should transcend the border and enter virtual space because it was here that the peripheral status in real-time will be transcended. Since the 1980’s, the oppressed caste had emerged the composition of India’s political sphere and the effect of this emerging is the challenge to the old panoptic of the state which was predicated on a homogeneous legislative modernity, led by an elite of modernizers. In the event, the social landscape had undergone an effective Haussmanisation which was marked by upper-caste retreated from the old grid of politics and abstract nationalist identity. Later Sundaram argued that the change in large metropolitan to accommodate the development had caused the old journey was being transcended for the old elite.

The new landscape acquired new technologies of representation in its center which could disturb the old tropes of anti-colonialism and Nehruvian nationalism. Despite all the effort to limit direct foreign influence in India, the new technology of representation had crossed all of physical boundary and sovereignty where now foreign satellites beamed image into India territory. In the result the new cultural space was crowded with the fluidity of national, regional, and global culture which was mediated by the recognition of a new agent, the consumer subject. In this context, the web provided the imaginary possibility of playing with identity that recognized displacement beyond any physical boundaries. There is a certain experience of web travel when logging on from the Third World that almost evokes Benjamin’s analysis of Baudelaire’s flaneur, or the stroller in Second Empire Paris. The web-traveler in the elite cyberpublic seeks out the virtual space of the web to experience the “shock of the new”, which Benjamin calls the distinctive feature of modernity. The flaneur would hide behind the crowd from its imaginary space. Web strolling from India is an entry into a space whose virtuality enhances the feeling of being in the “West” or they tried to reach out for the new.

The third cyber public was relatively different from the other two, it constantly shifted from the zone of activist network, small bulletin boards and dissident scientists but still without any fix borders. For instant, bulletin board (BBS) had an important role in the opening up of electronic space beyond the frontiers of the state/ market dichotomy. At the beginning most of this kind of bulletin board only discuss issues related to their necessity but by time issues were getting broader toward issues concerning public in general. Bulletin boards or BBS existed between the space of state control and the power of global capital and further it offered a new form of agency within the discourse of virtuality. For some part of society whom disembedded by globalization and subject to the shock-like experience of the new Haussmanised city, bulletin boards offered an important zone of engagement and the possibility of a new performative space. The oppressed classes of society also had a new mean to express their thought in bulletin boards.
As before when the state treated dam, steel mill, and electricity as the icon of modernization and they were some groups in society who opposed this thing. The introduction of computer in the 1980’s also had almost similar rejection from some part of society the critique that generally echoed then prevalent notions of utility, sustainability and concerns about workforce cutbacks and the fact that computer was introduced with almost similar rhetoric with the old-style rhetoric made the movements even more suspicious. However, in the 1990’s most of groups in society had accept the existence of computer and its creative possibility of networking. Not like previous developmental project which caused natural destruction and displacement, cyber space development did not cause any such destruction. A certain aesthetics of experimentation had already been experienced by activists in their search for alternatives to developmentalist disasters. With the coming of e-mail, the Internet, and later bulletin boards a liminal space emerged, where utopian desires for modernity, the possibility of experimentation “without destruction”, overlapped with the pleasures of initiation rituals into techno culture.

In the Third World the mode of developmental modernism was similar to what Foucault called as the black mail of Enlightenment in his essay on Kant’s “ What is Enlightenment”. However, in Indian case, the situation was not as great as that. It operated within the rather simplistic oppositions of development/science/progress versus tradition/reaction/stasis. Although the state plan of operating ERNET would increased the accessibility of this third cyber public with all of its richness and potentials to negotiate a space between the market and the state, the access to virtual space still remained a privilege for a certain group of society. So, in a country such as India where the income gap relatively high, it is necessary for the state to fund this kind of developmental project since it would be hard to expect private sector to fund this project.

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INDIA ECONOMIC POLICY

For many ‘old economic powers’, India along with China is considered as threat for their economic hegemony. In the past decade, both countries have shown an incredible economic growth of over 8 % annually. In 1991, India Prime Minister Narasima Rao liberated Indian market by reducing government control and regulation especially in Foreign Trade segment.

This liberation in turn pushed Indian economic growth far outreaching of most of other countries. Before the 1990’s liberation, India adopted socialist market policies where government applied a strict control over any economic activity. Till the early 1990s, India was a closed economy: average tariffs exceeded 200 percent, quantitative restrictions on imports were extensive, and there were rigid restrictions on foreign investment.

India began to cautiously reform in the 1990s, liberalizing only under conditions of extreme necessity. Although India has steadily opened up its economy, its tariffs continue to be high when compared with other countries, and its investment norms are still restrictive. This leads some to see India as a ‘rapid globalizer’ while others still see it as a ‘highly protectionist’ economy. In its study, World bank concluded that to sustain the dynamism of India’s services sector, the country must address two critical challenges: externally, the problem of actual and potential protectionism; and domestically, the persistence of restrictions on trade and investment, as well as weaknesses in the regulatory environment. To support its economic reformation, India has undergone several economic agreement with various contries and regional organization such asIndia-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement, Trade Agreements with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, China, and South Korea, India-Nepal Trade Treaty, Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with Singapore, Framework Agreements with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Thailand and Chile.

In 1999, Goldman Sachs has predicted that India's GDP in current prices will overtake France and Italy by 2020, Germany, UK and Russia by 2025 and Japan by 2035. By 2035 it is expected to reach as 3rd largest economy of the world behind US and China. Goldman Sachs has made these predictions based on India's expected growth rate of 5.3 to 6.1% in various periods,whereas India is registering more than 8% growth rate for the last 3 years. According to some experts, the share of the US in world GDP is expected to fall (from 21 per cent to 18 per cent) and that of India to rise (from 6 per cent to 11 per cent in 2025), and hence the latter will emerge as the third pole in the global economy after the US and China.The basic idea is that income per capita was roughly similar prio to the industrial revolution with the regions that make up the boundaries of modern day China and India each had much larger economies than the west.

Now with rapid growth in the developping world (except sub saharan africa) developed countries are again going to have a situation of roughly similar standard of living in most of the world possibly within the next 50 years and China and India being over 3 times the size of any other country are probably going to be the world's largest economy based on a average growth of 5% and a currency appreciation of 2% per annum vis a vis the USD. India faces a burgeoning population and the challenge of reducing economic and social inequality. Despite its enourmous economic growth, poverty remains a serious problem, although it has declined significantly since independence, mainly due to the green revolution and economic reforms.

However, in comparison with Chinese foreign trade and investment atmosphere, most of foreign investors feel more secure to invest their capital in China. The main reason of this outcome is the availability of infrastructure. The frequent shortage of electric power and availability of decent road infrastructure have made foreign investors to think twice to invest in India. Power shortage and lack of decent road infrastructures may effects their production liability and also increase production cost. But India posses something which China does not have, English. Although in industrial sector, India is behind China but in service sector India move faster than China. As Chinese Prime Minister stated in his recent visit to India that in the future, India would become the front office and China would be the factory.

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COMMENT ON NANCY FRASER’S ‘RETHINKING THE PUBLIC SPHERE’

Nancy Fraser tries to re-analyze Habermas’ conception of public sphere in this essay for she considers that Habermas has not provided the concrete form of public sphere in his theory which is distinct from the bourgeois conception of public sphere.

Later in this essay, she critizes the bourgeois conception of public sphere itself. She argues that in bourgeois’ conception which stresses the necessity of full accessibility, the subordinated class could not gain such kind of accessibility because of gender, ethnicities or even property qualifications. The ideal public sphere in her opinion is an arena in which all the interlocutors should be included regardless of birth and fortune. However, in this conception, inequalities are not deleted but bracketed. Although the idea of bracketing the inequalities has a good aim to create an arena of dialog and discourse in equal basis but in reality this process is used in the benefit of the dominant group.

In a stratified society the subordinated groups of society tend to develop unequally valued cultural style and it marginalize the contributions of members of subordinated groups. The informal pressure power from the subordinated groups’ cultural style later amplified by the peculiar political economy of the bourgeois public sphere. The media to circulate public view usually owned or affiliated to the bourgeois group which in result would create limitation of accessibility for the subordinated groups. The political autonomy is under question in this concept. Liberalism stresses the important of a very strong political autonomy to organize a democratic form of political life in the basis of socio-economic and socio-sexual structures that generate systemic inequalities and then try to find a way to separate political institutions that are supposed to instantiate relations of equality from economic, cultural, and socio-sexual institutions that are premised on systemic relations of inequality.

Nancy Fraser argues that the ideal of participatory parity is better achieved by a multiplicity of publics rather than by a single public. In stratified society, it would be much better to accommodate plural participation in contestation for public space rather than a singular participation because in singular public, the right of the subordinated group most likely would be put aside. As the result of this disadvantageous treatment to the subordinated group, in some cases they constitute alternative publics to formulae their oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs. Nancy Fraser calls this public as subaltern counterpublic. However, sometimes these subaltern counterpublics become anti-democracy and anti-egalitarian but still they help to create and expand discursive space. Subaltern counterpublic has two functions in stratified society. It would act as spaces of withdrawal and regroupment, and it also functions as bases and training grounds for agitational activities directed toward wider publics. As Habermas said in his book that however limited a public may be in its empirical manifestation at any given time, its members understand themselves as part of a potentially wider public. In egalitarian public still it cannot consist of a single, comprehensive public sphere. Egalitarian public would only exist with the participation of groups with diverse values and rhetoric to create plurality in public arenas. In principle, coexistence of social equality and cultural diversity is possible.

In Habermas theory, public could mean as (1) state-related, (2) accessible to everyone, (3) of concern of everyone, and (4) pertaining to a common good or shared interest. And Nancy Fraser proposes two more notion of public which are (5) pertaining to private property in a market economy, and (6) pertaining to intimate domestic or personal life, including sexual life. The matter which concern of everyone as a notion of public sphere may not be the same in outsider’s perspective and the participant’s and only participant could determine which will become their concerns. However, boundaries between which is a matter of common concern and which is not are not given. The boundaries are set out by discursive contestation in regard that no topics should be ruled off limits in advance of such contestation. Civic-republican is a view in which the discussion is restricted to the ‘common good’ and in which discussion of ‘private interest’ is ruled out. By ruling out ‘private interest’, it is limiting deliberation to talk framed from the standpoint of a single, all-encompassing ‘we’, thereby ruling claims of self-interest and group interest out of order. Without knowing in advance whether the outcome of a deliberative process, it would be no warrant fro putting any strictures on what sorts of topics, interests, and views are admissible in deliberation. Nancy Fraser suggested suspecting the consensuses come out of this process since the process is tainted by the effects of dominance and subordination. In the last two sense of public, the participation of the subordinated group could be easily oppressed by labeling them as private matter rather than as public matter without any discursive contestation.

Nancy Fraser considers bourgeois model of publics as weak publics since its deliberative practice consists exclusively in opinion formation rather than decision-making. Also bourgeois could transform publics into state by threatening the autonomy of publics. Under this condition, the possibility of a critical discursive check on state would be lost. Sovereign parliament is the example she gives as strong publics where as sovereign parliament acts as a public sphere within state and it could encompasses both opinion and decision making. In strong publics, public opinion could be transform into authoritative decision since it is strengthen by the capability of it representing body. The problem aroused from this condition is the relation between strong and weak publics. There is no certainty of the accountability where an institutional arrangement should be established to ensure the accountability of democratic decision-making bodies to weaker publics.

Again as Habermas suggests in his theory, Fraser also deals with a hypothetic society. Although she predicts that a stratified society where openness and full accessibility will be achieved with regard of existence of multiculturalism and multi-identities will exist in short time but at this moment such society does not exist. The contestation of public sphere in reality has existed for a long time. In my point of view, she only focuses her theory in the example of modern western society. If she conducts a comprehensive research among traditional society, she might find a form of society where gender equality exists. In many paternal system of traditional society, women have relatively equal right either in material possession or expression.

I would like to give example of traditional society of Angkola in Indonesia. Angkola is a paternal society, however, to reach any decision or consensus among members of society it should be decide in a kind of advisory institution, Dalihan Na Tolu, which consists of three elements of society, men, women, and youth. Every member in the assembly has equal right to express their opinion to encompass the decision. In this society, women also have the right of material possession and heritage of family wealth.

In modern capitalist society, segregation of class obviously observed since wealth increased power and possibility to reach the media of expression. Fraser also states that media might encompass public opinion but we cannot put aside the fact that in some cases many public members may neglect this kind of influence when it concern of public matters. Also most of people will pick information from any given medias, according to their suitability and believe. It is important for state to acquire the right to relatively restrict matters which emerge from ‘private room’ into public space. Because some issue might cause more chaos rather than benefits in term of common good.

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