A friend of mine who happened to be a doctor told me that nowadays male doctors who happened to be posted in a hospital in the small town of ‘Pandeglang’, West Java, spend most of their duty time being idle because not many patients go to them for consultation. Their female colleagues on the other hand, are overwhelmed with patients queuing up to consult with them. The reason being a local law that forbids male doctors from treating female patients. My friend isn’t sure whether female doctors are also barred from male patients but, as far as she knows, all Moslem women in Pandeglang by law have to wear headscarves.
Now, I know that corruption is what’s making the headlines these days and absorbing much of the government’s energy and attention, not to mention giving the president a major headache he needs to deal with, but what is equally worrying is the way that more and more areas of the country are imposing local regulations that increasingly undermine national consensus, taking away citizens’ basic rights, seemingly without any sign of intervention or censure from the central government.
Some might argue that this is the natural consequence of democracy and the result of direct election, however, surely democracy if anything, is the promotion of equal rights and a government that puts the interest of the people above all consideration. It should not be a license for the elected representative to impose whatever whimsical regulation that takes his fancy. After all, direct local elections are supposed to give more power to the local people and voice their aspirations and not be a tool to create mini potentates with totalitarian inclinations.
Now, where did this idea that women could only consult women doctors come from? I doubt that this is a genuine aspiration of the local people. After all, what thinking individual wishes to have the government poke its nose into affairs that do not concern it? Very likely it is a case of narrow minded elected official giving free reins to his narrow minded beliefs and finally having the power to impose it on people who as it happens, are too apathetic to take make a fuss; the bother of having to protest being greater than the pain of complying. Indeed, there is nothing more worrisome than when ignorance meets apathy, or when an ignoramus gets hold of some power.
The question is, what is being done about this, especially when much could be rectified. The president after all was elected in a landslide victory that favoured nationalism as the soul of this country and not a particular religion. Healthy nationalism unites while religion in this diverse archipelago of ours, can only divide.
And yet for all the mandate and trust put on him, personally I have yet to see or hear a speech that reminds us all, as a nation, about who we are and what it is that makes Indonesia great. True there is a commitment to work hard, to improve the welfare of the people, to cut down the number of unemployed and poor people, to build roads and other infrastructure to make the country grow to a particular target and the resolve to make the country safe, stable and attractive for foreign investments.
However, these are all the bricks and mortar with which to build a house. What is dangerously lacking however, the architectural design of the house itself – the purpose, the spirit it is supposed to reflect and the type of people it shelters. Without a clear design and objective, I fear our efforts at nation building would remain shallow, the people without direction and worse, our unity in tatters as each region tries to interpret and impose their own little version of nationhood.
There are so many opportunities with which to remind ourselves of the country’s need to review our identity and strengthen our unity. From Independence Day, National Awakening Day, Youth Pledge Day, Heroes Day, the number of national holidays this country is more than enough to review, rebuild and restore our nationhood the way our founding fathers would no doubt expect us to continue.
And what more perfect opportunity to build a strong, lasting and peaceful nation than upon the bedrock of democracy? Here is the very system that we are so fortunate enough to possess (while in many parts of the world it is still being fought for with weapons and human lives) that can ensure us a life of freedom, equality, respect for human rights and basic needs.
And yet more and more, perhaps through neglect, through apathy, through ignorance or shallow belief, instead of achieving equality, in some parts of the country, women are seeing their basic rights curtailed while those of minority religions their freedom to worship constrained.
Yes, the new government is ready to work. But without a clear national objective other than economic targets, it may be that we might end up in a completely different direction to where we originally intended.
(Desi Anwar: first published in Tempo English)
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