This is probably one of the few articles that I wrote on a spur of a moment and in just a few hours. I remembered that I was reading Kompas' comics page when I suddenly realized why I had been feeling weird in the past few days: there were very little reactions to the bombing! True that there were some news, and of course, both Metro TV and TVOne talked a lot about the bombing, but that's it. There was simply no urgency, there was no feeling of curiosity. It was like... normal. Actually it was such a surreal moment when I found myself wondering why Julian Pasha, the spokeperson of President SBY had to deny that there's a government's plot behind the bombing..
In short, it was business as usual. Welcome to the world of cynicism.
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March 22, 2011
A funny thing happened in the aftermath of the recent spate of “book bombs.” Instead of being gripped by an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty similar to the aftermath of the Kuningan bombings in 2009, life has gone on as normal in the capital. Of course, people are still talking about the bombs, but in general, the public has remained calm. Behind that calm, though, is a very serious issue: people are losing trust in their government.
The fear of terrorist attacks is still among us, but it is considered more of a nuisance than a life-altering threat. This attitude is clearly reflected in Sunday’s comic strips in Kompas newspaper, for example. The usually apolitical cartoon Mice showed the main character reading a book, leading his fearful friend to pour water on it to prevent it from exploding. The book bombs were ignored altogether in the cartoon Timun, which instead took aim at the government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant in spite of its incompetence in managing mundane things like traffic and trash. Sukribo, a cartoon always skirting the edge of political correctness, cut to the chase and insinuated that the bombs were a badly timed diversionary tactic of the president.
Sukribo’s take reflects the attitude of many people who believe there are just too many “coincidences” and that bad things always seem to happen when the government is under pressure.
Even law and security institutions are not immune from potshots. It was suggested that someone in the army wanted to make the police look incompetent, while others insinuated that the police needed a reason for more anti-terror funding The National Anti-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) created last year, was said to have a motive as well: to show it was important and needed.
The rumbling of conspiracy theories even managed to disturb the zen-like tranquility of Cikeas, forcing presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha to strongly deny that the government was behind the book bombs in an attempt to divert the public’s attention from the latest WikiLeaks cables — implicating President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the first lady, among others.
Regardless of all this, it is striking to observe that people are no longer that traumatized by bombings. The fact that comic strips are able to make light of the situation — compared to the usual reaction of concern — shows that bombings are now seen as something normal and expected. Of course it can be argued that it’s easy to make light of a situation in which nobody died. Still, a bomb is a bomb. Had this happened a few years ago, it would have generated intense publicity and much soul searching.
Psychologists who research public fears observed a similar phenomenon as far back as World War II, when they noted that people living under constant threat will adapt to their environment and start to consider it as normal. A nuisance, maybe, but not one that will significantly change their lives.
During WWII, despite heavy civilian casualties, people were actually adapting to the rigors of aerial bombings and did not waver in their support for war, especially when they found out the damage from bombings was actually less severe than expected. This mechanism was one of the reasons why so few people took shelter during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The citizens of both cities were getting too complacent, as they often heard warning sirens, but these two cities were never hit until those fateful days in August 1945.
The constant threat of terrorist attacks leads to similar behavior. After years of IRA bombing campaigns and the 2005 bombing of a train, one Londoner reacted to a foiled car bombing in 2007 by stoically remarking: “It’s something you get used to, living in London.” He actually was more irritated by the inconveniences caused by police cordoning off the area.
People are also adapting to tiresome security measures in their daily lives without complaining. Facing the treat of terrorists hijacking or bombing airplanes, people are willing to be thoroughly inspected and undergo searches of their body, regardless of the inconvenience and breaches of privacy.
In Jakarta, people find it normal to have their cars searched and inspected each time they enter a mall or office building, even though the Kuningan bombing showed it is still possible for anyone having the will to do so to engage in terror attacks.
From 2002 to 2009, terrorist attacks in Indonesia killed almost 300 people and wounded over 800, which brings the average to 37 deaths a year in those eight years. This means a couple of suicidal terrorists, interested in maintaining that average can just go to any mall, buy some knives or box-cutters, and start stabbing random people to death. And consider this: a lot of costly security precautions have been put in place to prevent terrorist attacks, but the death toll from terrorist attacks is still far lower than the number of deaths in traffic accidents in Jakarta, which reached 1,071 in 2009 alone.
In essence, it is not just the safety measures that are important, it is the psychological effect: the feeling that somebody does something to increase our security. As a result people feel secure, even though in the end people are far more likely to get killed while driving a motorcycle in Jakarta than die in a terrorist attack.
This brings us back to the issue of public trust of the government and law enforcement. An Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) public opinion poll published in January noted that only 30 percent of the public still trusted law enforcement. At the same time, popular perceptions of the Yudhoyono administration were getting more negative, with the steepest drop occurring among the highly educated. Yet this survey did not take into account recent trouble the president faces, such as his dispute with religious leaders who called him a liar, cabinet secretary Dipo Alam’s public relations problems, the Ahmadiyah controversy and the WikiLeaks scandal.
As the government loses its popularity — and worse, its credibility — it will try to show people that it can still be trusted. The problem however is that people may not want to listen anymore.
The comic strips and rumors that were mentioned above clearly point to distrust. While conspiracy theories have always existed, including surrounding the first and second Bali bombings, they can usually be dismissed easily. The fact that Kompas allowed the comic strips to be published and that the presidential spokesman had to deny the rumors shows there is a serious problem of trust.
So what should the president do?
First, just ignore the rumors. Like it or not, at some point a leader will be dogged by conspiracy theories. It happened to George W. Bush and Barack Obama too, but both just focussed on doing their job as a president.
What’s really important for Yudhoyono however is to keep engaging the public on his plans, achievements and concerns. The president has two roles to play: as a competent manager of the state bureaucracy and at the same time, as leader of a huge and proud nation.
In addition, the president needs to promote transparency, making sure that people don’t see any improper dealings.
The reason why the WikiLeaks cables hurt is because everyone thinks they are true. And who can blame people, when major corruption scandals continue to star high-ranking public officials, who rarely get punished severely?
The president’s seeming aloofness with regard to various crises that are plaguing his second term are destroying his legacy.
Yudhoyono was elected on a platform of strong leadership, reformation, anticorruption and transparency. Now is the time for him to start showing some strong leadership before public distrust increases further and starts to seriously undermine his presidency.
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