T

o be honest, this thought piggy-backs one of Hannah Arendt'€™s renowned works, The Human Condition (1958). Arendt'€™s main thesis was that human nature remained the same and was not subject to change, whereas human conditions changed as a result of three main human activities: labor, work, and action.

While labor addresses the need for consumption, work results in culture. It is action that leads to great deeds and great words that, in turn, enable communities to bring about state of the art political performance.

It is difficult to doubt that Indonesia'€™s developments during the Reformasi era lack great deeds and great words, as is manifested in the numerous cases of malpractice in various walks of life. Currently, people are busy dealing with the fiasco over the national exams for senior high school students.

One should have watched the dialogue hosted by Aviani Malik of Metro TV on the evening of April 19, during which a smart participant of the unfortunate exams described her impressions.

The interviewed student said inter alia that being part of the younger generation, she felt sad to have been given a poor paragon in the field of education.

I noticed how the TV host could only sweetly smile upon the weak answers of the official responding to the student'€™s statements.

This is only one among the many hypocrisies taking place across the country, but it is particularly shameful that the exam fiasco sweeps the whole nation with a single stroke.

The other malpractices can be watched on an almost daily basis in whatever sector you may name: besides education as just mentioned, also in health care, transportation, telecommunications, construction, various public services and the yet-to-be-mentioned big one '€” justice.

The victims are numerous and the sufferings painful; sometimes, though, even heartbreaking as in many cases people are robbed of a loved one'€™s life. I wonder that my beloved motherland keeps on being praised by nice prominent people abroad; if not as a nascent, large democracy, then as a successful economy.

They are unfortunately ignorant of the dynamics in Indonesia that are rather Malthusian: While progress is made arithmetically, it does not cope with new problems that are racing geometrically.

This country is on its way to becoming an immoral society, where people get used simply to grinning at failing social ethics, breaches of professional conduct, or the sheer irresponsibility by public officials. We keep on living on false premises and are oblivious to the history of empires that were destroyed due to the same failure.

I wonder that, by and large, Indonesia'€™s people have been relatively peaceful to date and have not taken the law into their own hands to mete out justice at their own discretion. In most cases of malpractice, the powerless victims have been on the losing side, which is not unusual in the history of mankind. It'€™s like nature has predestined human destiny for the masses.

In most of the cases, they would lose legal battles, if any such cases were taken to court. Zhuangzi (born: 369 BCE), the Chinese Taoist philosopher, very likely watched how helpless the impoverished masses were in the hands of tyranny and rendered his pacifist advice: Should you unfortunately become a victim of tyranny, just treat yourself as a useless creature of the universe and you won'€™t feel the pain.

Perhaps most Indonesians are kind-hearted indeed, bear their pains quietly and remain powerless. The question is: How long will people heed to arbitrariness?

Nothing is eternal in the universe. Panta rei kai ouden menei (Everything flows, nothing stands still), said Greek philosopher Heraclitus (ca. 535'€“ca. 475 BCE). As change cannot be escaped, change in Indonesia should move toward the better, lest people lose their patience some day.

Resistance against the police or local government officials has now sporadically become the rule of the week in various regions of the country.

A systemic change that would usher Indonesia toward more responsible governance is becoming all the more urgent. Indeed, the general election in April next year could be a good opportunity for such change.

By and large, general elections provide an avenue to citizens to trigger a new decision-making process leading to a better future for them. It is high-time that citizens demand the future holders of public office to be accountable for any professional and official misconduct.

And that commitment should become part of the qualifications for future public officials running in April 2014.

Should the qualifications for those running for public office next year remain the same as in 2009, then the powerless masses should be at ease and abandon the betterment of the condition of their human destiny and seriously learn to practice Zhuangzi'€™s advice.