A few months ago I caused damage to my own house, because I was in denial. How so?

My gardener had told me months earlier that the mango tree in the backyard was diseased. A black, gaping rotting hole had developed in its trunk, and it needed to be felled. 

Shock, horror! No, no, no! “But the tree is still bearing fruit. Look at how many mangoes we’ve been harvesting lately!” I argued.

How could I have my beloved tree cut down? It had been planted as a seedling when I moved into my then newly built house 25 years ago. That mango tree was part of the house, part of me even. My gardener didn’t argue — I’m the boss after all.

Then one day, I heard a loud crashing sound. I rushed outside: the mango tree had fallen, ripping through the polycarbonate roof of my terrace, as well as tearing off the gutters and part of the roof of the house. 

I realized then that I had been in denial. In the end I lost the tree anyway, and had to spend way more money on removing the huge carcass, which was leaning on the house (a very complex operation!), not to mention the cost of repairing the house itself. Darn! If only I had listened to my gardener.

Ah, if only. The benefits of hindsight, right? 

Am I alone in my tendency to engage in denialism? No, certainly not.

French anthropologist Didier Fassin defines denialism as “an ideological position whereby one systematically reacts by refusing reality and truth”. Often it’s because they are protecting some overvalued idea critical to their self-identity, or to avoid a psychologically or emotionally uncomfortable truth.

Some well-known examples of denialism are related to the Holocaust (that the mass murder of Jews didn’t happen), lung cancer and smoking (that there’s no link — predictably espoused by cigarette companies) and global warming, also known as climate change (that it ain’t happening). 

The most recent and astonishingly blatant, jaw-dropping examples of denialism are from the ongoing presidential elections in the US, most notably from the Republican camp. 

How is it possible that an obviously racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, hatemongering, violence-inciting inveterate liar, flip-flopper, braggart and narcissistic megalomaniac like Donald Trump could be a Republican presidential nominee? Trump is a veritable Frankensteinian monster who could wreak destruction not just on the US, but also the world. Nevertheless, key figures in the Republican Party continue to endorse him, even those he’s insulted.

Amazingly, the members of the American electorate who support him are blue-collar workers and voters without college degrees who are drawn in by his so-called populist rhetoric, and his disdain for political correctness. 

Trump the elitist businessman and millionaire ironically connects with disaffected Americans who, in their anger, frustration and desperation, are blind to the fact that Trump’s vision for America is grimly dystopian, very, very dangerous and, ultimately, will be destructive to them.

In Trump’s universe, feelings, especially fear, trump facts. He and other Republicans claim that Americans fear rising crime rates despite FBI stats clearly showing that violent crime in the US is at a historic low. Could it be that these denialists live in a parallel post-fact universe?

What about Indonesia? Do we engage in denialism? You bet we do!

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration persists in executing drug-trafficking convicts, because Indonesia is supposedly in a dangerous drug-emergency situation, and executions act as a deterrent. Oh really? According to data released by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Indonesia has actually experienced a huge increase in drug use — from 4.2 million cases in June 2015, to 5.9 million in November — an increase of 1.7 million, about 40 percent.

But the real killer came after the execution of four drug convicts, including Freddy Budiman, who prior to his death claimed that members of the police, BNN and customs officials were also implicated in drug smuggling. In fact, without the help of these officials, Freddy said he would have been unable to run his drug ring. Freddy told his story to Haris Azhar, head of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), who posted the allegations on Facebook. 

Surely these institutions should be thankful to Haris for pointing out that they have rotten apples in their midst. Oh no. Instead, besides the police and the BNN, the military have filed a criminal defamation suit against Haris. Talk about killing the messenger, but that is what denialists do (see “Killing the messenger” in The Jakarta Post, Aug. 9).

Then there is the denialism related to the persecution — including violence — of religious minorities (Christian groups, Ahmadiyah, Gafatar and other groups) and members of the LGBT community. The perpetrators of violence are at best given light sentences, if at all, while the victims are persecuted and criminalized even more. 

Religious minorities are branded as heretics, while LGBT people are considered sick and deviant. The beginning of this year witnessed a spike of anti-LGBT sentiment. 

The so-called Family Love Alliance is seeking to pass a bill to criminalize gay sex as well as casual sex. Should that occur, many politicians should stand together with the LGBT community, as the former are famous for their casual sexploits.

Let’s face it, Indonesians are raunchy as well as religious — do the two things have to contradict each other? 

What about denialism in relation to human rights? President Jokowi made a promise during the election campaign to uphold human rights, including those committed in the past. He has been curiously silent about the results of the International People’s Tribunal (IPT) 1965, which ruled that Indonesia was guilty of genocide in the systematic killing of at least 400,000 people. Not only did Indonesia reject the recommendations, but Jokowi appointed Gen. (ret.) Wiranto as coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister. 

Amnesty International has said — rightly so — that this indicates contempt for human rights as Wiranto was indicted for crimes against humanity by a UN sponsored tribunal. This verdict was endorsed by Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights, which publicly named him a suspect in relation to “widespread and organized” violations of human rights during the East Timor (now Timor Leste) referendum in 1999. He has never been charged in Indonesia. 

Denialism is human, true, when it’s at the level of refusing to accept that a mango tree is dying. But on a political, human rights and security level, it’s dangerously destructive — to ourselves and the nation.

***

The writer is the author of Julia’s Jihad.

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