O

ne of the brightest minds in the world, the mind that could explain the grand design of the universe (at least partially), is gone. Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14, the birthday of another genius, Albert Einstein. He has left us, with his assurance that divine miracles only seem so, until science provides explanations and answers.

Hawking, born 76 years ago in Oxford, was diagnosed with a fatal neurological disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, at the age of 21 and doctors told him that he only had two years to live.

Just as well someone like him was born in a place where his brilliance could be nurtured and his physical disabilities were cared for.

Hawking survived for over 50 years after the diagnosis!

What might have happened if Stephen Hawking was born in Indonesia? Could he have become the Stephen Hawking we know and mourn today? Without advanced as well as expensive medical care, Hawking might not have survived that long.

And just imagine, if a public figure in Indonesia were to declare that God does not exist, and that the “grand design” of the universe has nothing to do with God, what would the fundamentalist groups have done to him?

Hawking’s atheism and criticism of religion are indeed neither as explosive nor as blatant as those of the writer Richard Dawkins. For some years, Hawking seemed to refer to God on several occasions. For instance, he claims that his book, A Brief History of Time, is reading the mind of God.

However, later on, in an interview about this book, Hawking explained: “What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t.”

Would it be conceivable for Indonesian TV stations — with their soap operas, celebrity gossip and patronizing religious programs — to broadcast the views of someone like Hawking? If former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama was imprisoned because of saying how some people had been lied to by those using the Quranic chapter Al Maidah verse 51; what would happen to someone who states the following: “There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.”

Hawking was one who was not afraid of criticizing religions, and who argued that humans are “just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star”, instead of a special creation made in the image of God.

If he had lived in Indonesia, Hawking might have been condemned and imprisoned for blasphemy. He might not have had the opportunity to observe the universe with its millions of stars and galaxies, because organizations like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) might have ferociously destroyed his work.

Because many intelligent people are considered too dangerous for those in power; and powerful people in Indonesia are capable of devious as well as destructive actions against those who dare to challenge them.

Hadn’t a similar thing happened to one of our own literary geniuses, Pramoedya Ananta Toer? He was imprisoned and tortured, his writings were banned in his own country for decades but were hailed overseas as some of the great works of modern literature.

Even now, Pramoedya’s work has not been widely promoted by successive post-reform governments in Indonesia. Except for former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, who apologized to him, no other government has demonstrated serious efforts to rehabilitate Pramoedya’s name and work.

How many other intellectuals have been imprisoned and even murdered in this country? How many have become exiles overseas? How many have been persecuted merely because of their convictions, ideas, critical thinking and political views?

The list will definitely grow if the Blasphemy Law is not repealed and if hardliner groups are allowed to use violence and to insult other religions as well as ethnic minorities (yet the FPI itself is immune to the Blasphemy Law).

In this kind of place, Hawking might have had no chance of exploring black holes, but might have been dumped into a “black hole” instead.

No wonder, hardly any geniuses can be found in this country, the quality of education remains quite low and students often struggle to produce original writing. Because sadly, Indonesia still does not appreciate the capabilities of Indonesians. It is just as well that Hawking was not born in Indonesia.

Otherwise, we might have never heard about his theories on the expanding universe, gravity or black holes that may become our route to another universe.

Hawking’s touching quote asks us to “remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

“And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

“It matters that you don’t just give up.”
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The writer is a senior lector in Southeast Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London.