Transformational Social Resilience

Kompas/Idha Saraswati Wahyu Sejati

Azyumardi Azra

One of the symptoms that must be watched for in the 2018 and 2019 political years is the deterioration of social resilience. If it is not managed carefully, the deterioration of social resilience can affect national resilience as a whole. The source threats to public security can vary. Economic inequalities, poverty and unemployment are some of the causes of the latent decline in social resilience. Since the issue is a classic one and it has received sustained –though this has not been entirely successful – the issue has not reached the level of a crisis.

Escalation in the increasingly divisive politics trend in the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 general elections can also harm social cohesion, destroying the fabric of oneness and unity among citizens. Efforts to prevent this political escalation has been made with regional election candidates formally declaring peaceful intent, along with their political parties and other supporters. An atmosphere conducive to peaceful and smooth elections should be maintained.

The most serious threat and danger to social resilience today is seen in the significant increase in the rapid spread through social media of hate speech and hoaxes – fictitious news, pitting one against the other, slander, and provocation. Even though the police have taken various measures, hate speech and hoaxes spread through social media have not shown any signs of receding.

Data from various sources show that in 2017, the National Police handled 3,325 cases of hate speech. The number of cases had increased 44.99 percent compared to the 1,829 cases in 2016. Cases of hate speech mainly involve personal insults and attempted defamation of the good names of notable figures, persons and even ordinary citizens.

True, there are many more hoax cases. According to an estimate by the Communications and Informatics Ministry (Kemkominfo), there were about 800,000 sites in cyberspace spreading hoaxes by the end of 2016, especially social media sites. This number could certainly have increased sharply in 2017. Of such a large number, Kemkominfo and other related agencies tasked with monitoring the spreading of hoaxes on social media were able to block only about 6,000 sites in 2016.

The massive and rapid spread of hoaxes was connected to groups that work specifically to produce hoaxes. Among those that were publicly identified by the National Police’s Cybercrimes unit (formed in February 2017) was Saracen, with the latest being the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA).

The danger of spreading hoaxes is obvious. Hoaxes are typically distorted facts, provocation, or incitement and provocation, and particularly concern ethnic, race, religion and intergroup (SARA) issues as well as political leaders and public figures. In the horrendous case of "the persecution of the ulema”, for example, National Police Police chief Gen. (Pol) Tito Karnavian said that 42 of 45 stories were hoaxes; only three were based on fact.

Amid this widespread and massive trend of so many hoaxes circulating on social media, public discourse among the nation’s citizens appears to be heating up, particularly regarding the police’s use of the word “madmen” in referring to perpetrators of recent attacks on religious figures and places of worship. The police found themselves in a defensive position, so the National Police chief and other police officials must repeatedly explain the facts to the public.

Looking at such developments, it can be expected that such disturbances and threats to social resilience will continue. Even though the police have caught the perpetrators of hoaxes and hate speech – whether organized groups or lone wolves – their circulation seems unstoppable and continues to threaten social resilience. Therefore, serious efforts are badly needed to strengthen social resilience.

Social resilience should not be understood merely in terms of "national resilience", which implies defense, security and the military. This kind of understanding has been circulating for a long time among the public; the term "national resilience" was an important nomenclature and priority during the New Order government.

National resilience certainly has much to do with social resilience. The stronger the social resilience, the stronger the national resilience will be. Conversely, a weaker national resilience is strongly associated with weakness in social resilience.

Social resilience can be understood simply as the ability of individuals and groups in society to adapt to various rapid and global changes in the political, economic, religious, sociocultural, technological and information spheres in the environment. A failure or inability to adapt will result in a disruption to individual lives and social resilience as a whole.

Social resilience is a new concept among social scientists. Emerging in the last decade, the concept of social resilience initially concerned the capability of individuals and communities to adapt and adjust to disruptive changes in ecosystems, nature and the physical environment. Rapid and disruptive changes that occur outside these areas later expanded the concept of social resilience to cover other areas of life.

With regard to the disruptive and divisive world of instant information, circulating as hate speech and hoaxes in cyberspace or on social media, on the lives and resilience of individuals and the wider community, all citizens need to evolve their adaptability. Social resilience in cyberspace and social media can be reinforced with a critical and skeptical approach, and not instantly swallowing whole whatever raw and unreliable information that is being circulated as truth.

Therefore, every individual and all communities need to transform their adaptability in facing the various challenges and threats against them that have emerged in society. Only with this transformational ability can social resilience be strengthened amidst the turmoil of disruptive changes, especially those brought on in the flood of hoaxes and hate speech.

AZYUMARDI AZRA, Culture and Humanities Professor, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University