Why can't we have human rights and economic growth?

Hugh Muir talks to former World Bank economist William Easterly about how he changed his mind on the political ramifications of aid. Plus, how Somaliland defied the critics to become a democracy

HM Prof William Easterly was for 16 years an economist at the World Bank.

WE I was in the research department, which by World Bank standards actually. I had a lot of intellectual freedom, but not quite enough.

HM And the World Bank has for many years had a problem with human rights; it didn't discuss them. Was there a point at which the World Bank you thought: 'I'm on the wrong side here, I've got to leave and maybe have the freedom to speak differently and to do this differently?'

WE Well, one thing I remember is some time in the mid '90s going to an Africa region meeting and everyone around the table were going hey, for Africa, it's really not working, and then the conclusion of the meeting is, we should keep doing it. And it's like what is going on here, we know it's not working and yet we keep doing it. Why?

HM But since leaving the organisation Professor Easterly has had a change of heart.

WE I'm sort of a recovering expert, trying to spread the news to the other experts.

HM This is The Guardian's Liz Ford.

LF So we're at the Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict Summit that's being held at the ExCeL Centre in London.

HM You may remember that this was the event attended by Angelina Jolie. We sent Liz down earlier in the month to record this and some of the people attending that summit.
LF But I think there's probably a lot of people that are thinking, are a little bit concerned that there's a strong focus on ending impunity, a strong focus on getting the prosecutions, and not enough on the wider issues, as in women's economic empowerment.

FS1 When we think of them, the human rights things, you know, the first things is how they can survive, how they can have access of the food in the evening, you know. That comes first. So basically it comes first for the widows.

FS2 Women need economic empowerment to have the whole world [in] peace and stability.

LF Yes, they want justice, but getting somebody to court is not their priority, their priority is getting a job, getting money, getting away from the actual abuse, supporting their children, getting them an education, getting decent healthcare, all those other things.

FS3 They talk about political participation, they don't talk about economic empowerment. So it's all interlinked and unless we address the issue holistically then separate interventions will be ineffective.

HM So it begs the question, what comes first, economic empowerment to better your life or basic human rights, and why can't we talk about the two together? We'll find out on today's Global development podcast. I'm Hugh Muir, stay with us. But first, back to Prof Easterly. He says vital development is blighted by technocrats. I caught up with him on the phone line from New York and asked him what was going wrong.

WE I think it's because there's this fascination in development with development as an exclusively technical problem that is just about technical fixes like bednets for malaria or medications for malaria or antibiotics for other health problems, and the reason these technical solutions have been neglected is because our people are pressed by autocrats who have no interest in their wellbeing, they only have an interest in staying in power. There is a World Bank project in Uganda that had the idea that this one district of Uganda called Mubende could be very profitably developed as a forestry project and that forestry was the best use of the land there. The World Bank in this case was sort of like a counterpart of the British colonial authorities deciding what is best. The farmers on the land who were growing their own food crops were not on board with this and, unfortunately, what happened was this was settled with violence. A private company that the World Bank was working with to develop this project hired security forces who came in and marched the farmers off at gunpoint, burned down their homes, burned down their crops, an eight-year-old child died in the fire that happened with this, the farmers were kept at gunpoint from rescuing the child or their own homes and 20,000 farmers were marched off at gunpoint and told this land is no longer yours. This is this kind of tragedy that happens when we neglect the rights of the people. You do something that you think is making them better off and it's actually making people worse off because you did not give them the right to consent, you did not respect their right to consent.

HM It's difficult though, isn't it, because big organisations who hope to help with big budgets that are obviously wary of just handing that money over want to know that it's being done properly. Isn't there a limit to the extent to which you can work from bottom up, isn't it almost inevitable there'll be some element of top down?

WE Well, if you're saying that you need to sort of work with the governments that are there, even if they're authoritarian, I think that is the perennial dilemma in the aid business. And I don't want to say there is any easy answer to that, there is not an easy answer, I mean I think certainly to being to come to an answer you certainly do want to cut off governments that are simply using their own aid money for their own repression and I think the more important thing that has happened as a result of that discussion is the official aid community has just decided that we're sort of not allowed to talk about autocracy and oppressive governments because this issue is so unsolvable and so there's a sort of unintentional censorship of the big debate that we should be having in development, you know, is autocracy itself one of the main causes of poverty?HM The likes of Bill Gates and Jeffrey Sachs have looked at the things that you're saying and have made the point that you might be ignoring some of the big success stories in modern aid, things like the polio immunisation programme, things I suppose that can only be done by big organisations that go into a country and things that in a way are best done from the top down.

WA You know, I've never said aid always fails, there are successes in aid, even in very top-down aids and because there are some problems that are more amenable to top-down aid intervention. And I think the one you mention is exactly the most common one, polio and other vaccination programmes is the one that's cited over and over again by Gates and Sachs and other aid defenders. Why are they stuck with only this one example that they cite over and over again, or only a few other examples? It's because there was this one problem that was more amenable to top-down aid and it got solved, that's great, I'm glad it happened, but it's not the way the whole world of development works.

HM Obviously, it's shaken things up, what if we were to ignore your detractors and made you king for the day, how would things be different? There's a calibration to be done here, how would you calibrate things differently?

WE We need say like a Copernican Revolution in development. What's really been happening is we place ourselves, the aid and development experts at kind of the whole centre of development and we obsess with this sort of what should we do question and what the western efforts should be, which is very understandable and I want the west to continue to do good things but we're not at the centre of development and the Copernican Revolution would recognise that it's poor people themselves who are at the centre of development and they are already successfully developing themselves.

There's already been tremendous successes in development that are homegrown that are due to poor people and poor societies asserting their own rights themselves. And we should not have the arrogance that everything in development revolves around us, the experts, that's what most fundamentally at the end of the day I protest against most. There's arrogance and there's egocentricity and self-centredness that we place ourselves, the experts, at the whole centre of global development and we don't deserve that, we're not at the centre, we're very marginal, it's poor people themselves who are developing themselves.

HM Professor William Easterly, author of The Tyranny of Experts, and that's available now. Professor Easterly talked about countries being helped to help themselves. Let's consider the case of Somaliland. Mark Anderson reports.

MA Somaliland is the world's fourth poorest country, if it was a country, but it's not, because no one in the international community recognises Somaliland as a sovereign state and it receives no direct aid. You might think Somaliland would be held back by this lack of aid but it's actually done very well. There's been two presidential elections which passed without incident and the international observers of those elections were so enamoured with Somaliland's case for recognition that they founded an NGO specifically to champion Somaliland's cause. In Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, Hibo Mohamed Esayhas been running a small catering business. It's been going two years.

HME We are cooking refreshments for meetings for places like the government. Also, we are receiving orders from homes and weddings. So me, I like Somaliland and living here. Everybody's coming back to Somaliland. If you look back 10 years, for example, in the shops and the hotels there's no more than 10 hotels in Hargeisa but now you cannot count the number of hotels in Hargeisa. As well as the printing press, shops, everywhere you go there's a small business. So there's a lot of people in Hargeisa now so as much as the people are there and they are buying with no war, with no anything that they are afraid of. So I can say it's growing.

HM But not everyone is as positive as Hibo, Somaliland has come under fire from rights groups for attacks on journalists and poor treatment of Ethiopian and Somali migrants who pass through Somaliland on their way to Yemen. But few can argue with Somaliland's stable democracy and thriving businesses like Hibo's. It's doing far better than its neighbours to the south.
HME If you look at the freedom and the democracy that has taken place in Somaliland, I can say that it's better than so many countries in Africa, and whenever the problems happen there's a fight which has never stopped, but Somalians have reached a level that we have the ability to stop war and to establish a peace.

HM Hibo Mohamed Esay in Hargeisa. So we've got plenty of examples of where aid is going wrong, and going right, and with me now to pick through some of these ideas we have something of an international line-up. From Washington, Jessica Evans of Human Rights Watch, she's a senior researcher in their Business and Human Rights Division, and in Geneva we have Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at Nehru University, New Delhi, and the executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates. Welcome to both of you. Jayati, let me start with you. This is basically what Professor Easterly talks about in his book, The Tyranny of Experts. It refers to Somaliland which is an economy that's benefited from improved human rights and democracy, and here's the important thing, without the technocrats getting involved. Is that a phenomenon that you recognise?

JG Oh, absolutely, I don't think that technocrats have been particularly successful, certainly in the international development industry, but I wouldn't say that's because they are technocrats per se, I would argue that, number one, they're divorced from the particular domestic positions, but more than that they are all influenced by a rather stale and mechanical paradigm of how economies should be run, which I really think is counterproductive. This so-called Washington consensus which should have died several decades ago is back and alive and kicking, and unfortunately is still being imposed all over the world regardless of context, regardless of usefulness and regardless of notions of economic democracy.

HM Jessica, to what extent do you think we can hold Somaliland up as a model of good practice?

JE I can't speak directly to Somaliland, but one thing that we constantly see is that development is not understood in the same way that it should be. So sustainable development, we believe, is freedom from fear and want for all without discrimination. Sustainable development should be about the creation of conditions in which people everywhere can realise their civil and political rights as well as their economic, social and cultural ones. I think what Professor Easterly is pushing for here is for increased recognition of civil and political and some economic rights, and that being the basis for development. I think Human Rights Watch and many human rights advocates would go that step further to say that development needs to be grounded in all of the human rights that we've been fighting for.

HM Jayati, talk to me about the balance, the ratio if you like of human rights to economic development, economic empowerment. Is the balance right?

JG No not at all, in fact one of the big problems I see, both in the international shall we say the multilateral community as well as in many developing countries today is that in a sense there's a kind of trade-off, we are told by many of our governments, my own at the moment, but a number of others across the world, that look, we're going to give you growth and development, we'll try and give you electricity and roads and water and so on, and in return for that just shut up and do as we tell you. In other words, don't ask for higher wages, don't complain if you're displaced by a project, don't worry about environmental standards, don't worry about Workers' rights and living wages, because these are all costs you have to pay for this grand process of development.

HM Jessica, does that ring a bell with you and if so, give us some examples of where that's been the case, that's been how things have unfolded?

JE One example that comes to mind is the World Bank's engagement with Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is anything but a democratic country and human rights violations are really widespread. One particularly problematic industry within Uzbekistan is the cotton industry, which is grounded in a system of forced labour. Every year the government mobilises over a million of its citizens, including children, to pick cotton. What the World Bank has just earlier this month approved is an irrigation project which is going to directly benefit the cotton industry. It's going to provide water to cotton farms, and while the World Bank as a positive development taken some moves to mitigate these risks of forced labour it's not doing anything to actually dismantle that system which continues and will continue with this project. So the World Bank has for instance put in place third party monitors to look at whether there is forced labour on the areas within which the project is being carried out, but on the other side the World Bank has done nothing to ensure that independent journalists and civil society organisations which often monitor the cotton harvest can do so, even with respect to the land on which the World Bank is financing an irrigation project. So this shows I think how in some respects the World Bank is willing to recognise what we would consider human rights risks, but not willing to go that extra step to work toward an environment in which Uzbek citizens can themselves work to realise their own human rights.

HM Jayati, what's your sense of the role or the balance that's being struck by the World Bank?

JG Well, you know the World Bank I don't believe is really the most important player anymore in many developing countries, certainly it is promoting projects that are, shall we say, inconsistent with some of these goals that Jessica mentioned but really when you're looking at patterns of investment or even patterns of control over social dissent and all of that, it's really not the World Bank that is the most important player any more, and I think we have to be much more concerned about how the international rules, treaties, whether it comes from the bilateral investment treaties, whether it comes from the GATT rules or WTO and so on, whether these actually impact on the policy space that governments have to promote the rights of citizens. And also the governments themselves, how concerned are they in terms of ensuring this balance. I'd like to give one example from India if I may. You know, we've had very recently, after the new government came to power in India, we've had a report published by the Intelligence Bureau which is really supposed to be something that's out there spying for the country supposedly, anyway the Intelligence Bureau has come out with a report saying that social movements and NGOs that have been fighting about the concerns of people who are displaced by projects and those who are worried about the impact of nuclear projects, the environmental impacts and so on, they are essentially antinational, against national security interests, and amazingly they've come up with a figure saying they're losing the country 3% of GDP per year. Now, the fact that an intelligence bureau can come out with a report like this is mindboggling and it's also deeply worrying because it suggests that the government can now use this as a way of getting after these NGOs and social movements and preventing the kind of popular dissent that would force the government to respect human rights.

HM Jessica, the World Bank, this is kind of your starter for 10 isn't it, because I know that Human Rights Watch published a report last year about what the World Bank should be doing about human rights. Just give me some specifics about where they're falling down now.

JE Sure. So the World Bank has typically seen human rights as beyond its purview which is incredibly troubling considering it is a leading development agency. I agree with Jayati that the World Bank finance as compared to other finance is decreasing in proportion and that governments, whether they be governments that are receiving donor aid or governments that are giving them, are also incredibly important actors when it comes to realising human rights. But the World Bank itself is not held accountable to international human rights standards, instead it creates its own policies that are internal and holds itself accountable to those policies. Therefore it's operating outside of the international human rights framework which is incredibly problematic.

To give you one very recent example, just today Human Rights Watch has published a report in Tajikistan on resettlements linked to the Rogun Dam which is set to be the highest dam in the world. The World Bank has provided financing, looking at both the environmental and the social impacts of this dam, but unfortunately, although the World Bank looks at the degree to which international environmental and water laws are being complied with it doesn't even touch on international human rights law, including the obligations of the Tajik government that the government itself has signed up to.
HM What about people who say, well you have to strike a balance, what's the greater good, is it to have these considerations about human rights or is it to get money to places where people desperately need that money, and that maybe too much concentration on human rights is a bit of a luxury?

JE I think that's creating a false dichotomy here. The international financial institutions and donors can work with governments to create development projects which do respect human rights. They can ensure that communities have the opportunity to meaningfully participate in crafting their own development agendas and then they can work with those communities and with the governments to finance them. It's not a question of whether we go in or not, it's a question of how the international institutions can use their own leverage to support the human rights of people within developing countries.

HM Now of course, Jayati Ghosh, the World Bank may not be the only player in town for long because, of course, China has announced plans to launch a global development institution to rival the World Bank. How, if at all, do you think that will change the dynamic?

JG I think it will change the dynamic in an important way in that in fact the World Bank has been less significant in all development investment and infrastructure investment now for several decades. But we haven't really had significant expansion of the regional banks and the Asian Development Bank really hasn't stepped up to the plate as required. So if the Chinese are actually willing to put their money where their mouth is and dramatically increase this kind of funding it will definitely have an impact. But I would like to highlight another player who I think is being ignored in this, most development investment, so-called, today is in private hands, it's by multinational companies, and this is part of a broader policy stance that has been actively encouraged by the multilateral institutions themselves and by the WTO and others, and we are ignoring the impact that this kind of investment has on human rights. We now have increasing numbers of cases where you have multinational companies that have actually trampled on the rights of local communities and are able to get away with it because of either bilateral investment treaties or regional trade agreements that include investment chapters that effectively protect them through the investor protection clauses, or simply by the operation of US courts which has actually dramatically altered the power balance and limited the ability even when governments want to ensure the realisation of human rights.

HM So Jessica, corporations play a big role here. Do you think we should be doing more to regulate what they do?

JE Absolutely. And actually we have an opportunity at the moment to do just that. The post-2015 agenda on development is currently being negotiated and this provides an opportunity to finally bring into the round corporate accountability. There is a draft goal eight which is currently out there of the sustainable development goals and one way that we can massively improve this goal which is directed at promoting strong inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all, is by including in it a commitment to introduce mandatory requirements on corporations to undertake human rights due diligence around their work and publicly record on their human rights, social and environment impacts, as well as payments that they make to domestic or foreign governments which is essential to counter corruption.

HM Okay, we've talked a lot in the past few minutes about the World Bank, I should say that we did ask the World Bank for a contribution but they weren't able to give us one for this podcast, but Jayati, let me ask you, do you think, they do a lot in this area obviously and face a lot of criticism, is that fair?

JG No, I think it's certainly fair but I think they shouldn't be the only targets of criticism, I think there's a lot that the World Bank does which is really quite wrong and that they should be much more accountable and responsive to the criticism, but really as I mentioned earlier they are not the big players any more; the big players are the rules that are set up by the international treaties and the multinational corporations, who as Jessica mentioned are really currently not legally accountable at all. So I think we need to take much more cognizance of the fact that we have a bit of a free for all globally in terms of the lack of power of the human rights agenda relative to the investor protection agenda, and we need to rectify that imbalance.

HM Okay, well thank you both, that's all that we have time for on that bit of our debate. But thanks to Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at Nehru University, Delhi, and to Jessica Evans of Human Rights Watch, a senior researcher in their Business and Human Rights division, for their contributions. This edition of the Global development podcast was produced by Matt Hill, assisted by Mark Anderson. Don't forget, you can have your say at theguardian.com/global-development. Just click on the link and voilà, you'll get your podcast. Thank you for listening, I hope it was illuminating, my name's Hugh Muir. Until next time, goodbye.

VOCABULARY ABOUT ECONOMY MARKET

1.       Advancement                   : kemajuan

2.       Accuracy                            : ketepatan

3.       Active market                   : pasaran aktif

4.       Advance money               : uang muka

5.       Average price level          : tingkat harga rata-rata

6.       Absolute advantage         : keuntungan absolut

7.       Allocation method           : metode alokasi

8.       Business deduction         : pengurangan bisnis

9.       Capitalism                           : kapitalisme

10.   Collusion                              : kolusi

11.   Circulation of money      : peredaran uang

12.   Decentralization               : desentralisasi

13.   Disincentive                       : disinsentif

14.   Deflation                             : deflasi

15.   Deficit                                   : defisit

16.   Earned income                  : memperoleh penghasilan

17.   Equilibrium                         : keseimbangan pasar

18.   Export                                   : ekspor

19.   Elasticity                               : elastisitas

20.   Funds                                    : dana

21.   Fiscal policy                         : kebijakan fiskal

22.   Firm                                       : firm

23.   Gross Domestic Product               : produk domestic bruto

24.   Import                                  : impor

25.   Inflation                               : inflasi

26.   Interest                                                : bunga

27.   Labor                                     : buruh

28.   Labor market                     : pasar tenaga kerja

29.   Market                                 : pasar

30.   Market clearing price     : pasar harga kliring

31.   Market economy             : ekonomi pasar

32.   Market exchange            : pertukaran pasar

33.   Marketplace                      : marketplace

34.   Monopoly                           : monopoli

35.   Monetary policy               : kebijakan moneter

36.   Open market purchase : pembelian pasar terbuka

37.   Poverty                                                : kemiskinan

38.   Profit                                     : profit

39.   Penalty                                 : penalti

40.   Property rights                  : hak milik

41.   Part-time employment : kerja paruh waktu

42.   Private market                  : pasar swasta

43.   Relative price                     : harga relatif

44.   Rent control                       : kontrol sewa

45.   Scarcity                                 : kelangkaan

46.   Shortage                              : kekurangan

47.   Stock market                     : pasar saham

48.   Total market value          : total nilai saham

49.   Unemployment                               : pengangguran

50.   Wage                                    : upah

Monetary policy

Try overshooting for two years

THIS afternoon, Janet Yellen will release her first Federal Open Market Committee statement as chair and give her first post-meeting press conference. Conventional wisdom is that tapering will continue at its recent pace, and that the FOMC will clarify its forward guidance. It almost certainly won't be announcing a plan to tolerate above-target inflation in order to accelerate the recovery, despite the wisdom of that course. 

In fact, says Tim Duy, overshooting has been off the table since January of 2012, when the Fed announced an official 2% inflation target:

The Committee judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent, as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve's statutory mandate.

Mr Duy adds:

On that day, the Federal Reserve locked in the definition of price stability. They locked it in specifically to prevent even the appearance they might deliberately overshoot as a result of extraordinary monetary policy. They locked it in as a commitment device to tie the hands of future policymakers as they would need to justify changing the definition of price stability, presumably a very high bar for any central banker to cross.

On that day, the Federal Reserve took higher inflation expectations off the table. They pulled it from the toolkit. They made clear there is one and only one inflation target for all time. The only tolerable deviations from that target are essentially forecast errors. That's it.

It's a good post. I certainly agree that the mood of the Fed is not what one would call favourably disposed toward some overshooting. FOMC members came of age in the 1970s; as far as most of them are concerned it is never a bad time to trade off a little more unemployment for a little less inflation. Markets certainly don't expect any overshooting.

But I don't think it is as completely off the table as Mr Duy suggests, for a few reasons. First, policy statements are there to be changed, particularly when the facts justify a switch. At the time the 2% target was set, the median FOMC member projected that the fed funds rate would be 0.75% by the end of this year. Markets now anticipate rates reaching that level in 2016. The longer the Fed maintains its anachronistic policy position, the longer the American economy remains stuck against the zero lower bound. At some point, someone at the Fed may notice this.

Second, while hopes for a more ambitious policy agenda from Ms Yellen have diminished, it is still the case that there is no time for a regime change like a regime change. It's Ms Yellen's Fed now, and her committee may arrive at a different judgment than Mr Bernanke's. It almost certainly won't, but it could.

Third, there is actually a lot of wiggle room around that 2% target. As recent experience has shown: the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures—the magic indicator in the target statement—has been below 2% since April of 2012. Indeed, over the past year inflation has been below 1.2% on average. One might argue that a steadfast commitment to a 2% inflation target demands some overshooting to make up for this long period of underperformance; after all, a central bank that tolerates undershooting of its target but not overshooting is missing its target on average.

Fourth, it's not clear that the Fed has entirely ruled out something of that nature. On the one hand, statements continue to note that the Fed will take a "balanced approach" as it begins to pull back on accommodation. On the other, it was not long ago seen as significant that the the head of the Fed's monetary affairs division was putting his name to researchdemonstrating the benefits of overshooting.

Though it would be the right thing to do, I don't expect the Fed to announce a new 3% inflation target or 5% wage growth target, or declare its intention to make up half of the shortfall in nominal output relative to the pre-crisis trend. Though it would be a very good thing to do, I don't expect them to say that, in order to defend the integrity of their 2% inflation target, they intend to make up the shortfall in inflation accumulated over the past two years with an 18-month period of overshooting. But while I don't expect those things, I don't think they are entirely outside the realm of possibility, nor do I think that the Fed tied its hands forever in January of 2012.

Comment:

Inflation should not be happened in any country because it will harm the country. The poor ones will become poorer and the rich ones will become dumb because of the inflation that will make the price of every human-need increase. Inflation will cause other problems such as poverty (because of the high price the citizens won’t be able to buy their own needs) and unemployment (because the company won’t be able to pay the workers’ salary). Therefore, inflation should be erased so the poverty, unemployment and other economy issues would be gone.

KEGELISAHAN DAN PENGHARAPAN

A.      KEGELISAHAN

Kegelisahan berasal  dari kata “gelisah”. Gelisah artinya rasa yang tidak tentram di hati atau merasa selalu khawatir, tidak dapat tenang (tidurnya),tidak sabar lagi (menanti),cemas dan sebagainya. Kegelisahan artinya perasaan perasahan,khawati, cemas  atau takut dan jijik. Rasa gelisah ini sesuai dengan suatu pendapat yang menyatakan bahwa manusia yang gelisah itu dihantui rasa khawatir atau takut.

Manusia suatu saat dalam hidupnya akan mengalami kegelisah. Kegelisan ini, apabila cukup lama hinggap pada manusia, akan menyebabkan suatu gangguan penyakit. Kegelisahan (ancienty) yang cukup lama akan menghilangkan kemampuan untuk merasa bahagia.

Kegelisahan selalu menunjukan kepada suasana negatif atau ketidak sempurnaan, tetapi mempunyai harapan. Dikatakan negatif atau ketidaksempurnaan karena menyentuh nilai –nilai kemanusiaan yang menimbulkan kerugian. Kegelisahan menunjukan kepada suasana positif dan optimis karena masih ada harapan bebas dari kegelisahan, yang mendorong manusia mencari kesempurnaan dan mendorong manusia supaya kreatif.

Tragedi dunia modern tidak sedikit menyebabkan kegelisahan. Hal ini mungkin akibat kebutuhan hidup yang meningkat rasa individualistis dan egoisme,persaingan dalam hidup, kadaan yang tidak stabil, dan seterusnya. Kegelisahan   dalam konteks budaya dapatlah dikatakan sebagai akibat adanya insting manusia untuk berbudaya,yaitu sebagai upaya mencari “kesempurnaan“. atau, dari segi batin manusia, gelisah sebagai akibat dosa pada hati manusia. Dan tidak jarang akibat kegelisahan seseorang, sekaligus membuat orang lain menjadi korbannya.

Penyebeb kegelisahan dapat pula dikatakan akibat mempunyai kemampuan untuk membaca dunia dan mengetahui misteri kehidupan. Kehidupan ini yang menyebabkan mereka gelisah. Mereka sendiri tidak tahu mengapa mereka gelisah, mereka hidupnya kosong dan tidak mempunyai arti. Orang yang tidak mempunyai dasar dalam menjalankan tugas (hidup), sering ditimpa kegelisahan. Kegelisahan yang demikian sifatnya abstrak sehingga disebut kegelisan murni, yaitu merasa gelisah tanpa mengetahui apa kegelisahannya, seolah-olah tanpa sebab.

Ini berbeda dengan kegelisahan “terapan” yang terjadi dalam peristiwa kehidupan sehari-hari, seperti kegelisahan karena anaknya  sampaimalam belum pulang, orang tua yang sakit keras, istrinya yang sedang melahirkan, diasingkan oleh orang-orang sekitarnya, melakukan perbuatan dosa yang ditentang nuraninya, dan sebagainya.

Alasan mendasar mengapa manusia gelisah ialah karena manusia memiliki hati dan perasaan. Bentuk kegelisahannya berupa keterasingan, kesepian, dan ketidakpastian. Perasaan-perasaan semacam ini silih berganti dengan kebahagiaan, kegembiraan dalam kehidupan manusia. Persaan seseorang yang sedang gelisah, ialah hatinya tidak tenteram, merasa khawatir, cemas, takut, jijik dan sebagainya.

Perasaan cemas menurut Sigmun Freud ada tiga macam, yaitu:

1.      Kecemasan obyektif, kegelisahan ini mirip dengan kegelisahan terapan, seperti anaknya yang belum pulang, orang tua yang sedang sakit keras, dan sebagainya.

2.      Kecemasan neurotik (saraf). Hal ini timbul akibat pengamatan tentang bahaya dari naluri. Contohnya dalam penyesuaian diri dengan lingkungan, rasatakut yang irasional semacam fobia, rasa gugup, dan sebagainya.

3.      Kecemasan moral. Hal ini muncul dari emosi diri sendiri seperti perasaan iri, dengki, dendam, hasud, marah, rendah diri, dan sebagainya.

Uraian tentang penderitaan disini dianalogikan dengan perasaan gelisah (kegelisahan hati) sebagai akibat kecemasan moral. Untuk mengatasi kegelisahan ini (dalam ajaran islam), manusia diperintahkan untuk meningkatkan iman, takwa, dan amal shaleh. Seperti difirmankan : “Sesungguhnya manusia diciptakan bersifat keluh kesah lagi kikir, apabila ditempa kesusahan, ia berkeluh kesah, tetapi bila ia mendapatkan kebaikan, ia amat kikir, kecuali orang-orang yang mengerjakan shalat, mereka yang tetap mengrjakan shalatnya, dan orang-orang yang dalam hartanya tersedia bagian tertentu bagi orang miskin (yang tidak dapat meminta), dan orang-orang yang mempercayai hari pembalasan, dan orang-orang yang takut terhadap adzab Tuhannya.’’

Hanya dengan cara mendekatkan diri kepada Tuhan, maka hati gelisah manusia akan hilang. Mendekatkan diri bukan hanya dengan cara melalui hubungan vertikal dengan Tuhan, tetepi juga melalui hubungan horizontal dengan sesame manusia sebagaimana diperintahkan oleh Tuhan sendiri.

Tentang kecemasan ini Sigmund freud membedakan menjadi tiga macam: kecemasan kenyataan (obyektif), kecemasan neurotic, dan kecemasan moral.

·         Sebab-sebab orang gelisah

Selanjutnya bila kita kaji, sebab-sebab orang gelisah adalah karena pada hakikatnya orang takut kehilangan hak-haknya. Hal itu adalah akibat dari sesuatu ancaman, baik ancaman dari luar maupun dari dalam.

Secara lentur, kegelisahan bisa dikatakan sebagai rasa tidak tenteram, rasa selalu khawatir, rasa tidak tenang, rasa tidak sabar, cemas, dan semacamnya. Yang jelas kegelisahan berkaitan dengan rasa yang berkembang dalam diri manusia.

Dari penjelasan diatas kita dapat memahami bahwa kegelisahan merupakan bagian hidup manusia. Tiap manusia dengan tidak mempedulikan latar belakang dan kemampuannya, pasti akan mengalami kegelisahan, entah sebentar atau lama, relative ringan atau berat. Yang demikian ini boleh jadi sangat wajar mengingat manusia memiliki hati dan perasaan.

Sebagai fenomena yang universal, artinya mampu mendera manusia yang manapun juga, kegelisahan itu bisa muncul lantaran faktorpenyebab yang berbeda-beda. Dengan meminjam teori Sigmund Freud, kendatipunia secara khusus berbicara tentang kecemasan, kita bisa melihat adanya tiga macam kegelisahan (baca: kecemasan), yaitu obyektif, neurotik, dan moral. Yang pertama obyektif, bersumber pada sesuatu kekuatan yang ada diluar diri manusia. Kegelisahan semacam ini bisa muncul dari antisipasi seseorang, dengan berdasar kepada pengalaman perasaannya, terhadap kemungkinan adanya bahaya yang mengganggu dirinya.

Yang kedua atau neurotic, dalam satu dan lain kasus lebih disebabkan  kepribadianoleh bisikan naluri seseorang. Kegelisaan semacam ini bisa saja muncul akibat munculnya rasa takut tidak mampu menyesuaikan diri dengan lingkungan, mumcul rasa takut yang irrasional atau yang biasa disebut fobia, dan kecenderungan seseorang untuk selalu gugup atau tergagap dalam menyikapi sesuatu persoalan yang dihadapi. Dan kegelisahan moral biasanya diakibatkan oleh munculnya perasaan bersalah satu malu yang sebenarnya dikendalikan oleh hati nuraninya. Jadi, kegelisahan moral lebih bersumber pada struktur kepribadian seseorang.

Upaya mengidentifikasiakn adanya berbagai macam kegelisahan atau kecemasan seperti disebut di atas tidaklah semata-mata menjadi kapasitas dunia keilmuan, yang dalam konteks ini diwakili oleh pemikiran Freud, dokter Australia yang gema pengaruhnya mampu menembus disiplin-disiplin psikologi, psikiatri, sosiologi, antropologi, bahkan filsafat. Akan dengan cara  bertutur yang berbeda upaya identifikasi tersebut sudah pula dilakukan oleh para seniman. Ini boleh jadi lantaran kegelisahan, termaksuk kecemasan didalamnya, boleh dibilang fenomen yang paling lengket dalam diri seniman.

Seniman memandang alam berbeda dengan pandangan seseorang yang bukan seniman. Kadang-kadang satu hal yang sepele menurut orang biasa, tetapi lewat garapan imajinasi seorang seniman sesuatu tadi menjadi lebih berarti. Namun demikian satu hal tidak bisa dipungkiri bahwa setiap seniman adalah seorang pencari yang tak pernah ketemu, atau seperti seseorang pejalan yang tak pernah sampai. Dalam pencarian itu ia gelisah mencari dan terus mencari. Ia mencari kedalam alam fisik, dan terutama kedalam alam rohani. Ia merambah waktu dan jaman. Dan ia membuka simpul-simpul kerahasiaan. Seperti manusia umumnya, seniman pun ditengah pencariaannya merasa gelisah. Merasa adanya ketidaktenangan ditengah pencariaannya selalu merasa gelisah. Merasa adanya ketidaktenangan ditenga ketenangan yang dicarinya. Ini bisa dimengerti mengingat seniman bagaimanapun adalah bagian dari masyarakat yang juga memikirkan situasi masyarakat sekitarnya.

Kesabaran amat penting guna mencar ketentraman batin. Sabar diperlukan dalam menghadapi berbagai cobaan serta hal-hal yang tidak menyenangkan. Untuk memperoleh sifat sabar itu diperlukan latihan dan pembiasaan, serta perlu dukungan permohonan Allah.

Freud, sebagaimana disinggung diatas, melihat kondisi obyektif yang ada disekitar manusia bisa menjadi penyebab kegelisahannya. Dalam dunia seni dan sastra,suatu kondisi obyektif tidak hanya berpengaruh terhadap pesan-pesan yang ingin disampaikan seseorang melaui karya-karya seni dan sastranya. Akan tetapi lebih luas dari itu bahkan kondisi-kodisi tertentu ikut berpengaruh terhadap proses kreatifitas sang seniman.

TANGGUNG JAWAB

A.      PENGERTIAN TANGGUNG JAWAB

Tanggung jawab menurut kamus umum Bahasa Indonesia adalah, keadaan wajib menanggung segala sesuatunya. Tanggung jawab adalah kesadaran manusia akan tingkah laku atau perbuatannya yang disengaja maupun yang tidak di sengaja. Tanggung jawab juga berarti berbuat sebagai perwujudan kesadaran akan kewajibannya

Contoh Orang Bertanggung Jawab :

Bonar ialah seorang pegawai yang tekun dalam melaksanakan tugasnya. Ia datang sebelum waktu kerja dimulai. Tanpa banyak bicara dikerjakan tugasnya. Setelah selesai tugas yang dikerjakan, ia memberikan hasil pekerjaannya kepada atasannya sebagai pertanggungjawabannya. Ia pun tidak banyak hilir mudik dikantornya untuk persoalan kepentingannya sendiri, seperti buang air, mencari inakanan atau minuman. Ia pun pulang pada waktu jam kantornya usai. Bila ada pertanyaan dari atasannya tentang pekerjaan yang dilakukan, ia pun memberikan jawaban secara baik dan pasti. Ia dapat memberikan pertanggungjawaban atas tugas-tugas yang diberikan kepadanya, sehingga konduitenya baik, naik pangkat pada waktunya, dan memperoleh penghargaan khusus waktu tertentu.

B.      MACAM-MACAM TANGGUNG JAWAB

Manusia itu berjuang memenuhi keperluannya sendiri atau untuk keperluan pihak lain. Untuk itu ia manghadapi manusia lain dalam masyarakat atau menghadapi lingkungan alam. Dalam usahanya itu manusia juga menuadari bahwa ada kekuatan lain yang ikut menentukan yaitu kekuasaan Tuhan.

1)      Tanggung jawab terhadap diri sendiri

Tanggug jawab terhadap diri sendiri menuntut kesadaran setiap orang untuk memenuhi kewajibannya sendiri dalam mengembangkan kepribadian sebagai manusia pribadi.

2)      Tanggung jawab terhadap keluarga

Keluarga merupakan masyarakat kecil. Keluarga terdiri dari suami-istri, ayah-ibu dan anak-anak, dan juga orang lain yang menjadi anggota keluarga. Tiap anggota keluarga wajib bertanggung jawab kepada keluarganya. Tanggung jawab ini menyangkut nama baik keluarga. Tetapi tanggung jawab juga merupakan kesejahteraan, keselamatan, pendidikan, dan kehidupan.

3)      Tanggung jawab terhadap Masyarakat

Pada hakekatnya manusia tidak bisa hidup tanpa bantuan manusia lain, sesuai dengan kedudukannya sebagai mahluk sosial.

4)      Tanggung jawab kepada Bangsa / Negara

Suatu kenyataan lagi, bahwa tiap manusia, tiap individu adalah warga negara suatu negara. Dalam berpikir, berbuat, bertindak, bertingkah laku manusia terikat oleh norma-norma atau ukuran-ukuran yang dibuat oleh negara.

Contoh :

Dalam novel jalan tak ada ujung karya Muchtar Lubis, Gum Isa yang tekenal sebagai guru yang baik, terpaksa mencuri barang-barang milik sekolah demi rumah tangganya., Perbuatan guru ini bisa pula dipertanggungjawabkan kepada KEPSEK kalau perbuataan itu diketahui ia dapat berurusan dengan pihak kepolisian dan pengadilan.

5)      Tanggung jawab terhadap Tuhan

Tuhan menciptakan manusia di bumi ini bukanlah tanpa tanggung jawab, melainkan untuk mengisi kehidupannya manusia mempunyai tanggung jawab langsang terhadap Tuhan. Sehingga tindakan manusia tidak bisa lepas dari hukuman-hukuman Tuhan yang dituangkan dalam berbagai kitab suci melalui berbagai macam agama.

 

C.      PENGABDIAN DAN PENGORBANAN

Wujud tanggung jawab juga berupa pengabdian dan pengorbanan. Pengabdian dan pengorbanan adalah perbuatan baik untuk kepentingan manusia itu sendiri.

1)      Pengabdian

Pengabdian adalah perbuatan baik yang berupa pikiran, pendapat ataupun tenaga sebagai perwujudan kesetiaan, cinta, kasih sayang, honnat, atau satu ikatan dan semua itu dilakukan dengan ikhlas.

2)      Pengorbanan

Pengorbanan berasal dari kata korban atau kurban yang berarti persembahan, sehinggaa pengorbanan berarti pemberian untuk menyatakan kebaktian. Dengan demikian pengorbanan yang bersifat kebaktian itu mengandung unsur keikhlasan yang tidak mengandung pamrih. Suatu pemberian yang didasarkan atas kesadaran moral yang tulus ikhlas semata-mata.Perbedaan antara pengertian pengabdian dan pengorbanan tidak begitu jclas. Karena adanya pengabdian tentu ada pengorbanan. Antara sesama kawan, sulit dikatakan pengabdian, karena kata pengabdian mengandung arti lebih rendah tingkatannya. Tetapi untuk kata pengorbanan dapat juga diterapkan kepada sesama teman. Pengorbanan merupakan akibat dari pengabdian. Pengorbanan dapat berupa harta benda, pikiran, perasaan, bahkan dapat juga berupa jiwanya. Pengorbanan diserahkan secara ikhlas tanpa pamrih, tanpa ada perjanjian, tanpa ada transaksi, kapan saja diperlukan. Pengabdian lebih banyak menunjuk kepada perbuatan sedangkan, pengorbanan lebih banyak menunjuk kepada pemberian sesuatu misalnya berupa pikiran, perasaan, tenaga, biaya, waktu. Dalam pengabdian selalu dituntut pengorbanan, tetapi pengorbanan belum tentu menuntut pengabdian.

Contoh Pengabdian :

Kesediaan seorang guru sekolah dasar ditempatkan di pelosok terpencil daerah transmigrasi, adalah pengabdian yang juga menuntut pengorbanan. Dikatakan pengabdian karena ia mengajar di situ tanpa menerima gaji dari pemerintah, tanpa diurus oleh pihak berwenang usul pengangkatannya, ia hanya bertanggung jawab untuk kemajuan dan kecerdasan masyarakat / bangsanya. la hanya menerima penghargaan dan belas kasihan dari masyarakat setempat. Pengorbanan yang ia berikan berupa tenaga, pikiran, waktu untuk kepentingan anak didiknya.

Tanggung jawab memang sangat diperlukan dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Tanggung jawab harus ditanamkan sejak dini. Jika tidak, maka generasi yang akan datang tidak akan mempunyai tanggung jawab yang seutuhnya. Tanggung jawab juga dapat membantu dalam membentuk karakter seseorang. Cara masing-masing orang dalam bertanggung jawab berbeda-beda. Tergantung dari karakter orang tersebut.