Opinion

MDGs, PESANTREN MAY COUNTER NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION
By Abd A’la

Many people acknowledge that besides ushering in number of positive changes, globalization has also had negative impacts for humankind, especially for the people of Second and Third World countries. Sardar (2003), for example, is of the opinion that globalization exerts great pressure on those people as it follows the economic and culturally imperialistic path of the West.
Sardar further stated that globalization has developed a number of dominant cultural practices and value that are based on the concept that life should be pursued by causing damage to other parties. This concept produces serious consequences in that not only are local tradition and non-Western cultural practices destroyed, but also it also completely negates a future that that is non-Western oriented or affiliated. The only possible future available is that which must be moulded through a single line of pursuit.
This phenomenon is triggered not only by Western domination, but also more importantly by poverty and the rudimentary condition of education in most world communities, except in the West. Pertaining to this, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a program to reduce the number of poor people in the world is, directly or indirectly, of great significance in decreasing the negative impacts of globalization.
Within this context, MDGs are expected to play an optimal role on the condition that this UN program truly extricates poor people from their deprived position, improve their education standards, and ultimately enable them to become responsible member of society. It is therefore important that this global project be developed along situations that really exist in society, and within the overall framework of community potential.
In time, the improved and enabled community would be able to address critically the on-going globalization process and thus would not become mere victims of the acquisitive transnational companies supported by Western countries.
Within the Indonesian setting, where the majority of poor and backward people live in the rural areas, pesantren (islamic boarding schools) that are widely scattered in the villages can definitely play an active role in the implementation of the program. These schools have always been close to the community because of their basic education philosophy, which is from, for and by community, and as such, they are great assets to support the MDGs program. Furthermore, the successes achieved by those Islamic schools in community development during the 1780s and 1980s certainly need to be recreated.
However, in order to achieve those ideal conditions again, pesantren need to upgrade themselves and make internal improvements because the fact of the matter is that currently pesantren are still facing an assortment of problems making it doubtful whether they could play an effective role in addressing globalization in critical manner. One pressing problem that must be taken care of immediately is the fact that the education curriculum of pesantren is trapped by one or other of the following two extreme poles. A number of pesantren still adhere to an education curriculum that is too inward-looking, limited and seemingly exclusive. Another group is entangled within network of aimless and copycat curricula, which undermine the very principle, and values of pesantren.
Both situations are equally disadvantageous, making it difficult for Islam Boarding Schools to respond positively to the developments and changes in social life especially because of globalization. Those pesantren that are sucked down by an archaic curriculum will definitely be mesmerized by historic romanticism, which would make them uncertain in pursuing and untangling the complexities of life.
Similarly, those pesantren with purposeless and copycat curriculum would lose their identity, and quite possibly lose their noble values, becoming trampled by pragmatic considerations and the like.
Another problem facing pesantren is the dissolution or diminishing of their independence, with more and more of them becoming increasingly dependent on outside institutions. Already quite a number of pesantren have been co-opted by the state causing these education institutions, which in the past played a significant role in developing and strengthening civil societies, to lose their courage and become powerless.
A number of pesantren, usually through their leaders, have also been observed to be actively involved in politics, causing the institutions to lose their ability to develop democratic and nationalistic policies and instead fall into the trap of primordial sentiments and sectarianism. The interests of the people and the nation, which had been one of the objectives of pesantren, have been traded for the interests of groups and cliques.
This current situation inhibits pesantren from making positive contributions to Indonesia and her people in critically addressing the transformation phase of globalization. It has become necessary to exercise an introspective reconstruction.
Reconstructing pesantren requires a number of unconditional prerequisites to be established. Such as to have a critical open mindset in which pesantren are expected to open up and be willing to observe all kind of development that are taking place. At the same time, pesantren need also to develop their expertise to select those useful items and events, which they should develop and absorb into their institutions, without prejudice, preconception, or apologies. It is upon such foundation that the educational and social reconstruction should be carried out.
The aforementioned reconstruction steps are expected to lead to pesantren, and ultimately also the community, to have a critical and creative retrospective attitude in observing, addressing and generating policies in response to the problems of life, particularly those that arise from globalization and its negative impacts. It is important that pesantren and the community should not run away from the facts of life, be dragged into a sea of difficulties or become trapped into an apologetic attitude that can never solve problems. Globalization as a reality can no longer be regarded as a threat, but should be accepted as a challenge that must be addressed. Islamic Boarding Schools and their respective communities should be able to control globalization and eventually render it into a more human, moral and truly welfare-generating lifestyle.
However, it should be noted that this all depends on the competence and readiness of pesantren to conduct self-correction followed by self-improvement. If they fail to do so, the ideal situation will remain Utopian, an unattainable dream, and instead of taking control of globalization, pesantren and their communities would become easy prey for negative impacts of globalization.

Published on The Point, Desember 20, 2006