Brexit, Time and People

There was a cat sitting quietly right in front of the door of Number 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister. The time in London was 6:57 a.m. on Thursday, June, 23, 2016. As I saw through a CNN broadcast in New York, in terms of time, I was still lagging behind at 1:59 a.m.

The cat was just a moment there. Without being disturbed, the cat passed away. In the context of memory, the scene brought me to one of the scenes from the soap opera of Si Doel Anak Betawi, which was broadcast in the mid 1990s. When Benyamin, the father of Si Doel, received a letter informing him that Si Doel was accepted to work at an oil mine on an island far away from Betawi land, he was furious. The letter was squeezed and thrown into the front of the door. A cat, which thought it was food, tried to eat it.

"The cat at Number 10 Downing Street" of course did not come from Betawi. It was accidentally there when a CNN cameraman shot the door of the official residence of the British prime minister. Certainly, the presence of the cat was not relevant to the exit of Britain (Brexit) from the European Union (EU).

I did not record how much of a percent the downfall of the value of poundsterling was, when the cat moved away at 6:57 a.m., London time, or 1:59 a.m. in New York. At 12:21 a.m., New York time on Friday, the poundsterling fell by 13.22 percent against US dollar.

This was the effect of the British people, who in the historic referendum, chose that their country should go out of the EU. As of 11:08 p.m., as I saw on the CNN screen, those who chose to leave reached 51.20 percent in the referendum. Because -- as will be discussed below -- the "rational" expectation in the economic context was to remain (continue to be a member of EU), the value of poundsterling immediately tumbled when the "rational" boundary line was hit.

Human drama

When the direction or choice to leave was increasingly obvious, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage through a CNN interview at 11:40 p.m., New York time, introduced a new phrase over the drama: Dare to dream. Initially, I only wrote the appearance of this phrase. The next day, after reading the Financial Times (FT, published on June 23, when the referendum took place), which I read on the New York-Amsterdam flight, I could better understand the phrase "dare to dream". The daily newspaper ran the results of a poll about a conspiracy theory.

It mentioned that 46 percent of Brexiters (those who wanted British exit from the EU) believed that the counting of the referendum vote would be rigged. The result of an experimental interview from Prof. Karen Douglas from Kent University on 400 samples produced interesting data: Most believed that not only would there be cheating in the calculation of the referendum results, but also that M15, the famous British intelligence institution, would be involved to help the Remainers (those who wanted Britain to remain in the EU) win. So when "Leave" won in the referendum, the feeling of relief among supporters was "shocking". This was the meaning of the above-mentioned phrase of dare to dream.

And for the naysayers against the Remainers, the victory was thought to represent the people. UKIP politician Ray Finch, who was interviewed by CNN at 1:50 a.m., New York time, on Thursday, said the referendum had caused more people to be more involved. What was meant by the people here was the less educated section of society. They, within the framework of the EU, felt helpless. Because, all the policies and economic orientation of Britain were determined by the elite.

"They want more protection," said a British political commentator in a conversation with CNN at 12:52 a.m., the New York time, on Thursday. So, if we want to conclude what Fay Fich emphasized, the movement of "Leave" was a people's struggle against the domination of the elite throughout the British membership in EU. "People"? To this end, I was suddenly faced with a conceptual confusion.

Because I wanted to smoke, I went out of the hotel at midnight, New York time. When I puffed the smoke, a white vagrant asked for my cigarette. When I turned him down, he took several steps away, then bowed. He took a cigarette butt on the edge of the highway. Without knowing the process, the butt had been ignited. And, near a dustbin, he inhaled it deeply. This encouraged me to give him a cigarette, which was received by his left hand.

However, suddenly I was startled by a black vagrant who approached me. With a face without expression, he demanded his right, the same as his white counterpart. While looking at his red eyes, I handed over a cigarette to him. While receiving this "poison", also with his left hand, he passed away.

I wanted to draw a dramatic line on purpose about what was meant by "the people" from the UKIP politician with the homeless of New York, who approached me nearly -- even though from different continents -- at the same time. I increasingly felt a subjective and strange feeling at 3:55 a.m., New York time, when CNN ran a text saying "PM Cameron resigns after Brexit vote". I went down again to the street. This time, I saw a black vagrant dragging a wheelchair. His jeans were torn so that he seemed to wear a skirt. After a silence for 10 minutes, he crossed the street of New York that was increasingly deserted. From the other side of the street, I saw him open dustbins in front of a Thai restaurant.

So, several minutes after Cameron decided to resign from his post in London, a vagrant in New York crossed a highway to scavenge for garbage, looking for something that can be utilized.

Local class versus global class

Even though he was criticized by The Economist for not taking the side of the market economic mechanism in his electricity mechanism several years ago, PM Cameron is the epitome of "global class" in the Brexit drama. The EU leaders were downhearted and "angry" with the result of the referendum.

As noted by the FT Weekend one day after, Friday and Saturday, June 24-25, there would be no renegotiation of British membership in the EU. They even demanded that Britain immediately negotiate the departure and the repeal of paragraph 50 of the EU treaty, namely the provision of a two-year time limit for the withdrawal of a country in the membership of the community. However, this was important, the anger was not aimed at Cameron. "EU officials said that their warning was aimed not at Mr. Cameron but at his successor."

Here it was clear that Cameron, together with supporters of Remain, were allies of the "global class". And their interests soon collapsed on that same day when Brexit became the choice of the people of England. FT Weekend noted: The value of poundsterling sank to a level 30 years earlier, the FTSE 100 index tumbled 8.7 percent at the open even though it bounced back to 4.3 percent, Lloyds dipped 21 percent, Royal Bank of Scotland fell 18 percent, and Deutsche Bank fell 14 percent. And the Euro Stoxx bank fell 17 percent, "back to the levels last seen at the eurozone crisis in August 2012," FT Weekend reported.

At the same time, US stocks also tumbled more than 2 percent when Wall Street actors "joined a global flight to safety", FT Weekend added.

However, is that the meaning of the "victory" for the "local class" in the Brexit drama? When interviewed by CNN at 4:21 a.m., New York time, on Thursday, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "If the people of Britain want to gain access to the 500 million people in Europe, they should see Paris and Berlin." We can interpret that Sadiq wants the people of Britain to open their horizon view more widely. However, Sadiq' s emphasis was actually the fate of the British economy. Where will they trade if they forget or avoid interaction with the 500 million people on mainland Europe?

As a result, in essence the "victory" of the "local class" in the Brexit drama is the resistance of the timing and the flow of human progress. When UKIP politician Ray Fich stated the "people are more involved", what was meant was that British people of the lower class are increasingly losing in economics and with immigrants. Then, alongside the spirit of anti-globalism, the spirit of anti-immigration was increasingly felt. Brexit, apparently, marks the defeat of the British people against time and human progress.

by Fachry Ali

source Kompas, Monday, July 11, 2016 
Indonesian version can be read here