Brexit, Waktu dan Manusia

Ada seekor kucing duduk tenang persis di depan pintu 10 Downing Sreet, rumah jabatan Perdana Menteri Inggris. Waktu London menunjukkan pukul 06.57 pagi, Kamis, 23 Juni 2016. Karena saya melihatnya melalui siaran CNN di New York, dari segi waktu saya masih tertinggal di belakang: pukul 01.59 dini hari.

Kucing tersebut hanya sesaat berada di situ. Tanpa ada yang mengusik, ia berlalu begitu saja. Dalam konteks ingatan, pemandangan ini membawa saya kepada salah satu adegan sinetron Si Doel Anak Betawi yang ditayangkan pertengahan 1990-an. Ketika Benyamin, ayah Si Doel, menerima sepucuk surat yang menyebutkan bahwa Doel diterima kerja di sebuah tambang minyak di sebuah pulau yang jauh dari Tanah Betawi, ia marah besar. Surat dan amplopnya diremas-remas dan di lempar ke depan pintu. Seekor kucing, yang menyangka itu makanan, berusaha mengunyahnya.

'Kucing 10 Downing Street' di atas tentu tak berasal dari Betawi. Dia tanpa sengaja ketika kamerawan CNN menyorot pintu rumah kediaman resmi PM Inggris itu. Sudah pasti, kehadiran sang kucing tidak relevan dalam drama keluarnya Inggris (Brexit) dari komunitas Uni Eropa (UE) yang sedang dipertontonkan CNN itu.

Saya tidak mencatat berapa persen kejatuhan nilai poundsterling, mata uang Inggris, ketika kucing tersebut beranjak pergi pukul 06.57 pagi waktu London atau pukul 01.59 dini hari waktu New York. Yang tercatat, pukul 00.21 waktu New York Jumat itu, poundsterling telah jatuh 13,22 persen terhadap dollar AS.

Ini adalah akibat rakyat Inggris, dalam referendum bersejarah, memilih negara itu keluar dari keanggotaannya dalam UE. Sampai dengan pukul 23.08, seperti yang saya lihat di layar CNN, mereka yang memilih Leave (keluar dari UE) telah mencapai 51,20 persen di dalam referendum itu. Karena-seperti akan disinggung di bawah-ekspektasi "rasional" dalam konteks ekonomi adalahRemain (tetap menjadi anggota UE), nilai poundsterling segera terjungkal ketika batas garis "rasional" itu ditabrak.

Drama manusia

Ketika arah atau pilihan Leave semakin jelas, pemimpin United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage melalui wawancara CNN, pukul 23.40 waktu New York, memperkenalkan frasa baru atas drama ini: beyond dare to dream. Pada mulanya, saya hanya mencatat saja kemunculan frasa ini. Esok harinya, Financial Times (yang terbit pada 23 Juni, yaitu hari referendum berlangsung) yang saya baca dalam penerbangan New York-Amsterdam, frasa beyond dare to dream ini lebih bisa saya pahami. Harian ini memuat hasil polling tentang adanya teori persekongkolan (conspiracy theory).

Di situ disebutkan bahwa 46 persen Brexiters (kalangan yang menginginkan Inggris keluar dari UE) percaya bahwa perhitungan suara referendum itu akan dicurangi. Bahkan, hasil wawancara eksperimental Prof Karen Douglas dari Kent University atas 400 sampel menghasilkan data menarik: sebagian besar percaya bahwa bukan saja akan adanya kecurangan perhitungan hasil referendum itu, melainkan juga percaya bahwa M15, lembaga intelijen Inggris yang terkenal itu, ikut terlibat memenangkan Remainders (kalangan yang mendukung Inggris tetap di dalam UE). Jadi, ketika referendum itu ternyata memenangkan "the Leave", rasa lega pendukungnya bersifat "mengejutkan". Inilah makna frasa beyond dare to dream di atas.

Dan bagi penentang Remainders, kemenangan ini dianggap mewakili rakyat. Politisi UKIP, Ray Finch, yang diwawancarai CNN pukul 01.50 waktu New York, Kamis itu, menyebut referendum itu telah menyebabkan people more involve. Yang dimaksud people di sini adalah kalangan kelas bawah kelompok kurang terpelajar (less educated groups). Mereka, di dalam kerangka UE, merasa tidak berdaya. Sebab, seluruh kebijakan dan orientasi ekonomi Inggris ditentukan kaum elite. "They want more protection," ujar komentator politik Inggris dalam percakapan CNN pukul 00.52, waktu New York, Kamis itu. Jadi, jika ingin disimpulkan apa yang ditekankan Ray Fich, gerakan "the Leave" adalah perlawanan rakyat atas dominasi elite sepanjang Inggris menjadi anggota UE. "Rakyat"? Sampai di sini saya tiba-tiba berhadapan dengan kerancuan konseptual.

Karena ingin merokok, saya keluar hotel pukul 00.00 waktu New York. Ketika asap saya kepulkan, seorang gelandangan kulit putih meminta rokok itu. Ketika saya menampik, ia menjauh beberapa langkah, lalu membungkuk. Puntung rokok yang tergeletak di tepi jalan raya diambil. Tanpa saya tahu prosesnya, puntung itu sudah menyala. Dan, dekat tong sampah, ia menghisapnya dalam-dalam. Ini mendorong saya memberikan sebatang rokok yang diterima dengan tangan kiri.

Akan tetapi, tiba-tiba saya dikejutkan dengan seorang gelandangan kulit hitam yang ikut menghampiri. Dengan wajah tanpa ekspresi, ia menuntut hak yang sama, seperti sejawat kulit putihnya. Sambil menatap matanya yang kemerahan, rokok saya sodorkan. Sambil menerima "racun" itu, juga dengan tangan kiri, ia berlalu dengan begitu saja.

Saya memang berusaha menarik garis dramatis tentang apa yang dimaksudkan "rakyat" oleh politisi UKIP di atas dengan para gelandangan New York yang menghampiri saya hampir-walau berbeda benua-pada waktu yang sama itu. Perasaan subyektif dan aneh ini kian saya rasakan pukul 03.55 waktu New York, yakni ketika CNN menampilkan tulisan "PM Cameron resigns after Brexit vote", saya kembali turun ke jalan. Kali ini, saya melihat seorang gelandangan kulit hitam yang menyeret kursi roda. Celana jinsnya robek, hingga ia lebih tampak mengenakan rok. Setelah berdiam tanpa suara selama 10 menit, ia menyeberangi jalan kota New York yang kian sepi itu. Dari seberang jalan, saya melihat ia membuka-buka tong-tong sampah di depan sebuah restoran Thailand.

Jadi, beberapa menit setelah Cameron memutuskan mundur dari jabatannya di London, seorang jelata di New York menyeberang jalan untuk mengais-ngais sampah, mencari sesuatu yang bisa dimanfaatkannya.

Kelas lokal versus kelas global

Walau pernah dikecam The Economist, karena tidak memihak mekanisme ekonomi pasar dalam kebijakan kelistrikannya beberapa tahun lalu, PM Cameron adalah lambang "Kelas Global" dalam drama Brexit ini. Para pemimpin UE masygul dan "marah" dengan hasil referendum ini.

Seperti dicatat Financial Time (FT) Weekend sehari setelah itu, Jumat dan Sabtu, 24-25 Juni, mereka menyatakan tak akan ada perundingan ulang tentang keanggotaan Inggris dalam UE. Bahkan, mereka menuntut Inggris segera melakukan langkah perundingan tentang hengkangnya dan mencabut ayat 50 perjanjian UE, yaitu ketetapan batas waktu dua tahun bagi pengunduran diri sebuah negara dalam keanggotaan komunitas itu. Akan tetapi, ini penting, kemarahan itu tidak tertuju kepada Cameron. "EU officials said that their warning was not aimed at Mr Cameron but at his successor."

Di sini jelas PM Cameron, bersama dengan pendukung the Remain, adalah sekutu "Kelas Global". Dan kepentingan mereka segera bertumbangan hari itu juga ketika Brexit menjadi pilihan rakyat Inggris. FT Weekend mencatat: nilai poundsterling tenggelam ke tingkat 30 tahun sebelumnya, Indeks FTSE 100 anjlok 8,7 persen pada pembukaan walau mereda menjadi 4,3 persen. Saham perbankan juga anjlok, dengan Llyods menukik 21 persen, Royal Bank of Scotland jatuh 18 persen, dan Deutsche Bank tumbang sebesar14 persen. Dan indeks the Euro Stoxx bank jatuh 17 persen "back to levels last seen at the debt of eurozone crisis in August 2012", tulis FT Weekend.

Bersamaan dengan itu, saham-saham Amerika Serikat ikut terjungkal lebih dari 2 persen ketika aktor-aktor Wall Street "join a global flight to safety", tambah FT Weekend.

Akan tetapi, apa makna "kemenangan" "Kelas Lokal" dalam drama Brexit ini? Ketika diwawancara CNN pukul 04.21, Kamis waktu New York itu, Wali Kota London Sadiq Khan berkata: "Jika rakyat Inggris ingin memperoleh akses kepada 500 juta penduduk Eropa, mereka harus melihat Paris dan Berlin." Kita bisa menafsirkan bahwa Sadiq menginginkan rakyat Inggris lebih membuka cakrawala pandangan. Namun, tekanan Sadiq sebenarnya adalah nasib ekonomi Inggris. Ke mana mereka harus berdagang jika melupakan atau menghindar berinteraksi dengan 500 juta penduduk Eropa daratan?

Walhasil, "kemenangan" "Kelas Lokal" dalam drama Brexit ini pada esensinya adalah perlawanan atas waktu dan arus kemajuan manusia. Ketika politisi UKIP Ray Fich di atas menyatakan "people more involve", maka yang dimaksud adalah rakyat kelas bawah Inggris yang kian kalah bersaing, bukan saja dalam formasi pertarungan ekonomi lingkup UE, melainkan juga dengan kaum pendatang. Maka, bersamaan dengan semangat anti globalisme, kian terasa pula semangat anti pendatang. Brexit, tampaknya, menandai kekalahan rakyat Inggris atas waktu dan kemajuan manusia.

oleh Fachry Ali

disadur dari Kompas, Senin, 11 Juli 2016

versi Bahasa Inggris dapat dibaca di sini

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