[GELORA45] The Hothouse Generation

[kh djie dji...@gmail.com [GELORA45]]

Tertarik dengan istilah bung Lin " ingusan", saya cari di bukuEzra F.
Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.
Ini tulisannya di halaman 632 dan 633 :
The Hothouse Generation and a postponement of Hope.
The students and older intellectuals who took part in the 1989
demonstrations—like intellectuals throughout Chinese history—felt a deep
sense of responsibility for the fate of their country. They were, however,
a hothouse generation, with little experience outside their schools and
universities. Unlike the students of the late 1940s, they had not spent
years building an organization to attain power. Unlike the students of the
early 1980s, they had not been tempered by political campaigns, struggles
during the Cultural Revolution, or work in the countryside. They were the
ablest students of their generation, but they had been tested by
examinations instead of experiences—they were the sheltered beneficiaries
of academic reform in the best middle schools and universities of the
country. Moreover, these students had grown up at a time in Chinese history
that offered no space for independent political activists to organize and
test their ideas. The demonstrators were not members of political
organizations, but a part of crowds with changing leaders and loosely
affiliated participants. Those who rose to take high positions in the
movement did so not by displaying superior judgment and strategic planning,
but through their spontaneous oratory and bravado. Those who remained in
the square harbored the illusion that their national leaders would
recognize their patriotism and their high morals, talk with them, take
their concerns as legitimate, and deal with the issues they were raising.
58 This hothouse student generation resembled Sun Yat-sen's description of
China in the 1920s: like a sheet of loose sand. Zhao Ziyang's opponents
blamed him for inciting the students and directing their spears at Deng.
Zhao's supporters, in turn, blamed his rivals for provoking the students to
embarrass Zhao. Both Zhao's supporters and his opponents may have tried to
direct the student protestors, but in fact they had little ability to do
so. The Chinese students marched to their own drummers. Even the students'
own leaders could only incite the protesters gathered in the square, not
control them. After June 4, students and their families mourned those who
had been killed or injured. They also mourned the loss of hope that a more
open, moral China would emerge in the near future. Student leaders,
considering what to do after June 4, acknowledged to one another that they
had been naïve in challenging the nation's leaders and in expecting them to
give up their power. Students of this generation, as well as the following
generations, took away from their tragic experience the lesson that direct
confrontation with the leadership would likely cause a reaction so forceful
that it was not worth the costs. The Chinese students after June 4, then,
unlike their counterparts in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, stopped
attacking the Communist Party. Many students came to believe that progress
could only be achieved by slowly building a base, by improving the economic
livelihood of more people, by improving people's understanding of public
issues, and by gradually developing experience in democracy and freedom.
Even some students who were not members of the Communist Party acknowledged
that the leaders had been in danger of losing control over the country, and
that only the party could maintain the stability necessary to promote
economic growth. Many believed that despite the corrupt and self-serving
officials, the Communist-led program that had brought about the reform and
opening policies—and with them, the improved livelihood of the people—was
preferable to any likely alternative. They hoped that after decades of
stability and economic growth, a stronger base for a freer society could
develop. In the meantime, the vast majority of student activists simply
gave up promoting collective action and instead concentrated on pursuing
their own careers.