JAKARTA - The corona virus or COVID-19 has panicked citizens of the world. Some countries are even trapped in panic buying, buying goods to survive. Among them, food ingredients, hand sanitizers, masks, and others.
This type of panic has occurred before, the term La Grande Peur (great panic) has occurred since pre-colonial times or even older.
In the 19th century, great panic broke out in France. At that time, the peasants in France panicked because the news that the band of robbers would attack them at the orders of the nobility. As a result, the peasants armed themselves, and prepared for the arrival of the hordes.
Unfortunately, the robbery horde awaited did not come. The peasants then took offense at the nobles, and that's where the rebellion erupted.
Seeing this phenomenon, the French historian Georges Lefebvre, briefly revealed the reasons for the rebellion, apart from being caused by economic and political factors, there were other factors that caused the peasants to revolt, namely panic.
"To make the peasants rise and revolt, there was no need for the French Revolution, as many historians suggest: when the panic came, he was up and gone," Georges said.
Meanwhile, Andrew Hussey, author of a book entitled Paris: Hidden History (2006) says, "Although sometimes the people's uprisings led by peasants often do not have a focus - usually (rebellions) are triggered by hunger and tax increases."
Not only in France, in medieval times in almost all corners of Europe, there were rumors about the well being poisoned, which was said to be done by the Jews. The news made the public panic, then took racist actions against the Jews.
In the Asian region, Japan experienced a great panic in 1932. At that time, Japan was hit by an earthquake in the Kanto region which killed approximately 120,000 people.
Right after the big earthquake, the issue related to the Korean minority in the Kanto region took advantage of the incident to burn, loot and poison local drinking water sources. This narrative is corroborated by a report in the newspaper. Thus, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army, police and members of mass organizations killed Koreans.
In Indonesia, there has also been great panic. In 1945, there was an issue that the well was poisoned in the area of Surabaya, Jakarta and several other big cities.
The story was obtained from a column written by Historian Ong Hok Ham in Tempo Magazine entitled 'Issues, Panic, and a Feeling of Peace' (1989). He said, "In Surabaya at that time, for example, rumors were spread that was believed by the residents - about the well being poisoned by agents of the NICA (Netherlands-Indies Civil Administration) and the Van der Plas spies."
In fact, the accusation is baseless. Ong analyzed that the Dutch documents did not show anything as suspected. This is because, in the months after the proclamation, the Netherlands did not have any agents or spies in the Dutch East Indies.
Never mind that, they (the Dutch) did not receive any information about the situation in Indonesia, apart from Japanese radio broadcasts and newspapers and magazines which were confiscated by allied submarines from Indonesian fishing boats.
"In short, the poison wells issue arose as a result of the public panic in the political crisis and military conflict at that time. The question of panic regarding the presence of spies and agents of NICA must also be seen from this angle, "he said.
Meanwhile, said Hendry Manampiring in his book entitled Filosofi Teras (2019), if panic is not reduced, it will cause a lot of costs, spend energy on the mind, waste time (as well as money), and interfere with the health of the body.
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