Politics is art of unspoken communication, scholar says

JAKARTA (JP): Politics in Indonesia is an art of unspoken communication in which the nuance of signals and symbols often count more than words, according to a mass communication expert from the University of Indonesia.

Indonesia, like most Asian countries, has a "high context culture" where people tend to express themselves in an implicit manner and expect others to understand them without having to spell things out, M. Budyatna, the dean of the university's School of Social and Political Sciences said yesterday.

"People with this attitude tend to beat around the bush before they get to their point," Budyatna told The Jakarta Post in his office at the UI campus in nearby Depok.

Explaining the widely accepted theory on mass communication, Budyatna said that Indonesia contrasts with the "low context culture" which prevails among Americans and Europeans.

People with a low context culture prefer an explicit verbal, or written, approach in communicating with others, said Budyatna, who was inaugurated as dean last June.

A person within a high context culture, for example, would spend what they would consider a "reasonable" amount of time beating around the bush before they finally say that they want to borrow money from a friend.

"A person within a low context culture would come up straight away saying they need the money," Budyatna said.

Another example he cited is the reaction towards a person who is causing a public disturbance.

"The most Indonesians would do in that situation is grumble and swear under their breath. Americans, in contrast, would go straight up to the person to say he was causing disturbance," he said. Those with a high context culture would find this attitude impolite and even offensive, he added.

However, Budyatna pointed out that differences exist not only between the Western and Asian cultures. In Indonesia alone, the country's numerous ethnic groups are not free of conflicts.

The Central Javanese, especially those of Solo and Yogyakartan origins, have a higher degree of the high context culture while Indonesians from Sumatra and most other islands have a lower high context culture, he said.

"To ask a guest to leave, a Javanese would `politely' ask where he was going after the visit," he said giving an illustration.

Miscommunication

Budyatna said that misunderstandings or misinterpretations between different Indonesian cultural standards could result in fatal errors. A good example of this kind of miscommunication, he said, was the banning of the Sinar Harapan daily in the 1980's.

Most of the daily's editorial staff, who were of Sulawesi and Batak (Sumatra) origins, failed to understand and interpret correctly the "signals" given by the mostly Javanese rulers, he said.

In contrast, the Kompas daily, whose editorial staff are mostly Javanese, caught these signs and succeeded, perhaps just in time, in saving themselves. "(The banning) is all really a matter of culture and correct, or incorrect, interpretation," he said bluntly.

Budyatna admitted that there was little chance of changing such an attitude because "it is simply how people are (here.)"

He also doubted whether Indonesia, via globalization, would ever become a low context culture.

"All Indonesian communities are likely to stay within the limits of the high context culture, within various parameters," he said.(pwn)