Reconsidering our cultural image

Reconsidering our cultural image

By Marianus Kleden

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): Apparently inspired by the
continual rioting, looting and terror in the country, Sapardi
Djoko Damono, a noted literary critic, discussed in a recent
interview with TVRI the need to reconsider Indonesia's cultural
image.

The problem he seemed to be referring to was the apparent
discrepancy between what is constructed and what is real in our
social interactions.

To some extent this view makes sense. Our cultural image is
nothing but the face we use to greet and socialize with other
people. This persona, everybody knows, is affected, much like the
makeup people use to alter their physical features. There is a
psychological fear, that our real face will be revealed as it is,
and so we avoid frankness and put on our social face. While this
is a universal truth as a token of politeness, in Indonesia, its
absence is often seen as a sign of hostility.

This characteristic surfaces often in relations with foreign
visitors, where violent encounters often occur. Indonesians have
a strong sense of conformity, and expect that tourists and
newcomers will conform with the local habits and behavior. This
leaves almost no room for uniqueness and individuality.

They are saying, in other words, you should wear the makeup as
I do. The "seven charms of tourism" (security, order,
cleanliness, freshness, beauty, hospitality and memomorability),
a term (read: a program) coined by the late Soesilo Soedarman, a
former tourism minister, covers many of the difficult areas of
Indonesian culture, that in practice have often been detrimental
to the promotion of tourism itself. Some of the traits are
discussed here.

Security

According to the official tourism manual, security is
negatively defined as the state of "not being exposed to offense
or disturbance", be it from crime, disease, accident or the
social environment.

In practice, most attention is focused on crime. Security
goals are increasingly realized through the night watch, that is,
the patrolling of villages at night to watch for suspicious
looking people and strangers. Although this gives a certain sense
of safety, the patrols alone are frequently incapable of
preventing crimes.

Ironically enough, it is during this time, while the watch is
under way, that theft and robbery are rampant. Consequently, the
night watch becomes overly protective, and often offensive to
strangers and newcomers, not without exception to tourists.

One cause of this perhaps is that the night watchmen need an
adversary -- someone to direct their defensive energies at.
Tourists and newcomers can feel unsafe, and whenever he is
treated improperly, people escape guilt by putting the blame on
this poor scapegoat.

Order.

An orderly manner is manifested in an attitude conforming with
the regulations, procedures and common etiquette in relation to
the use of public facilities, such as public transportation,
restaurants, hotels, public toilets and the like.

The repeatedly boasted Indonesian politeness in many contrasts
starkly with the inclination toward vandalism found not only in
cities, but also in rural areas. Even in villages we can see
children slinging pebbles at street lamps or gouging out coins
from public telephones. And adults having left public restrooms
unflushed and write graffiti on the walls. These people, after
offending and damaging public facilities, do not feel guilty
because those things are anyway "public" and not "private or
personal".

From a social psychology point of view, this propensity toward
vandalism is generated by the fact that we are living in an
enclosed environment -- a fact that subsequently originates a
regionalistic and clannish mentality.

In that way, the ultimate aim of the whole development is to
further the needs of "my clan", "my region" and "my people".
Further implications of this mentality are that people tend to
cultivate a distinctive and discriminative attitude towards
'others ' -- meaning anyone outside their immediate family or
community. In this way public facilities are destroyed because
they do not belong directly to that community.

Another problematic manner may also appear in a predilection
to prioritize personal business over public business, and over
the business of people that may in fact be more deserving. In a
queue (a term that is used loosely here) we often see people
squeezing forward to be the first, giving an impression that they
are very important people.

In public vehicles, when the hot, stuffy bus is full of
jostling passengers, many still selfishly insist on smoking.
While this might be unknown to more cosmopolitan Jakarta, the
scene is quite common in many parts of Indonesia.

The clannish attitude and regionalism mentioned above are some
of the causes for this egoism.

In a closed group there develops an ethos or even morality,
often referred to as visual morality, by which we judge something
as good or bad insofar as it is seen or recognized by the
community. Thus, a person living in an anonymous atmosphere can
do whatever he wants without fear blame.

Cleanliness.

In Indonesia, cleanliness refers to the absence of dirt in the
house and yard.

Every morning, in almost every house, we can see women
sweeping their houses. But women appear to be little concerned
with where the garbage is thrown immediately afterward, a long as
it leaves the yard.

This attitude also derives from the clannish spirit mentioned
above: The important thing is that my house is tidy, where the
garbage eventually ends up -- whether in the ocean or into the
forest -- is not my business.

Hospitality.

Indonesians are famous for the warm welcome to visitors and
their habit of pampering guests. Yet because of the distinctive
and discriminative disposition of every ethnic group, newcomers,
if from a different cultural group, frequently are seen as
strangers and treated as not belonging to the group.

In tribal cultures, for the guests to feel at home, they are
installed as new members of the tribe and in some cases important
guests become honorary tribal chiefs and are given valuable
gifts. Governors and regents, cabinet ministers and businessmen
all have stories of this.

What is the result of this hospitality? On the one hand guests
may feel respected, but on the other hand they may have a sense
of losing their identity. This means in order for the guest not
to be treated as an 'alien', he must behave in a way that is in
harmony and conformity with the locals -- a demand which often
leads to feelings of uneasiness and a sense of restriction.

It is this demand that explains why a pair of Western lovers,
sitting on the beach in courtship, is often molested by
youngsters who whistle, shout or even throw stones at them. In a
like manner, a female tourist who wears shorts and a singlet on
hot days is perceived as being sexually permissive.

Suggestions.

In relation to the development of a new cultural image, here
are some practical suggestions that have to do with hospitality
(outward looking) and regionalism (inward looking).

All foreigners should respect and act in accordance with the
local customs, but their own privacy also needs to be guaranteed,
out of mutual respect. Presumption of innocence -- a legal term
-- can be applied here in the sense that anyone's behavior is
acceptable as far as his or her own cultural background is
concerned.

Hospitality, when we relate it to this, means to let someone
act and behave unrestricted according to his or her own culture.
It is better if we do not fear to offend foreign cultures,
because this anxiety results from too much romanticization of our
own culture with too little affirmation of its essence.

This attitude often leads people to only see the differences
their own culture has with that of foreigners, which, in the case
of social problems, is seen as evidence of inferiority in the
foreign culture.

The negative effects of regionalism can be curbed through the
broadening of our world view -- e.g. through the study of other
cultures and societies in school. One's own outlook can be
enriched by viewing the world from a variety of perspectives, and
therefore could see things of greater importance than his own
immediate needs.

A sense of responsibility for public property and the
environment would hopefully be the result of this broader world
view.

More than 20 years ago, Mochtar Lubis, a prominent novelist
and social critic, made a daring and controversial statement in a
paper presented at Taman Ismail Marzuki Arts Center, declaring
that the most outstanding trait of Indonesians is hypocrisy. So
far this statement has not been negated, neither by our warm
welcome to guests nor by our offensive attitude to strangers.

The writer is a social science lecturer at Widya Mandira
Catholic University.

Window: One's own outlook can be enriched by viewing the world
from a variety of perspectives, and therefore could see things of
greater importance than his own immediate needs.