Striving for better Indonesia

In the road the other day was a brick and I sat and watched it. A lot of people walked past that brick and a lot of drivers steered round it, but no one picked it up, and as far as I know, it's still there.

That brick tells a story, and it is one on noninvolvement and of not caring. This attitude of "it's not my problem so why should I get involved" is OK if 10 people were fighting to the death with knives, but a brick in the road is not going to require too much time and effort to remove it.

I then watched drivers recklessly accelerating to fill the gap in front of them as they were threatened by the intrusion of someone wanting to pull out into the main stream of traffic. There was a look of immense satisfaction when the gap was closed, and then quite the opposite if failure occurred.

Opposite my house lived a family of Chinese-Indonesians, and one night I noticed the father's car in the driveway and that he had forgotten to turn his lights off. I'll go and tell him I said to an Indonesian friend. "What for?" was the reply, it's not your problem. I looked in amazement and then went across the road and knocked on the door. A face appeared through the bars and the glass and I said in my best Indonesian, "Problem Pak, Lampu mobil.

Others came to the door and peered at me, and again and again I said the same thing. No one opened the door and yet they could hear me and also knew that I lived opposite of them for the last four years. Eventually I gave up and went back indoors only to notice the man creep out and turn his lights off a few minutes later. I open doors for people and they walk through it without even saying thank you and when I make a gesture of kindness the receiver gives me a suspicious look and wonders where the catch is.

Who has created this uncaring society that is full of suspicion, aggressiveness and of noninvolvement? Where are the basic manners, the desire and the decency to help other human beings and why is that after living four years opposite someone, the only two words ever said by them was "Jakarta, Jakarta" and low and behold they moved the next day.

If Indonesia wants a civil society and a better Indonesia, then I'm afraid it's back to basics as a starting point. Or is it just Medan?

DAVID WALLIS Medan, North Sumatra