Striving for better Indonesia

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