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Ini artikelnya:

Corruption, violence and Eastern culture

We often hear people preaching for cultures of the East to be preserved and practiced in our daily life. These preachers often say that the values of the East are far better than those of the West.

Many argue that Western culture is corrupted with indecency,

pornography or too much permissiveness. One Indonesian-language blog puts it this way: “We all know that all things porn are dangerous. Any cultural transition that is heading toward a trend that is corrupted with pornography can never be allowed to happen. The government and all elements of the society must be aware of this danger.”

The blogger goes on to say, “We are all obliged to make sure that ‘today’s trend’ is filled with the virtuous values of Eastern culture. Decency, wisdom, dignity and social consideration are the only ‘trend’ that must prevail.”

But what really is Eastern culture and its values? More significantly, let’s talk about Indonesian culture and the norms that apply in this country.

When we talk about Eastern culture or the common principles that apply in Indonesia, we are really talking about decency norms or how young people today are wearing clothes that are too revealing, as the blogger mentioned. But let’s take a look at some practices that are too common in this country, like corruption or violence. Is it safe to say that these, too, are so commonly practiced that they have become a part of our culture, part of our norms?

“Definitely. Just look at what happens in schools, there are a lot of students who cheat. It all starts from there. Not to mention in government institutions, where corruption is rampant,” said Hiasinta Galistheda, who recently graduated from Kolese Gonzaga high school.

She also said she often heard news of violence breaking out in various parts of the country.

“It is just too easy for people to be stirred up and engage in violence. When people protest, but no one listens to them, in the end there is likely to be violence,” she added.

Natasha Fibrianty, a student from Al-Azhar Kelapa Gading Islamic High School, said she would like to think that corruption was not a part of our culture, although there was no denying that it is very widely practiced.

“But really, it all comes back to the individuals. [The corruptors] just cannot stop themselves because the system itself is already corrupt; their bosses may have been practicing corruption regularly and so have the bosses before them,” the 11th grader told youthspeak.

A study shows that corruption has been practiced since the days the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms ruled the country. The practice thrived during the colonial era and even more so under the New Order. Our president has repeatedly vowed to eradicate corruption, but as hard facts show, he still has a long way to go.

Natasha says Western culture has something that Indonesia needs to copy: law enforcement.

“Indonesia still lacks law enforcement. Someone who engages in corruption on a large scale may only get two months in jail while another who steals mangos out of starvation may get more,” she said.

Ini analisanya :

Corruption, violence and Eastern culture

This text is analytical exposition which has purpose to reveal the readers that something is the important case. This text gives benefit for those who do not like the Eastern especially Indonesian government, because they can prove that the government does not have good behavior and need to be justified. I found the main point of this text, that is “Indonesia need to copy the law enforcement from Western culture”.

I found two facts from this text: (1) “Just look at what happens in schools, there are a lot of students who cheat”. That is a fact because we can proof it and that is objective statement. (2) “A study shows that corruption has been practiced since the days the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms ruled the country. The practice thrived during the colonial era and even more so under the New Order”. Those sentences are fact because it shows the result of a study that means it can be proven by the data collection and it is from the experts. Even though, that is vague because there is not mentioned that when is the Hindu-Buddhist and colonial era happen? In what year it happened?  

This passage contains ten opinions: (1) “These preachers often say that the values of the East are far better than those of the West”. That sentence is opinion because it contains the bias word better and it is the subjective statement that created by a group of people, the preachers. (2) “Many argue that Western culture is corrupted with indecency, pornography or too much permissiveness”. This sentence is opinion because it has a bias word too much and it is also created by the people. Yet, that sentence could be the fact, because it can be proven that Western culture is corrupted with indecency, pornography or permissiveness. (3) “We all know that all things porn are dangerous”. It is opinion because it contains the bias and subjective word dangerous although it also includes fact because that can not be denied that porn are dangerous. (4) “The government and all elements of the society must be aware of this danger”. It is opinion because there is bias word must. (5) “We are all obliged to make sure that ‘today’s trend’ is filled with the virtuous values of Eastern culture”. See, virtuous is bias word, so this is opinion. (6) “Decency, wisdom, dignity and social consideration are the only ‘trend’ that must prevail”. That is the suggestion from one and that bias word must show that the sentence is opinion. (7) Natasha Fibrianty, a student from Al-Azhar Kelapa Gading Islamic High School, said she would like to think that corruption was not a part of our culture, although there was no denying that it is very widely practiced. This sentence still has a bias word very, so this is an opinion. Beside that, it is the thought of someone. (8) “But really, it all comes back to the individuals. [The corruptors] just cannot stop themselves because the system itself is already corrupt; their bosses may have been practicing corruption regularly and so have the bosses before them”. It is shown that the sentence is opinion because of the bias word may and the thought of someone. (9) Natasha says Western culture has something that Indonesia needs to copy: law enforcement. This is opinion although there is no bias word, but that is subjective and created by one. (10) Indonesia still lacks law enforcement. Someone who engages in corruption on a large scale may only get two months in jail while another who steals mangos out of starvation may get more. These sentences are opinion because there are bias words lacks, may, and more.

There is the sentence in the passage “It is just too easy for people to be stirred up and engage in violence. When people protest, but no one listens to them, in the end there is likely to be violence”. The sentence ”It is just too easy for people to be stirred up and engage in violence.” is argument because someone try to convince another that sentence “When people protest, but no one listens to them, in the end there is likely to be violence” is true.    

There is also the sentence “Indonesia still lacks law enforcement. Someone who engages in corruption on a large scale may only get two months in jail while another who steals mangos out of starvation may get more”. The first sentence (Indonesia still lacks law enforcement) is an argument because it convince the reader to be sure that is true by giving the premise or claim in the second sentence (Someone who engages in corruption on a large scale may only get two months in jail while another who steals mangos out of starvation may get more).

            The sentence “She also said she often heard news of violence breaking out in various parts of the country” is ambiguous. It can mean: only the news of violence that breaking out in various parts of the country, or the violence itself that breaking out in various part of the country.  

For the thought pattern, the writer of the passage use the time order thought pattern because this passage shows the chain of events or cases of the corruption, violence in Eastern culture. It is signed by the transition often in paragraph one of the passage in sentence “We often hear people preaching for cultures of the East to be preserved and practiced in our daily life. These preachers often say that the values of the East are far better than those of the West.” And paragraph seven of the passage in sentence “She also said she often heard news of violence breaking out in various parts of the country.”

Besides that, there is the word when that indicates the time order thought pattern. That is in the fifth paragraph of the passage. It is in the sentence “When we talk about Eastern culture or the common principles that apply in Indonesia, we are really talking about decency norms or how young people today are wearing clothes that are too revealing, as the blogger mentioned”. It is also in paragraph eight of the passage. There is written “When people protest, but no one listens to them, in the end there is likely to be violence”.

In paragraph ten, there is the word before as the transition word indicates time order pattern in sentence “[The corruptors] just cannot stop themselves because the system itself is already corrupt; their bosses may have been practicing corruption regularly and so have the bosses before them”.

There is also in paragraph eleven that shows the time order pattern. There are the transition words since and during in sentence “A study shows that corruption has been practiced since the days the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms ruled the country. The practice thrived during the colonial era and even more so under the New Order”.

This case of corruption is also stated in pojokantikorupsi.com article titled “World Bank Demands Indonesia Return $10M”. There is stated that “The World Bank has asked Indonesia's government to repay US$10 million it loaned the country to buy school textbooks, after an investigation found the money was stolen by corrupt publishing companies. Indonesia is one of the world's most corrupt countries.” It can prove that we can not judge Western culture as the bad culture or attitude because the Eastern one can be worse. That is not because the influence of Western culture, but it depends on the filter of one person to select the things that come in to their selves.

Indonesia is one of the countries that have a bad prestige because of the corruption case beside the violence and the decency cases. Indonesian teenagers’ appearance is like the Western teenagers. They only imitate without know the differences of norms and rules in Indonesia and Western countries. They just want to show that they are “cool and fashionable”. It can be seen in the real life around us. We can not deny that Indonesia needs the improvement of moral and awareness of receiving the influence from another culture. From the religious view, Indonesian people also ought to aware that as the most of Muslims they have to stay away from the bad attitudes and must watch their behavior.

In conclusion, Eastern culture might not be better than Western culture. The behavior of the people is not determined by the country where she or he lives, but it is according to their understanding of the good norms and values and the awareness to do that good norms and values.       

Reference

Associated Press. (2004). World Bank Demands Indonesia Return $10M available at http://pojokantikorupsi.com/infoe.html [accessed: 22^nd December 2011]