Indonesia: Dislikes

3 Things I Don't Like About Indonesia

1. Child labor
Even though Indonesia has obligatory elementary school educational system, it is by no means enforced by the state. Very small kids can be seen in bigger cities at almost every bigger intersection, selling mainly news. It was always a very sad scene for me to watch the kids getting ready for the lights to turn red and then watch them walk from car to car knocking on the car's windows.
This is of course a serious problem which should be at top of the list of every government of all countries facing this problem. I must admit that this is a complicated thing which can be changed only over some time, but I still think that there are things which could be done right now independently of government. 
If you ask yourself a question: "Why there is child labor?" The answer is not as straightforward as it might seem, but it could be said that it is because the family is poor and that child labor is in some sense essential for the survival of the family. 
I don't want to talk about what government should do, that's an all different chapter itself, but I would just want to mention what the people could do. First of all, I have to mention great integrity of people living in the same community. Because of that, it is for instance very easy to build a new mosque, church or temple in Indonesia. It is not a problem for Indonesians to contribute money or even give away own land for construction of a new worship place. It is surprising how many mosques are being built every day and how magnificently they look in the end. If it is that easy for Indonesians to contribute for construction of a "building", shouldn't it be even easier to help a poor neighbor in needs. Just at least small contribution for the children so that they could go to school. 
I am not trying to say that giving money away to the poor is the solution. On the contrary, I think that giving money to poor only make poor people poor forever, because it is convenient not to work and just beg for money. Conclusion is that some solutions don't necessarily have to be the best ones, but they can still be better than others or no solutions at all. I believe that the presented solution could help at least some families to get back on track.

2. Ignorance towards environment
This is a problem which faces pretty much every Asian country. The reason why is very simple. All of the Asian countries used to be colonized, which resulted in poor integrity between the people and the inhabited land. Why would people should care about something, which is not theirs. This can also be demonstrated on example of communist countries in Soviet Union. When there is communism, people don't really care that much about their things and environment, because they don't own it. Everything belongs to everyone. "Why should I care about it if it can always be taken away from me"? I am not trying to condemn communism here, but I am just trying to make a point that connection of people to their land or things matters.
Indonesian people have in their gens that they don't have to care about the land (environment), because they don't truly own it. This is of course not true anymore, but this mind-set despite that still prevails.
It's really sad reality, given how beautiful Indonesian country is and how little importance is given to environmental issues. 
There are so many things which could be implemented in this matter. Preventing littering? Big fines could for instance deter some polluters. No police to inforce it you say? Indonesia is one of the countries with highest number of police and army recruits. No wonder, government power is derived from these forces. But what if they did something useful and were seen in the streets from time to time enforcing law? This brings us to political issues and corruption, which is again a different chapter itself.
Prevention of littering was just an example and I can guess that you would come up with other solutions in no time. 
But in the end, it's always most effective to get inspired by countries which had faced the same problems and which implemented needed measures for the problems to be solved. The same measures don't always have to be suitable for the conditions of the country, but countries can always at least get some inspiration which they could then implement in their own more suitable way. 

3. Never on time
Being on time is not one of the things which feel natural for Indonesians. In general, I think that being respectful to other people (especially older ones) is for Indonesians important. For instance, when you call someone who is not someone of your close friends, you have to use Mas/Bas respectively to the age of the called person. Despite that, being late is not one of the things which is considered disrespectful. It is possible then that meeting at 12:00 can easily be shifted to meeting a14:00. It is a normal thing for Indonesians, but quite incomprehensible for me. Time is one of the most important things which can't be bought and it shouldn't be wasted like that, besides that it is considered very disrespectful in most of the countries. 
In defense, I have to admit that this is not an easy problem which can be changed overnight. I was always trying to be on time on my first days in Indonesia, but as the time went on, I cared about it less and less, because I quickly realized that being on time equals waiting which equals to waste of time. Above mentioned implies that in other to change this problem everyone would have to try to be on time, which is quite impossible given that being late has been rooted in Indonesians mind as normal for quite a long time.

Written by: Martin Svec
(Czech Republic)