Dealing with Political Correctness (or the Lack Thereof)

I always thought that the “politically correct” phenomenon in America was just plain annoying, and (dare I say it?) just a little bit offensive in its own right. However six months in Indonesia will just about make anybody feel all warm and fuzzy about the whole P.C. trend. (And this is coming from a mac user!) You see, political correctness as a concept doesn't really exist in Indonesia. I remember learning this lesson pretty early on in the game, when back in 2003, my first language teacher thought it would be a great idea to teach us colors by referring to the skin hues of various people around the world. Chinese were “yellow”; American Indians were “red”; etc. The state of shock that this induced in the all-American class was completely inconceivable to our Balinese teacher, who was only annoyed that all of a sudden, his students were rendered mute, unwilling to participate in the “let’s name people’s skin colors” game. To put it even more in perspective, these classes were held at the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), Yogyakarta, which is always ranked as one of the top three universities in Indonesia.

The thing about it that's most disturbing to me, is that a lack of political correctness means you can get away with saying really racist things and no one will even bat an eye. Personally, I’d rather be annoyed at people being overly careful with their speech, than having to be horrified by overt racism. In Indonesia, most of the racist comments are reserved for the ethnic Chinese. In my mind, I liken the ethnic Chinese situation to what the Jews probably faced in pre-World War II Europe. Ethnic Chinese are the embodiment of all the worst personal qualities: uncharitable, exclusivist, opulent. At the same time the ethnic Chinese, as successful businesspersons, are thought to own a disproportionate distribution of the countries wealth. Moreover, they are subject to all sorts of discriminatory legislation on the basis of their ethnic origins.

The other most hated groups of people are communists, mostly because Indonesians have been indoctrinated to hate communists from the former regime’s anti-Communist stance. I think it also has something to do with the Marxian understanding of Communists as atheists, something that is not only inconceivable (How can someone not believe in God?), but unpatriotic. The Indonesian constitution requires the belief in one supreme God. Your religion (which can either be: Islam, Christian, Catholic, Hindu, or Buddhist) is even noted on your driver’s license. Hey, I'm just highly entertained to find out that in Indonesia, Catholics aren't really Christian. :)

Curiously enough, one man did rant to me about hating the Jews, something that I still find puzzling, since he himself to this day, has never met a Jewish person. Judaism is not even one of the five permissible monotheistic religions according to Indonesian law. It legally doesn't exist. Actually, what he told me was: “Indonesians don’t hate Americans. When they say they hate Americans, they’re really saying that they hate the Jews. If you’re not a Jew, then there’s no problem.” Now, I understand this kind of comment to be attributable to Indonesia’s support for Palestine as a display of Islamic solidarity, and therefore a criticism of the U.S.’s foreign policy and apparently unwavering support for Israel. I’m quite sure that if this guy ever met an American Jew, he would probably backpedal and say, “Oh, its not the Jews that we don’t like, but the American government.” However, it is more disturbing in light of Indonesia’s search for a charismatic leader, which commonly leads to the idolizing of Hitler as a powerful leader. You would not believe how many times I've seen pictures of Hitler as coffeehouse art, the sides of buildings, etc. But, Hitler-idolatry, my friends, is a whole other story, for another day.