Like it or not, Gayus Tambunan, the wealthy tax officer, and M. Nazaruddin, the wealthy ruling party treasurer, can be regarded as typical Indonesians rush for money or power, that the end justifies the means. Gayus’s malfeasance and Nazarudin’s collusion inevitably represent Indonesians who like to earn easy money, quick win, through corruption, rent-seeking, hanky-panky, rather than sparing no effort to do something great.
To compare with, American culture is paragon of robust connection between wealth and works. In America, many rich people are knowledge-based millionaires with technological masterpieces. Achievement takes precedence over cash. Likewise, Japanese have a profoundly ingrained habit of wanting to achieve perfection, ranging from making swords, inventing technology, presenting meals, to arranging flowers. Certainly, Americans and Japanese are not perfect, but at least, in these societies, achievement is the most appreciated and promoted, and then wealth is only the side effects of achievement. 5
Do Indonesians have a chance to emulate Protestant ethics-driven American culture or eclectic source of Japanese culture?
Fortunately, we have it, by reviving Japanese-like Javanese perfection tradition of “tantric yoga”, dating back to Hinduism or Buddhism tenets, in which magnum opus must be gained by integrating oneself with God through hard work, sacrifice or other ascetic means. In this way, Javanese masterpieces, e.g. kris, literatures, dance or arts, are created. The late Professor Zoetmulder, Javanese literature expert, expounded this in his book, Kalangwan.
Most Indonesians, myself included, are going too far in adoring shallow materialism & penchant of low-hanging fruit. In my opinion, to improve Indonesian social life, including corruption eradication, the forgotten “tantric yoga” spirit should be encouraged and inculcated through education, so as to become habit and ethics of Indonesians.
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