Are Indonesians Friendly People?
My previous posting with the same title amassed many responses, either through the comment box or to my email. All are similar: that Indonesians have a open and friendly attitude by nature. Even indcoup, a Londoner, agreed with that with a positive criticism: that Indonesians mostly undisciplined; hence the corruption spread like a bird flu pendemic. But all the responses are not answering my real questions: if it the case, then why Indonesians are so easily erupted in anger and are so easily offended for just a trivial thing?…
There’re, however, one email regarding this issue sent by a mysterious person who doesnt want his name to be mentioned (pseudonym emailer? :p ). And his respons deserves to be posted here.
He said that our friendliness and easy-to-be-offended kind of attitude are paradox yet co-related. he said that…
(1) Friendly individual in some cases represent a weak personality; easy to be offended and in extreme cases easily turn his anger into physical violence.
(2) Friendly people needs the same kind of reciprocal response. Once he/she doesnt get it, he’ll be angry or offended. Compare to those cold and unfriendly guys who dont bother whether his/her surrounding are friendly or not.
(3) We are a young nation; with very young civilization. our mentality are not so tough compared to other older civilization like, say, China, India, Persia, the West, etc. Our experience in dealing with any hardships are not yet tested.
Well, if you confused with his explanation, dont worry, you are not alone. Me too. he’s a psychologist, so he has his own opinions on human behavior which sometimes hard for me to comprehend.