No more violence please!!

Almost every university in Indonesia has a tradition of certain trials during the orientation week of the university year, which are arranged by the seniors. Freshman will be told to do certain tasks during these trials, such as dress with costume, sing a song, and give them lots of “homework”.

The purpose of this is to prepare the student’s mental when they face a tertiary institution. Depending on the institution, trials can last for a week and even to one whole semester. This tradition could bring controversy since violence such as physical and emotional force that can cause an injury or even abuse, is often involved during these trials

A concrete example is in government-run Public Administration Institute (STPDN) in Sumedang, West Java. This institution is well known for its military-style discipline. Parents have filed complaints with the police over the violence their children had experienced while studying there. The evidence shown that the senior do a lot of physical abuse to the new students. Another parent said that it was common for his son to come home over the weekend covered with bruises. One student (Wahyu) died in 2003 after he was assaulted by 20 seniors at the institute[1]. His death caused a national uproar because he was not the first fatality of student brutality. Three years ago, Erie Rakhman had died after a beating administered by his seniors. Seven students were charged in connection with Erie’s death and were sent to prison by the Sumedang District Court. In 2001, the same court sentenced three other STPDN students to five months for assaulting a younger student, Jurinata.

I have attached the video regarding the example that clearly shown the brutality in STPDN. I do not agree with way of trials. It is unbelievable that violence happened in tertiary Institution especially it is a government institution. Government of Indonesia should have taken an action earlier to prevent this matter from happening, as well to prevent for this incident to repeat in the future..

The purpose of this trial can benefit the students, trials are allowed but there should be limitations to this, as long as it does not harm the students because an institution should be a safe learning environment. The seniors should also respect their junior rights, instead of bullying them. It should be the time for the seniors to see the junior skills and areas where they are most capable, which can benefit the institutions too such as sports team.

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[1] http://ipdnwatch.wordpress.com/berita-dunia/more-parents-complain-about-violence-at-stpdn/

The Video of STPDN

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rs3FpxxeVY

Why Stereotyping? Why make the world more complicated?

Realize or not sometimes people have some kind of stereotype about other people. Stereotype is a generalization about a person or group of persons; it can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the other group hold in common. It is a way of representing and judging other people. People may be grouped according to religion, gender, race, ethnicity or any number of other categories

We usually have our own thinking about negative or positive thing in our life and it also affects our thought about people around us. In my country Indonesia for instance, there is a large variety of races, cultures, and religions live together. Can we imagine if the people who belong to the minority clash with the majority group? It happened in Indonesia in May 1998, and also could happen in many part of this world. Personally, I saw what it means to have a stereotype based on your race. It happened during the fall of the second president of Indonesia, Soeharto, were there are riots in some part of the cities with minority race as its victim done by majority race (It was between indigenous people and Chinese). The indigenous people burn the Chinese’s houses and stores. They feel that Chinese people take over most of the economic resources and do not give the opportunity to them. The situation was very terrible, a lot of people, mostly Chinese, were afraid to go out from their house. And some of them choose to leave the country and move to another country.

I have experienced the thrill because my family is Chinese. I cannot understand why some people have extreme stereotype about other people and try to harm them. If I think about my friends or my neighbors from different races, they are not like that; they do not fit with the stereotypes. Most stereotypes tend to make us feel superior in some way to the person or group being stereotyped. Stereotypes ignore the uniqueness of individuals by painting all members of a group with the same brush. We can not judge people based on their race, the idea is not right and can be destructive. It took more than just look at their race and formed an opinion about what kind of people they are. It is not an easy task, because our society often innocently creates stereotypes and its often lead to unfair discrimination and persecution. But we can change it by change our negative thinking about other people. We should change it if we wish to live in a better world.

Pictures of Riot in Indonesia May 1998

Source: www.overseasthinktankforindonesia.com/

Source: http://home14.inet.tele.dk/petergt/gallery/may98/may98.htm