Singapore beyond Lee Kuan Yew Mario Rustan  ;  A columnist for Magdalene, a feminist website, and a founding member of Ideapod mini blog

JAKARTA POST, 26 Maret 2015

                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                           

Singapore finally faced its hardest certainty – the death of its founding father. Lee Kuan Yew departed in the 50th year of the foundation of the Republic of Singapore. The republic was not his ideal form of government (unlike Sukarno’s Indonesia), as what he wanted was a union with Malaya, which was realized as Malaysia (along with Sabah and Sarawak) in 1963. The creation of the new federal monarchy resulted in war with Indonesia and the expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia two years later. Singapore might have the unfortunate distinction of acquiring independence not because of a nationalist campaign for freedom, but because the mother country did not want it anymore. At the heart of the divorce with Malaysia was conflict over race and religion, namely between Malays and Chinese. Adding flames to the fire was socialism, which many post-colonial Asians (including a younger Lee) believed to be the cure to the diseases of ethnic and religious separations and the old “feudal” order. The problem was Malaysia took Islam and Malay nationalism to be the foundations of its existence, in contrast to Lee’s vision of shared destiny between Chinese, Indians and Malays, who were governed by the British Empire in Southeast Asia. Singapore was born a weak child in a rough neighborhood, but had its fortunes changed in a span of just six months after the anti-communist military took power in Indonesia. One year later, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines were at peace, and together with Thailand, they formed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), checking Southeast Asia’s communism in the former French Indochina. The first 25 years of Singapore history is no less than a miracle – a swampy tropical island converted into the Manhattan of the East, with a first-rate international airport, mass rapid transport systems, an efficient bureaucracy and a glorious skyline. It has become a secondary Hong Kong – an island economy with a Chinese-majority population that speaks English; but it is also safer and cleaner. Indeed, Singapore takes Hong Kong as its rival, whether in education (especially in math and science), tourism (Singapore Airlines vs. Cathay Pacific), banking (Standard Chartered vs. HSBC) and even time zone. Although Singapore is located west of Jakarta, it is one hour ahead of Jakarta, so it can match Hong Kong’s office hours. Malaysia naturally followed suit. Singapore and Hong Kong present interesting cases for social science faculties, at least in the West. Singapore has followed the guidance of the Lee family (including in the government of Goh Chok Tong from 1990 to 2004), while Hong Kong was governed by forgettable British governors, and now by China’s Chief Executives. Hong Kong adheres to a laissez-faire economy where tycoons are the most powerful people, while Singapore follows a very centralized command economy where practically everything is state-run. Both are highly successful and global corporations make both places their Asian headquarters. There are another two uneasy similarities between the two city-states. First, the veteran economic journalist Joe Studwell calls both places “parasitic” and refuses to discuss both in his book How Asia Works. Hong Kong thrives as the vault of China’s wealth, just as Singapore attracts capital and resources from all over Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Indonesia. The key to Singapore’s success lay in its achievements next to its neighbors’ failures in politics and economics. Secondly, both Hong Kong and Singapore still feel insecure about themselves. Supposedly, they are at ease with their identities: Hong Kong as a special administrative region of China and Singapore as a multicultural republic where people of different races and faiths work together to build the nation. But democracy is stifled in both places, and Singapore itself has never believed in democracy. It is uncertain what factor is the biggest hindrance to Singapore democracy –Chinese political ethics or a reliance on international financial systems (including a significant number of Western professionals). Interestingly, ethnic Chinese in both places also have a shaky relationship with Mandarin Chinese. Believing a decade ago that Cantonese Chinese was out of date, Hong Kongers now embrace the language as a part of their identity, while Singaporean Chinese still find it unnatural to converse in Mandarin Chinese on the street, though the government has encouraged the exclusive use of Mandarin Chinese (at the expense of other Chinese languages) in Singapore since 1979. The vision and legacy of Lee Kuan Yew will live on, especially with his son still in power. At the present rate, Lee Hsien Loong will be replaced by another regent before his son is able to become the fifth prime minister of Singapore – provided their People’s Action Party keeps winning the general elections. Singapore will always be the richest and most well-governed nation in Southeast Asia, as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have of late found creative ways to move backward. Any trip to Singapore is a big joy for me – taking the train from the airport to the hotel, walking through its safe and well-lit streets, passing by beautiful girls with every step and acquiring the most elusive electronic gadgets or apparel easily. I can meet up with my Singaporean friends anywhere, with little hassle. On the other hand, going back to Indonesia is a saddening experience; back to the shoddy airport, the terrible, dangerous roads, to a country where only malls and churches are viable social spaces. Such are the respective legacies of Lee Kuan Yew and Soeharto. But there is no way I could have written political articles for more than eight years in Singapore. ●

Beyond Islam and the West Mario Rustan  ;   The writer teaches English and Australian cultural studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung

JAKARTA POST, 06 September 2014

                                                                                                                       

                                                      

Indonesia recently hosted the 6th UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) global forum, the first Asian nation to do so. The initiative began when al-Qaeda and its affiliates bombed Western and Christian targets worldwide, and the American invasion and occupation of Iraq created deep distrust among Muslims of Western civilization, as represented by the US, Australia and the EU. Although officially the forum is interested in dialogue and cooperation between all civilizations, it emphasizes dialogue between the Western and Islamic worlds. Dialogue between Christians and Muslims is the most common and expected kind of inter-religious conversation both in Indonesia and internationally. By no means should it be the only one. Yes, Prime Minister, a 1980s British comedy, suggested the expansion of interfaith dialogues in Britain to involve Atheists and Marxists too. More seriously, unfortunately the much-needed dialogue between Muslims and Jews seems to be unheard of. So why are we talking about religions when talking about civilizations? The late American academic Samuel P. Huntington had something to do with it. He warned that the post-Cold War world would not be a peaceful one, with cultural and religious identities replacing political ideologies (i.e. capitalism and communism) as the main source of conflicts. He divided the world into several civilizations — political units larger than nation-states that shared common cultures, values and yes, religions. Western civilization is a post-Christian civilization. Founded by the Protestant and Catholic Christians of Europe and their colonies in America, Australia and New Zealand, now it is driven by secular laws. A Westerner is not necessarily white — they can come from any part of the world and practice any faith. What makes someone a Westerner is his or her citizenship. The Orthodox world is another face of Western civilization and it has many different values to Protestant and Catholic civilizations. Ancient Greeks developed democracy and secular philosophy, but modern Greece is driven by Orthodox Christianity, which in general is conservative and does not welcome secularism and modernity. Russia in the 21st century defies and confronts the US and the EU and unsurprisingly, sees itself as the successor of Byzantine civilization (which practiced Orthodox Christianity and spoke Greek). The East consists of several different civilizations — the Hindu civilization in India, Buddhist civilization in continental Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, the unique civilization of Japan, and the Sinic (Chinese) civilization in China, Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam. The Japanese and Sinic civilizations are influenced by Buddhism but they do not communicate with the Buddhist civilization and their lives are still strongly governed by Confucianism and folk religions. Indonesia belongs in the intercontinental Muslim world, which is spread from northern Africa to Southeast Asia. Yes, we can say that Indonesia is a diverse nation of different faiths and ethnicities, just like Malaysians say that they are a nation of all Asians. The fact remains, however, that Islam is the centerpiece of politics and daily lives in both Indonesia and Malaysia. Finally, there is the sub-Saharan African civilization, where nation states were formed out of colonial territories and where clan and tribal allegiances trump citizenship and religious creed. Muslim (and left-wing Western) commentators often criticized Huntington for stoking Western animosities against Islam with his “clash of civilizations” thesis, and events following the 9/11 tragedy seemed to confirm the view that the West had chosen to wage war on Islam. Huntington, however, believed that the clash of civilizations would happen not only between West and Islam, but between all different civilizations. In recent years, China has replaced Iran and even al-Qaeda as the strongest critic of Western values and ideas — while the Gulf emirates are inviting Western professionals to work and live in their boomtowns. Buddhists persecute Muslims in several Asian nations and Russia demands that Poland and Ukraine look away from Europe and follow Russian leadership. Another of Huntington’s famous concepts, which is also used against him, is “the West and the rest” (he did not invent the term, the Singaporean academic Kishore Mahbubani did). Huntington believed that conflicts between Western and non-Western civilizations would happen as non-Western civilizations believed that Western primacy in global economics, culture and politics endangered their way of life. Many Asian and Muslim commentators who accuse the West (and Huntington) of arrogance advocate an alliance between “the rest”. As interesting the concept of pan-Asian or Eurasian cooperation (or even Asian-African, which becomes the namesake of roads in Indonesian cities) is, it does not work beyond common criticism against the West (i.e. the US, Australia and the UK). Southeast Asians barely know and care about who lives next door (despite efforts made by regional media networks and airlines), East Asians are cursing each other and India still does not live up to its promises to become a multi-religious democracy. Russia has been much less successful than the Soviet Union was in securing military alliances and Latin Americans are eager to prove their Western credentials rather than antagonize the US and Canada.      Despite civil wars in the Middle East, strangely in the 2010s the relations between Islamic and Western civilizations are not in crisis. Perhaps the dialogues work. Therefore, it is necessary to move to the next step — dialogues with and within “the rest”. The possibilities are endless: Islam and Hindu, Japanese and Chinese, Western and Orthodox, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The two main priorities are dialogues between Western and Sinic civilizations and the holy grail of dialogues – between Jews and Muslims. ●

Ill-fated flight MH370 and Asia  Mario Rustan  ;   The writer teaches English and Australian cultural studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung

JAKARTA POST,  13 Maret 2014

                                                                                                  

                                                                                         

                                                                                                             

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has caught the world’s attention for several reasons. The eerie disappearance without a trace (until the time of writing), the fact that the 14 nationalities of the 227 passengers were from the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, the intrigue surrounding the two passengers that boarded the plane using stolen passports and reports that some listed passengers did not board the plane. Media coverage and global conversations surrounding the missing airplane also paint a grim yet accurate picture of our continent, Asia. As adversaries show their true nature, sadly it also takes a tragedy to reflect on our national character and who we are. The Malaysia Airlines aircraft flew from Kuala Lumpur and was destined to reach Beijing the following morning. More than half of passengers on the plane were Chinese (and Taiwanese) nationals, and the rest were Chinese Americans, Australians, Malaysians and Indonesians. While non-Chinese come to China for various reasons — including study, work and leisure — the Middle Kingdom has a special place for Chinese people all over the world. Even in this globalized planet, a person of Chinese descent from any country is more likely to visit China and surrounding states/semi-autonomous regions (i.e. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) than their non-Chinese compatriots. They also are likely to have some form of association with the Chinese-speaking world. In comparison, many Italian-Australians and Indian-Malaysians may never visit Italy and India, respectively, in their lifetime and have minimal interest in news from those countries. Therefore, the reactions of friends and families of missing passengers in China dominate world news even more than the reactions in Malaysia. Unfortunately, this is where things have become unpleasant in several ways. First, translated statements from passengers’ relatives in China express harsh opinions about not only Malaysia Airlines, but also with regards to Malaysia. Eventually, the Chinese media itself began to adopt a critical view on Malaysia, while its government’s spokespeople shared their frustration and criticism on Malaysia, although the government later denied expressing such claims. In times of tragedy, our sense of community and our hope are strengthened by putting names and faces into stories. Unfortunately, the families and friends of the aforementioned ethnic Chinese passengers are in general more guarded and reserved in sharing their stories — regardless of their nationality. From example in Australia, the local media know that the Chinese-Australian couple who took the flight had just recently closed their gas station business in Sydney and went to China to visit their child. But the friends who provided the information refused to identify themselves, with the exception of their accountant, and provided no picture of the couple, compared to families and friends of Anglo-Irish Australian pensioners who shared everything about the couples. Similar to the Australian media, Indonesian television channels have achieved mixed results in getting statements and stories from families of Indonesian passengers, and have found the most difficulty in getting opinions and information from the families of Chinese descents. International journalists were bemused that families and friends of the passengers in China were willing to complain about Malaysia Airlines, but were reluctant to divulge personal information about those on board. That is, in a nutshell, how the world sees the Chinese: secretive, silent and selective, even in times of trouble. In China, perhaps it could be due to Communism. In Indonesia and Australia, perhaps it could be down to Confucianism and a long history of xenophobia. With all these attributes in mind, I must say I admire Chinese-Malaysians for their active participation in journalism and politics, despite the enormous challenges they have faced throughout the past. I still cannot comprehend why it is much harder for those of Chinese descent in any country, except in Malaysia, to open up. The search for flight MH370, concentrated in the South China Sea, is an international effort. This is not the first time the region has witnessed various navies from different countries work together to save lives. It makes the ongoing maritime disputes in Asia seem trivial and silly — to put it simply, the incentive for claiming those rocks or these reefs is purely based on national pride rather than securing natural resources. It is also puzzling that various parties in China have demanded that Malaysia work faster. After all, the airplane is missing on the high seas and the search for it is an international effort, which involves the Chinese navy. Certainly China wants its citizens to be found as soon as possible, but so does Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Australia and several other countries. Down south in Malaysia, interfaith prayers are being held, uniting Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and other faiths in keeping hope alive, or for the worst case scenario to pray for the peaceful departure from this Earth. Malaysians, torn apart by religious and ethnic quarrels over the years, certainly need to hold hands together now. On the Internet, the international community showcase their pray and hope for the passengers and crews. Regardless of what the outcome of this saga will be, there is an important lesson for us. Asia is a big place and there is enough space for all us, if only we are willing to share our stories with our fellow Asians as well as understand them better. ●

Better relations between you and your maid

Better relations between you and your maid Mario Rustan ;   Teacher of English and Australian Cultural Studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung JAKARTA POST, 14 Agustus 2013

One of my childhood memories was of an editorial cartoon in a teenage magazine, in which teenagers in a Jakarta home are welcoming back their maids with great joy and thanks. The reason: piles of dirty dishes and clothes inside the house. That was 25 years ago.

Apparently, many middle-class Indonesians are frank about their helplessness in living without domestic helpers during the Idul Fitri week, when so many Indonesians return to their hometowns for the holiday. For many of them, the solutions are anything but easy. First option: ask for a temporary replacement. Second option: join the holiday and leave the city. The third option is the most extreme: stay in a hotel in the same city. Abandon the house because it is sinking.

The easiest option is, of course, to take care of the house yourself. But this option eludes many elites in Jakarta and other big cities for various reasons. 

They are too busy. The house is too big. The children are too rowdy. Worst, some might react by saying, “Do you think I’m a maid?!”

Domestic workers, housemaids, servants, whatever you call them, were originally slaves. Middle class Romans took foreign slaves, and rich Asians of the past usually had slaves of the same ethnicity. Nowadays, in the West only the very rich employ domestic help. 

The film The Help showed how black maids were still treated as sub-humans in the southern United States as recently as the 1960s. Modern American comedies depict Spanish-speaking maids employed by rich white families in present-day California (the alternative is highly-educated British butlers or valets). 

In Indonesia, maids have been employed in big and small houses since the colonial era. This is the case throughout Southeast Asia, as Filipinos, Cambodians, Indonesians and Sri Lankans take care of flats in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. In modern Asia, you don’t have to be rich to hire a maid.

In English, the word “maid” used to mean an unmarried woman, but now it refers to female domestic servants, which are the overwhelming majority of household helpers. No Singaporean or Hong Konger wants to hire a male servant to look after their apartments, and most houses in Indonesia exclusively employ women to cook and clean. 

Among the Indonesian elites, however, domestic helpers do more than that.

In addition to a housemaid, many urban Indonesian mothers employ full-time babysitters. In the West, babysitters tend to be female teenagers who work part-time to look after children while their parents are out (another American comedy fodder source). But here, babysitters look after the children for the whole day. Malls and supermarkets are full of mothers shopping, as their maid and babysitter trail along with the children. 

Their relationships, however, can defy your expectations. Some mothers act like queens when at the car, and yet inside the supermarket they become completely dependent on the servant. She asks the servant — either the babysitter or the maid — what brands her children prefer, what’s out in the kitchen and what’s the name of this or that cleaning product. 

Furthermore, the mother hardly communicates with her own children. The babysitter is the mediator. She asks the children what they want, orders them to follow and relays their messages to the mother. Compare them with expat mothers, even the Asian ones, who converse with their children.

I have two domestic helpers, a married couple. They work for about 10 hours a day – washing and ironing, cooking, cleaning the house, repairing things, replacing the LPG canister and water dispenser, acting as couriers and messengers, removing pests and answering the door. But on Sundays, public holidays and evenings, the house has to do without them. 

I am a lazy man, but the experience of living overseas has trained me to look after the home myself. And living in the 21st century, it couldn’t be easier — we have rice cookers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, face masks and gloves, food delivery service and ready-to-cook seasonings. 

I learned how Westerners and East Asians take care of their own houses, and some Westerners have big houses. If I’m not sure how to clean or fix something, I search for information online, and there are websites with checklists and step-by-step instructions on how to solve household maintenance problems.

Therefore, I am convinced that Indonesians’ complaints about managing their houses have to do with self-limiting culture. We are used to conforming to outdated ideas about social and gender hierarchies — that a distinguished woman must not wash the dishes and that a man must not wash anything at all, besides himself and his car. 

As Deng Xiaoping famously did not care what color a cat was so long as it could catch mice, your home does not care about who is cleaning it. Cleaning it yourself does not make lightning strike (except if you are gardening during a thunderstorm). Western family men cook and mop, and they are still manly.

Relying on babysitters to take care of your children does not help either. Ditch the smartphone and start spending more time playing and talking with your children. Children can become more problematic and rebellious as they grow up because they believe they are neglected and unloved. If the activity makes your shirt messy, throw it into the washing machine and press start (do not forget to put in the detergent). 

Finally, so many white collar workers complain about their evil and clueless bosses who burden them with so much work for such measly pay. 

Ironically, at home they do the same things to their employees, the maids. Just because they came from villages and were not as educated as you does not make them less human or less Indonesian than you. They are not your slaves or your ladies-in-waiting. They are your employees. 

I understand that life in Indonesia makes having a domestic helper a necessity. We, however, have mistreated our domestic helpers for too long. By acting like little dictators toward them, we have nurtured the age-old slavery/court hierarchical organization that does nothing good. A domestic worker is a worker, an employee.

So, now that your domestic worker has returned back to their workplace — your home — treat them with courtesy and respect. Treat yourself with respect. Most importantly, treat your home with courtesy and respect. ● 

Bombers and their victims : A tale of two Boston Dreams

Bombers and their victims : A tale of two Boston Dreams Mario Rustan ; Teaches on English and Australian Cultural Studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung

JAKARTA POST, 23 April 2013

  

On a sunny Monday morning, a student from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth — along with his elder brother, allegedly killed a Chinese graduate student from Boston University, a restaurant manager, an elementary school boy and injured countless others.  The two men neither knew the individuals killed nor held a personal grudge against any of the victims that they injured. The brothers had, however, shared the same anger and frustration toward American culture and its people. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were two brothers that believed America could love them better than their homeland of Russia did.  But one day, they convinced themselves that they were wrong. The Chinese victim, Lu Lingzi, was born in a country seen as the main rival of the US but that was no problem for her, as she knew that she could reach both.  Perhaps she had heard about “Chinamerica” — the interdependence of Chinese and American economics — and she had seen it at work. American companies need Chinese factories, workers and subcontractors. The Chinese need American engineers, IT wizards and marketing gurus.  Lu had only lived in Boston for one year but many were touched by her positivity and cheerfulness. Her most urgent dream — to find love before she graduated — ended abruptly because of two individuals who lived without dream. When the news of the Boston Marathon bombings spread across the globe, a line had been drawn. The main talking point was Islamic-related terrorism. While news agencies and global media said “suspects unknown”, some Westerners — on the left of politics — quickly condemned members of the media for their perceived prejudice against Islam, citing America’s own bombings of Afghan families.  As time went on, everyone demanded new information; conservatives in the West wanted the clues to point to Muslim radicals; the Left wanted an American Andreas Breivik — after all, it had been Timothy McVeigh who waged war on the American government and Eric Rudolph who believed that the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was a meeting of godless socialists — and many Muslims feared for their safety and shared updates on assaults against Muslims in the US, including the arrest of a Saudi national. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts a year after 9/11. Their family, in their homeland of North Caucasus, Russia, knew oppression well. The “evil Christians”, however, were not Americans, but Russians.  Tamerlan’s namesake was a fearsome Central Asian emperor who burned Moscow and planned to invade China.  Like the warrior king, Tamerlan was a fearsome heavyweight boxer, a 2010 regional champion and he dreamed of oneday representing the United States at the Olympics. Unlike Lu Lingzi, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had found love in America and had fathered a daughter.  A Boston University’s magazine documented the boxer’s plight to gain American citizenship.  The Tsarnaev brothers had lived a decade under the Bush administration and saw the changes of Barack Obama’s America and the economic recession.  They woke up every day under the Massachusetts sky, attending school and training with Americans of all colors, backgrounds and accents. Lu Lingzi grew up with the renaissance of her grim and smoky Shenyang, which turned into a retail and financial services boomtown.  After the glory of China in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Lu went to the capital city to study international trade and four years later she crossed the Pacific Ocean to study math and statistics.  The length of your stay does not decide how content you are with a place. Lu Lingzi actively networked and utilized social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Weibo and QQ. Universities always ensure that foreign students can handle the culture shock and campus culture, but everyone testified that Lu felt natural in Boston. She had no shortage of Chinese friends and maybe even enjoyed the coveted “big sister” status. She attended group trips and uploaded pictures of chocolates and cakes.  On the other hand, the Tsarnaev brothers felt disillusioned with life in America. Tamerlan complained that he had no American friends and he did not understand Americans. Dzhokhar had Twitter and Russia’s VKontakte accounts.  Besides photos of cats and song lyrics, Dzhokhar tweeted about his pride in Islam (also showcased in his VKontakte profile) and his conviction that 9/11 was a conspiracy.  Tamerlan spent hours on YouTube compiling playlists of Islamist videos.  It is clear that they felt alienated.  Their parents had returned to Russia. While they believe that their sons were framed, their uncle who also lives in America described them as losers.  A former principal and classmates described Dzhokhar as a kind man without strong political or religious opinions, but he posted wry jokes about Russian discrimination on Chechens and made deadpan, cold comments about his own doings that week. Tamerlan’s former boxing trainer said that Dzhokhar had been very loyal toward to his big brother. Perhaps the Tsarnaev brothers are not much different from killers like Seung-hui Cho and Adam Lanza. The difference was that the brothers used explosives instead of guns. More importantly, the bombings had a connection to Islam and they were Muslims. Therefore, all of us begin the unnecessary debate of “Jihad vs McWorld”.  It is a world away from Lu Lingzi’s world. Behind her bubbly personality, she knew the meaning of fighting. She grew up with big expectations and the pressure of being the only child.  She knew that she had to get along with everyone and utilized whatever she could and as such had opportunities in the form of scholarships, interviews and a new life in America. She was aware that America was not heaven.  As an attractive woman, she knew that she drew attention, including from the wrong kind of people. In fact, her dream of finding love in America itself presented risks — from the gossips of friends to her parents disapproval. Lu Lingzi was much better than the Tsaraev brothers because she fought the challenges. She joined her fellow Chinese friends and involved herself in the American way of life.  The Tsaraev brothers knew that they had thrown the dice — Tamerlan wouldn’t become an American Olympian and Dzhokhar wouldn’t come to class on Tuesday. But seeing Lu Lingzi cheering and giggling along with Krystle Campbell and Martin Richard, they might have felt darkness setting in.  They were angry that Lu was happy with America. And so they killed her. ●

Mass killing of animals and Asian values

Mass killing of animals and Asian values Mario Rustan  ;  A Teacher of English and Australian Cultural Studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung

JAKARTA POST, 26 Maret 2013

  

I was going to write “Why are Asians killing animals?” but there might be a viral video of a Westerner treating an animal cruelly in the same week as this article’s publication.  The point is, in several Asian countries there are major industries involving the killing of endangered animals for impractical but highly profitable purposes.  In contrast to a slaughterhouse or a farm, these animals are hunted down in the wild. In several cases, they are mutilated with their prized body parts taken and they are left bleeding to death. Traditionally populations around the Arctic needed whale meat for food, and the demand for whale oil and fat was extremely popular in the early 20th century.  Japan saw the whaling industry as the pride of its nation — if the British and the Americans had their rubber and pineapple plantations in Malaya and the Philippines, then the Japanese had their whaling ships ruling the waters of Korea and the far northern Pacific. Japan consumed whale meat in large amounts following the end of the World War II and the recovery period, until it was removed from school lunches in the 1970s. Although whale meat was never a favorite, successive Japanese governments insisted on its importance to their food supply.  Japan then claimed that the main purpose of its whaling activity was for scientific research. By the 1990s, Japan had won support from Southeast Asian and Pacific nations while politically clashing with Australia and New Zealand over whaling in the South Pacific. The cited scientific research projects usually look at stock numbers and the feeding ecology of various whale species, although Japan never answers the questions why these investigations lead to the killing of the whales, why there are more fishermen on board than marine scientists or why there are no widely circulated papers as a result of this research.  The whaling controversy often raises cultural (or racial) concerns. While many Japanese do not pay attention to the whaling issue, they get the impression that Western environmentalists are racists.  Certainly there is no famous Japanese or Asian anti-whaling activist, and cable programs on the whaling war show white Australian/New Zealand activists against Japanese whalers. Japanese politicians believe that Japan is singled out compared to Scandinavian whaling countries, although those countries do not send their ships far into the Antarctic nor do they use the scientific research cover. In the end, Japan’s staunch defense of whaling is a mystery.  Worse, now South Korea is interested in following Japanese footsteps, citing a tradition of whale consumption. There is, however, another long-range fishing that is highly profitable and also disheartening. Japan consumes 80 percent of Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna, usually as sushi (mixed with rice) and sashimi (as sliced raw meat). The most popular varieties are maguro (tuna meat) and otoro (tuna belly). To keep up with the demand, juvenile and young Atlantic bluefin tunas are caught.  Japanese diners are puzzled when questioned by Western journalists on the sustainability of bluefin tuna — surely there is always tuna available for them. Sushi/sashimi chefs believe that it is an honor to serve otoro. The Japanese media hardly report on the issue, and Japanese fishermen claim that any fishing ban would benefit Korean fishermen with the popularity of  Korean cuisine rising worldwide.  There is yet another controversial fish dish from Asia — shark fin soup. It is one of the most prized foods in Chinese culture, although shark fin itself is quite tasteless.  The taste comes from the soup. More important than the taste is the status. The serving of the soup symbolizes respect to the guest and the prestige of the host, which makes it a compulsory item in wedding banquets and business dinners.  Naturally, some Chinese claim that it is good for the skin, heart and sexual organs, and even in preventing cancer, although there is no evidence for the latter. A bowl of shark fin soup is not much different to a bowl of vegetable soup in terms of vitamin and mineral content. The fins are obtained by catching wild sharks, cutting off the fins, and then throwing the bleeding sharks back into the sea. Hong Kong is the top importer of shark fins with supplies coming from Europe, Indonesia and North America.  While Hong Kong diners have cut down their shark fin soup consumption, the growing number of Chinese middle class visiting Hong Kong keeps the demand high. Luckily, governments and businesses in Chinese-speaking countries have been quite responsive in addressing the controversy behind shark fin soup. Among big names that have banned shark fin soup are the Peninsula and Shangri-La hotels, Hong Kong Disneyland, Singapore’s Cold Storage supermarket, and the government of Taiwan. Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming also campaigns against shark fin soup consumption. Hong Kong politicians, the Chinese seafood industry and Chinese-American lobby groups say that the campaign against shark fin soup is racist, citing that cod and caviar consumption among Westerners is also unsustainable.  The ethnic Chinese’ strongest case for serving shark fin soup, however, is its cultural connotations. While a wedding couple can demand a shark fin soup-free banquet, their parents will say that its absence will be offensive to their bosses, business partners and other family members. At least these animal parts can be eaten, but Asians also have a weird fetish for parts of animals one cannot eat. The rise in living standards in China has led to the rise in demand for elephant ivory, rhinoceros horns and tiger and bear parts (in the name of health and medicine). Kenyan authorities arrested 10 Chinese nationals smuggling ivory in 2009 and recently uncovered the shipping of pieces of ivory worth a billion dollars destined for Batam. During the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference held in Bangkok this March, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pledged to tighten controls on Thailand’s domestic ivory trade, although she gave no timeline.  Outside the conference venue, one could find ivory products with a wide range of prices, as Bangkok is the largest ivory market in Asia. Besides being sold as souvenirs and religious objects, ivory amulets are essential for the Thais’ sense of personal security.  Seventy percent of African ivory heads for China, causing a population drop of African elephants from 5 million to several hundred thousand in 70 years. Like shark fins, the ivory is cut off the wild elephant and the animal is left mutilated.  Payments to the poacher easily supersede his annual income from other work, and many African governments are happy with Chinese investment, developmental aid and business deals.  In return, they will not support the Western position against the blood-ivory trade which implicates both Africa and China. More than for personal consumption, many Chinese need ivory products as gifts to grease political and business deals. As an Asian, I am ashamed by the fact that many endangered animals are killed due to greed and false beliefs. The killings not only threaten the existence of the animal but also the Earth’s future — the very balance of Heaven and Earth revered in Asian spirituality.  The extinction of whales, sharks, bluefin tunas and African elephants — and its multiplying effects on climate and other species — are not horror stories devised by Western racists. Many Asians are trying hard to make it into reality in the name of honor, wealth and tradition. ●

Chinese-Indonesians beyond Imlek celebration

Chinese-Indonesians beyond Imlek celebration Mario Rustan ;  A Lecturer in English and Australian Cultural Studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung

JAKARTA POST, 22 Februari 2013

I call the month leading up to the Chinese New Year, “Chinese appreciation month”. That is the only time of the year when the Indonesian media look at Chinese-Indonesian culture, society and history. By the following week, Chinese-Indonesians are once again below the radar and remain so for the rest of the year. Usually, the media cover similar things in relation to Chinese New Year (the term “Lunar New Year” is used in places where non-Chinese communities, such as Koreans and Vietnamese, celebrate their own unique New Year’s Day): Poor Chinese living in Tangerang, Banten and assimilated communities in Central Java. Histories on Chinese hardship in Indonesia would cover the Batavia massacre of 1740, the ban on Chinese culture during the New Order regime and probably the anti-communist purge in West Kalimantan in 1967. There is no mention of the major anti-Chinese riots in Jakarta and Surakarta 15 years ago. Finally, newspapers will publish articles from scholars on the meaning of being Chinese-Indonesian. Gossip programs ask Chinese-Indonesian celebrities how they celebrate, and television shows images of people praying inside temples, before the management organizes handouts for beggars. By now Indonesians regard the festival and the national holiday as normal, a decade after it became legal. Stores display Chinese-themed paper ornaments, while malls and supermarkets feature lion dances, Chinese-themed music and lucky draws. But it is a short-lived festival, a month-long cordiality. For the rest of the year, Indonesia lives uneasily with its Chinese identity. There is no clear indication on how many Indonesian residents are of Chinese ethnicity, but it is safe to say that there are many — in the range of 5 to 9 million. Indonesia is probably the home to the largest Chinese minority in the world, hosting more ethnic Chinese than the United States, Australia and anywhere in Europe. Numbers wise, the closest competitors to Indonesia are Malaysia and Thailand (Chinese-majority Singapore does not come close). Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia attempted in the past to assimilate their Chinese populations, usually by pressuring them to adopt native-sounding names — apart from prohibiting the Chinese language. In the 21st century, however, a minority of Chinese in these countries have revived their families’ original names. A growing number of Southeast Asians are learning Mandarin, while the national media have increased their coverage of news on China. It seems, however, that Chinese-Indonesians are lagging behind their Southeast Asian cousins in “rediscovering” their Chinese culture and heritage. Neither Mandarin nor any other Chinese language is much used, most Chinese-Indonesians cannot read Hanzi characters, and there is no profitable Chinese- language media. The main reason is because Chinese identity and cultural expression is never a comfortable topic in Indonesia. After the expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia and anti-Chinese riots in Kuala Lumpur in the 1960s, Malays and Chinese in those countries have been living in parallel worlds with completely different ways of life. Retailers and media accommodate Chinese demands for music and films in the Cantonese and Mandarin languages and the Chinese eat pork and drink beer as much they like since they and the Malays have their own places. On the other hand, in 1967 the Indonesian Army concluded that only assimilation could stop public animosity toward the economically active Chinese. Contrary to popular belief, the Army did know that Chinese culture was not related to communist China, and they knew that most Chinese-Indonesians were anti-communists. But they believed that if the Chinese were allowed to speak in Hokkien, pray to their ancestors, and go to Chinese schools, stability would elude Indonesia. Over the decades, Chinese-Indonesians have learned to play safe. They become Christians, they go to Christian schools and universities, and they adopt Indonesian and Western lifestyles at home. Conversations between good friends are in local dialects, be it Javanese, Sundanese, or Malay (although the choice of words often sounds vulgar since they are learned from the streets and stores).  Compared to Malaysia, in Indonesia Chinese and non-Chinese live together better. But this living arrangement is also based on somewhat formal pleasantry, since the Chinese play down their culture, background and presence. What they do bring forward is Christianity, which is also the main identity of many other ethnic groups. Chinese (and other East Asians) everywhere tend to keep themselves out of trouble. They avoid confrontation, they do not want to stand out and they conform to authority. Chinese-Indonesians who become celebrities play down their heritage, keep out of Chinese world entertainment hubs such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, and demonstrate their Indonesian identity. Mandarin is taught in schools but kids do not speak it and most Chinese-Indonesians study Mandarin at home or in unmarked schools with private tutors. While no Chinese-Indonesians will talk about May 1998, it is an unspoken reminder that they live in a volatile house. Some Indonesians want to promote Chinese-Indonesian culture in the fashion of Chinese-American culture, but they are more enthusiastic than the Chinese. Many Chinese-Indonesians reject the idea of constructing a tourist-oriented Chinatown in Jakarta, fearing that it will incite hatred.  Chinese-Indonesians do not comment on which Indonesian word for them is most suitable: Cina, China or Tionghoa. While many non-Chinese openly show their love for Korean, Japanese and even Chinese cultures, many Chinese youth prefer Indonesian and Western cultures. This is not merely playing safe, but also a result of a lifelong dedication to playing the assimilation game. Therefore, many Chinese and non-Chinese Indonesians are happy with the invisibility of their Chinese identity for most of the year. The Chinese see discreetness as the guarantor of security, while other Indonesians are satisfied with their Unity in Diversity (with emphasis on unity) vision. Both are still unsure about their feelings of being Chinese and being Indonesian. Jakarta can have a Chinese vice-governor, but some quarters have blamed Chinese-Jakartans for the latest flood.  Indonesians can praise China as a foil to America and as a role model for Indonesia, yet are irritated by the sound of a phone conversation in Chinese and by the sight of Chinese “mall rats”. On the other hand, Chinese ladies can complain about the non-Chinese and then discuss intensely the fates of sinetron characters. A Mandarin-speaker will receive a less-than-impressed reaction from her friends when talking or writing her Facebook status in Chinese, even though almost everyone in her social circle is Chinese too. Media coverage of the Chinese New Year — the only time when Chinese-Indonesians are in the spotlight — is a reminder that everyone in Indonesia is still uncomfortable with the Chinese identity. ●

Jakarta and the world face weather disasters

Jakarta and the world face weather disasters Mario Rustan ;   The writer teaches English and Australian Cultural Studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung

JAKARTA POST, 02 Februari 2013

Bushfires and floods in Australia; civil war in Mali and a deadly hostage crisis in Algeria; persistent floods in Jakarta and northern Java; horrific air quality in Beijing and northern China; what do they have in common? All of them have been caused by climate change. Certainly, it is easier to talk about climate change and global warming in Indonesia than in the West. We do not have high-profile skeptics who maintain that extreme weather conditions have always been there, even before human activity. Indonesian media agree that there are such things as global warming and climate change — and that they are caused by countries, including America. A newspaper article is not the best place to debate the validity of global warming theory, and science is not my strength. But, these two facts stand.  First, being a ball revolving in space, the Earth has experienced episodes of climate change from the deserting of the Sahara at the dawn of history to the Little Ice Age from the 16th to 19th centuries.  Second, every spot on the planet now pollutes water, air, and land through industrial waste and carbon emissions from factories and motor vehicles.  Only a minority of major cities in the world have working waste management programs, decent air quality and clean rivers. For most of the world, safe and open public parks, vibrant public transportation and pristine riverside promenades are pie in the sky. Most readers of this newspaper are concerned with the regular flooding of Jakarta. Certainly, rain is always intense in tropical Southeast Asia but, fortunately, most of the region does not have to deal with typhoons, as does the Philippines.  Thailand experienced heavy flooding in the second half of 2011, while any case of flooding in Singapore would cause uproar from its citizens.  The Malaysian state of Johor also experiencing flooding, but it is the case of Jakarta that has attracted world attention, along with the brown, smoggy air of Beijing. Most Jakartans agree that flooding is caused by human activity. The most cited cause, to the point of being a cliché, is trash. Unfortunately, by next month, we can expect people to start throwing away plastic bottles and papers anywhere they want.  The more depressing fact is when people do dispose of garbage in a responsible manner and yet it is not collected on time or in an adequate fashion.  Well-sorted garbage from your bin can sit in a cart for a week, then in a square for another month, before ending up somewhere by the river — or even in the river. Nobody denies that Jakarta’s environment is damaged — possibly beyond repair. It is the only major Southeast Asian capital without a mass transit system (and with significant gaps in its bus rapid transit system).  Malls could boast indoor parks and yet their front yards are adorned by sewers, piles of garbage and clogged roads. The floods have proved that many skyscrapers do not have adequate drainage systems. While its waterfront location naturally carries the risk of water hazards everywhere, the severity of the flooding in northern Jakarta is due to the lack of trees and the overconsumption of underground water for industry, residences and businesses. Japan and Singapore show that land reclamation is manageable as long as there are plenty of trees, dikes and floodgates.  Residents in closed-gate estates tell stories of public parks and green spaces being converted into gas stations and office space. Greed kills trees and, in the end, nobody grows richer. Even the terrible situation in Mali is connected to climate change. High levels of carbon dioxide have changed the movements of air streams over tropical West Africa, dropping rain further south and, thus, making the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert, including northern Mali, drier.  The impoverished Tuareg people and the Arabs have rebelled, and joining them are a weapon surplus and Islamist fighters from the Libyan civil war.  While the Tuareg demand independence to become the state of Azawad, the Ansar Dine and MOJWA groups want Mali to become an Islamic state and, in the process, African Islamic heritage sites in the city of Timbuktu are being destroyed. They firmly argue that both drought and floods are divine punishments.  The inability of the African military, both in Mali and Algeria, to deal effectively with the rebellions, follows a long historical pattern on how climate change can spark rebellions and invasions. It also changes the behavior of governments. The Chinese government used to dismiss pollution data released by the United States Embassy in Beijing as a smear campaign, but now acknowledges that things are really not okay or normal.  The dusting of northern Chinese cities is not merely caused by seasonal winds carrying dust and sand from the Gobi Desert, but by unchecked industrialization and the increased use of heavy vehicles and trucks.  Both the bushfires in Australia and heavy snows in Europe during January are realities of life. But the extreme temperatures are due to deteriorating environmental health. The path to recovery is extremely hard since both developed and developing countries blame each other for the pollution.  Many developed nations have abandoned their environmental commitments for fear of economic hardship, while many developing countries argue that they need to keep the home fires burning — they do not want to remain impoverished.  Indonesia must do what it can. We can start, for example, by consuming less food and goods and determine our shopping priorities based on personal necessity rather than group mentality or personal vanity.  More importantly, we should stop promoting environmental awareness for the sake of following a fashionable trend and start to practice it for the sake of ourselves.  That, of course, is a tall order. Many ideas that are still a challenge in developed countries, such as riding bikes and walking, shopping locally and recycling, are almost impossible to implement here.  But, if you can do something by yourself or with your loved ones, to make Jakarta or your hometown a little more environmentally friendy, please do it. A little change is better than nothing. ●