Government: good or evil?
Debnath Gulroy of Roy Morgan Research wrote this article, which was posted on the Jakarta Post. She has this interesting cross-tab result from the Roy Morgan database:
To me, the interesting thing about this chart is that it clearly highlights the utterly different attitudes of Indonesians vs. Australians, and most strikingly, Americans, toward the government. Look at the third point on the vertical axis.
Here in the archipelago, I sense that people are often too reliant on the government. They expect the government to actually care for the people. They ask the government to create jobs. They ask want the government to take care of the economy. And all sorts of thing.
This kind of faith in the government is actually strange, given that governments in this country have never been known for being good in governing, and given the level of corruption. Look at here, here, and here.
On the contrary, the American attitude toward the government can be inferred from the media reaction to the Joe-the-plumber scene during the recent presidential campaign. Their attitude toward the government basically seems to be of distrust and suspicion. For example, during his interview with CNN, Joe said:
"Social Security is a joke. I have parents; I don’t need another set of parents called the government. You know, let me take my money and invest it how I please. Social Security I’ve never believed in, don’t like it. I hate that it’s forced on me"
For the Americans, this attitude can be easily traced back to the Libertarian conservative wisdom of "small government is good government" whereby the government might be taken as a necessary evil which is tasked to protect individuals from aggression.
But for Indonesians, the reason for their faith in government is a matter of conjecture. My take, 53 years under autocratic leaders—and some 3 centuries under colonial rule—are making us so apathetic that we become skeptical of our ability to take charge of our own lives.
I think this has to change.
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
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