I asked an Indonesian social scientist to read my recent post on the lack of expressions of guilt or shame in many Indonesian disputes. She generously wrote a short treatise, which I have translated:
This is a difficult topic within the Indonesian context. It has been discussed for a long time. The culture is focused more on shame than on guilt, so ‘face’ is protected quite a bit, to avoid shame. Thus, I think, if people don’t get caught doing wrong, then they feel that there’s no problem. In that case, they tend to keep quiet, because they feel that their ‘face’ is secure. If, conversely, they’re caught, then they’ll make a big effort to maintain ‘face’ by all means available – which certainly can end up appearing odd. Indeed, their actions might seem absurd to others and even make it clearer that they’ve done something wrong.
Indonesian observations 