Shame & privilege: A guest comment

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.

Ramadan, Islam, and love

As everyone knows, Ramadan (or Ramadhan here) is in full swing now. For most Muslims, that means a month of puasa: abstention from eating, drinking, and sex during daylight hours and from anger, jealousy, and other negative emotions all day long.

It also means that Indonesian media highlight dominant Islamic values more than during other periods. For example, some pop musicians make religious recordings to release at Ramadan, and strictly religious performers might get more airplay. I recently saw several music videos of such songs while on a train trip across Java, and they gave me a new view of how Muslims here might think of their faith as one of love and kindness.

A fine example is “Jalan Lurus” (‘The Straight Road’), sung by Gita Gutawa: