Once again Rima Fauzi asks a very pertinent question. This time it’s over the Indonesia-Malaysia spat, triggered most recently by the Pendet dance.
So what’s responsible for the noise between the neighbors? Malaysia’s thieving and disrespectful ways or Indonesia’s hypersensitivity?
As a people, Indonesians have become more and more hot-headed by the minute. It is actually something to be ashamed of as hot-headedness is one of the typical signs of being uneducated (thus not being able to keep one’’s cool).
Not only are we getting more hot-headed, it seems that we are also falling deeper into ignorance. Which is a shame, because there should be no more excuses for one to be stupid and ignorance seeing as there is almost no restriction on the information flow into the country, nor is there a shortage of ways for a person to educate one’’s self autodidactically (by ways of internet, television, books etc).
We have also become a nation that is stubbornly disrespectful to other nations, people who are different to us and also our own culture. And by our culture I mean our indigenous culture, not the one you see nowadays in Indonesia or television which is full of ignorant telenovelas, gossip shows and rich people/celebrities sporting their hedonistic lives on national television.
The upside of these traits is none, while the downsides are many. By being hot-headed and ignorant, we often miss simple truths and even more often we are easily provoked by the smallest of things. The most recent issue that has taken Indonesia like a storm is how our Malay brothers and sisters from Malaysia are ”thieves”.
We accuse them of stealing this and that from our culture to our cuisine, while in fact we are both Malay people sharing many of the same culture and cuisine that it’’s a little absurd (not to mention difficult) to claim which is whose and so on.
Rest of article here
Unspun 
Dear Mbak Rina,
A well-thought writing.
Well, there have been too many ‘public lies’ and I want to quote an Indonesian Prof. Dr. Usman Pelly, MA, Unimed, Medan “Only 50% of the Indonesian history is factual”. Issues by individuals are being faulted onto the state itself i.e. Malaysia, where is the sensibility of it?
Here, they forgot the golden rule ‘Do good onto others, if you want others to do good on you’. Best wishes.
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Unspun: Thanks for featuring my post in your blog today.
Ahmad: Thanks for the feedback. I am familiar with the history distortions that we have received since we were children, which is why I try not to hastily jump to conclusions in this Malaysia vs. Indonesia brouhaha..
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Emotion is a very powerful factor. It gets in the way of rational thinking and appropriate response. From the comments I have read so far, it would appear that many Indonesians are already upset with the Malaysian government over many other issues which in the past probably had no satisfactory closure. This left many Indonesians simmering with some degree of discontent and with yet another new issue such as the penyet dance, the tide of emotional anger looms even more.
It doesn’t help when Rais Yatim, who helms the culture ministry in Malaysia, takes the issues ever so casually and tells the Indonesians to blame Discovery and then considers this as a closure. There ought to be more sensitivity, not condescension!
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what we need to do is to understand each other. the process might takes 1000 disputes and arguments but neither malaysia nor indonesia should be blamed on as we are one and have to foster the unity among nusantara nations.
there has never been proven that uncontrolled emotions can lead people to solve the problems or even close to the solution yet it can or already have created tension and put us away from the right path of solving problems as the civilized community.
humble opinions from Malaysian:
shahrulnizam.wordpress.com
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Like to read article and see pictures here…keep posting ..Have great days always for you..
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saya pikir saatnya kita sama-sama berpikir jernih dan lebih mendalam dalam menyikapi konflik ini..jangan saling terbawa emosi dengan artikel dan komentar-komentar yang ada..satu hal yang pasti : ADA YANG DIUNTUNGKAN DARI PERTIKAIAN INDONESIA-MALAYSIA..jadi menjadi tanggung jawab kita bersama untuk lebih memahami kasus ini lebih jernih!!!
Pihak Ketiga dalam Konflik Indonesia Malaysia
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Indonesian press should not provoke the people. Be a responsible media. The truth is what AP reports as below:
Despite 17,000 tropical islands, beaches, reefs and a rich cultural heritage, just over six million foreign tourists visited Indonesia last year, compared with around 22 million visitors to Malaysia.
Provoked by a sensationalist media, this is just another issue of hurt pride that can incite people “deprived of common sense, deprived of intelligence, deprived of understanding,” he said.
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in my opinion,this issue need to be solved intelligently..
i think the prime minister of both country should meet up n find solution together..
as a malysian living in indonesia,i frankly scared with the current news that we malysian might be harmed here..
i just hope that this issue cn be solved as urgent as possible..
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For such issues to have a satisfactory closure, the root causes need to be identified. Who were the agitators and what were their motives? Intelligence itslef may not be sufficient. There must be political will from both sides.
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