Adopting Foreign Culture to Strengthen The National Character Building

        In this global era where we are linked to so many cultures all over the world, to adjust or to adapt cultures, somehow, is needed. People have acknowledge that these days, it is easier for them to get to know people with cultural differences. Thanks to technology. Culture in some ways are infuentual to one and another. By taking an example of Indonesia which is one of the most visited tourist attraction, this essay attemps to analyze what kind of culture that should be adopted in terms of constructing the national character. The culture that should be adopted by the western culture are the work ethic attitude , and the the self-confidence. Yet, there are several western culture that should not be adopted as well, just because they don’t fit in eastern culture particularly Indonesian culture. Those are the libelarism and also the individualism in society.

            When talking about work ethic, every culture, somehow has its own fundamental values of what will be influential for the culture to affect the work ethic. The majority of people in Indonesia chose the proffesion as an employee rather than entrepeneur. However, if it is examined further, data shows Indonesia is one of the hottest markets for businesses looking at rapid growth of population and also its starategic location. How does this happen? To analyze this further, we need to take a look at the historical aspects. Back to decades ago, Indonesia was under the authority of Dutch for hundred of years. The repression might had affected and shaped the slave mentality of Indonesians. In concequence, these days people see so many chineese people take over the bussiness of Indonesia. Unlike the culture of Indonesia, the majority of foreign culture have a very different viewpoint of work ethic. Western culture for instance, considering the historical aspect, they are accustomed to be the leader of managing the colonialization. Indonesia needs to throw away the slave mentality and encourage themselves. The attitude toward managing work ethic should be adopted. In order to streghten the national character, this nation needs to thicken the leader mentality of the people particularly the youth generations.

            The culture of Indonesia also has the lack of indivual self-confidence. Thus the youth generations of nowadays have the tendecy to have a low self-esteem. Analyzing by its historical aspects, Indonesia, under the repression of Dutch, were shaped to have a victim mentality.  In a concequence, Indonesian people particularly youth generations are usually not well-prepared and vulnerable to compete in this global era. Unlike the culture of Indonesia, western culture for instance, are used to have a high self-confidence that helps them competating in the new  era of globalization. In order to have a better comptence, Indonesians should leave the mentality of victims left by Dutch colonization decades ago and on the contrary, should adapt the mentality of western culture.

            However, culture provides differences that are not fit into each other. Indonesia with its highly collectivist culture somehow, does not always fit into another culture. Liberalism  is the culture that should not be adopted. Indonesian are known as a collectivist culture and according to all points of Pancasila all that matters is to unify all of the civilians. Fact shows that libelarism has taken over our society especially the youth generations.  The amount of teenagers who completely adopted the lifestyle of western lifestyle has increased. Survey shows that 32 percent of average teenagers have had sex and that is heartbreaking fact considering how high the context of culture of Indonesia. This kind of culture should not be adopted. Parents should keep an eye on their children because teenagers are so unstable about what they should be doing and what they should not.

            In conclusion, to define culture, there will never be the “right” one and the “wrong” one. In the end everyone should filter everything and adopt it if it fits into. In order to strengthen the national character in the new era of globalization, Indonesia, as one of the most visited country should be aware of differences of cultures in all over the world.