|
04/30/03
If
you call minority as the least ten percent of a
community, then I am a minority in many aspects.
First, being a Bataknese and second being a Christian.
Both are considered minority in Indonesia. And third,
being an Indonesian living in the United States.
Once
I was involved in a group in Boston, Massachusetts. Of
about 20 people in the group, I was the only native
Indonesian. The rest were Chinese Indonesians. The
latter turns out to be minority in Indonesia as well.
And so, I was a minority within minority. I didn’t
realize that at that time until a friend of mine
reminded me that I was the only one who has a true
“family name” which means Batak. Then I replied
jokingly that I should change my last name. Well, I
rarely think about being a minority or a majority.
But
although I do not pay much attention to it, the
reality tells a different story. There is a tendency
in any significant imbalanced distribution of
community/population to keep those two words floating
around. The minority and majority notions may be good
for a counting purpose which is often useful in
designing proportional and effective public policies.
But when it is misused, it serves only for one purpose
that is to divide a community.
Since
I can only think of myself as a member of minority
groups, I do not have any idea how the majority’s
mindset works in their interaction with the minority.
Of many unconstructive mindsets of the minority in
their interaction with the majority – of course they
also possess many constructive mindset or attitude
including hard working -, there is one that I consider
to be worthy of exploration. It is the ignorance
mindset. Ignorance means lack of awareness.
This
mindset is just a natural response. People tend to
congregate with those like themselves, not out of
racist or discriminatory reasons but because they are
human. People tend not to like conflict and being in
the same camps with others will lessen the likelihood
of potential conflicts. So, association with others is
based on comfort reason.
However,
this way of association could potentially make people
to think like minority, act like minority and behave like minority. Minority is often associated
with something that has to be protected because they
are “naturally” weak. They have a greater chance
to be a victim of injustice than their majority
counter part. As a result, this could cause the
minority to think like being victimized and could
develop prejudice toward the majority. Moreover, it
would make them to further cling to the people from
their own camps. Eventually, society would be very
divided.
Instead
of always clinging to their own camp, the minority
should reach out to others who are different from
them. In so doing, they should not bring their
minority attributes to others because such stance only
amplifies differences. The best way is blend just
like human beings. That is reaching out to others,
especially the majority, by bringing humanity
attributes: Caring and loving.
At
some point in time or at some place, one will
experience as a minority. As someone who has been in
the category for many aspects and for years, I have
learned that humanity attributes are universally
accepted not only by the minority but also by the
majority. After all, we are all human beings. Majority
or minority is mere a label and it should not precede the human itself.
Your
comment
Back
to top
|
The Prospect
is published by The Indonesian Institute. Our messages are
study, democracy and unity.
