GETTING BETTER
FROM BITTERNESS
By : Marsudiono[*]
In Indonesia the price of life
is cheaper than the price of chili. It is still well recorded in our mind, how
many lives lost in the calamity of Merapi eruption, earth quake and tsunami in
Mentawai, land slide, and flooding in several areas of Indonesia. The victim is
only a matter of statistic. Most people said that it was as a result of
geographical phenomena.
Indonesian has lost its
sophisticated moral values. Not very long
ago, not more than fifteen years before this country was bombarded by monetary
crisis, we were ever proud of our nation as civilized society. It was written
in the book of Pancasila and Civic Education. Here, we were described as
friendly people.
After
Indonesia had entered the gate of reformation, the flowers of freedom euphoria
bloomed everywhere. Now the flowers have turned into the fruits of anarchy,
egotism, harassment, violence, rudeness, and abuse which tortured our nation to
be the uncivilized society. Foot ball match ended with quarrel. A group of
students from different schools attacked each other because of a simple
problem, ‘mocking ‘. Demonstration turned to be a war between public and
police. Are these the real culture of our nation? Who could stand
witnessing children in famine, poverty and pain reverberate in our heart. How
could we bear hearing children crying? “Father has gone on a long trip”, the
loss of loved one. They went to take a last look at him where he laid in the
midst of flowers. Anarchy and rudeness has created unbearable pity for the
suffering of mankind.
Character Building which is
aimed to cure those acute illnesses is too late. But later is better than
never. First, we raise dust, and then we complain that we cannot see. Most of
problems in our nation come from our own fault.
Three things might be able to make
foundation of civilized nation. Firstly, teach students peacefully and wisely.
Never show them violence. What the late Rama Mangun Wijaya said a long time ago
when I was a university student in Yogyakarta is still lingering in my ears. A seed
of mango will grow to be a mango tree. The root is the root of mango. The leave
is the leaf of mango. The trunk is the trunk of mango. The branch is the branch
of mango. The flower is the flower of mango and the fruit is the fruit of mango.
If a teacher or a parent plants the seed of anger to the children, then they
will grow to be the tree of anger. Once
you show unreasonable anger in front of students or your children, don’t blame
them if they one day will be angry to their little brother.
The cruelty and brutal act of our
nation lately could be the fruit of the wrong conduct of our teaching. A teacher
who beats or insults a student, parents who offend their children, government
who acts violently to society and makes the innocent grass root marginalized
from economic field, television which shows violence, quarrel, and fight, all
of them must be responsible for the present moral condition of our society.
Secondly, teaching students to appreciate
literature could be fruitful for the process of making their heart peaceful.
Peaceful heart will shine peaceful mind. The world in literature’s eye is not
consisting of black and white. In every action we are always required to ask
not only ontologically but also epistemologically. We do not only
read the line but between the lines as well, even beyond the
line. There is no better work of literature than the Holly Quran.
Therefore, in a higher level, recommend your students to learn the Holly Quran.
Not only do the students read it but they have to know the meaning as well.
Thirdly, we have to deconstruct our
bad culture. In Javanese culture, when there is a child runs and he or she
falls down usually the person who takes care of the child will say, “The
stone is naughty.” Then, the child is asked to beat the stone. Even though
it is done only for the sake of the child not to cry any more, there are two
bad habits have been planted unintentionally
into the child’s mind from this occurrence. First, by saying the stone
is naughty it means that we train a child to blame other person when we
get problem. As a result, we tend to look for the black
sheep when we fail to do something. Second, by asking a child to punch the stone, we
have accustomed a child to take revenge when there is a person who hurts him /
her. We have to deconstruct this culture by teaching our students not to blame
other persons. Instead, train our students to have introspection whenever they
got problem in life and guide them to learn to forgive other person.
Don’t cling to the past. Let’s keep
our finger cross. There is a lining silver in every cloud. We have to get
better from bitterness. To see how wonderful the scenery of afternoon fog in
Ngrayun, we have to travel a long winding road toward the peak of Ngrayun. Is
the sea is still called the sea if there is no wave in it? Is life still called
life if there is no problem in it? That educators and parents should do now is
to give example. A good example is better than thousands of wise words.
Character building is not a matter of teaching. Instead, it is more prone to
bear in students’ mind about how to behave properly, how to achieve a good
attitude, and how to pursuit self realization. These are acquirable only by
giving good examples and guiding them into the right path. Therefore, teaching
must be enlightening and empower students to attain good characters. Teaching
is not creating our students to be a monster of science. Mathematics, Chemistry, and physics all are in
vain unless these subjects make students humanize human being. The pursuit of a
good moral is complicated, for it has to do with people and it is hard to gain
perfection in imperfection of human being. Trying to do our best for our nation
is the only way to recover all problems in our nation.
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