@Ronen - thank you kindly for your comment! An interesting and informative read! Cheers

Yes, Roland. Corruption culture may be attributed partly to the "noveau riche" culture, but I would see them as 2 separated phenomena, as corruption is widespread here among all income classes of society, quite equally...

The "noveau riche" culture, which is not limited to the 3rd world, is a result of the adaptation of superficial American + colonialist values. European culture is undergoing 100 years or so of decadence. American vulgar values are 'in', while the Old European delicate values are 'out'.

Unlike American wealthy class who live in a society which did not abandon totally the old European values, the 3rd world wealthy class has no shame at all, as they do not have any delicate cultural background.

I am living in Medan. You can find here hundreds of extravagant houses and mansions, but not even one opera house, theater, famous intellectual, famous film director, international-grade scientific research lab, innovation house, hi-tech company... It's an absolute intellectual desert.

Respected people here are those who have money, even if everyone knows they are corrupted. Most people who fight here against corruption are not better than the corrupted people themselves. They just feel jealousy. I bet that most of them will behave the same when they have the power.

People, poor and rich alike, are not interested here in high delicate culture. All they need is food and low-grade entertainment.

Many people here prefer to work 16 hours a day in exhausting physical work as an employee with permanent job, for almost no money, - than to open their own small business, and have a change to earn much more with less physical work. Why? - They prefer peace of mind: permanent job with little brain-work, is the dream-job of most Indonesians, poor or rich.

Most Indonesian I met, - do not want their brain to work hard. This is what I call a Tropics Zone Mentality. For hundreds of thousands of years the Jungle-dwellers of the Tropics never have to think for the sake of survival… This legacy is dominating their culture till nowadays. It’s the mother of many society-illnesses, like corruption, lack of innovation, lack of long-term-planning and poor efficiency and capabilities, while it’s also contribute a lot to the lack of sharp and cold criticism, which caused the Tropics dwellers to be also very friendly…

By the way, this is another insight I got here. Friendly societies everywhere are usually more corrupted than cold individualist society. This two pairs of values are almost never mixed.

@BrahmaPutra, you got a point there. Yes, if just having a pocket knife in your pocket could cost you long years in jail, one wonders what could befall the pickpocket...

@Ronen - I am sure that your observations are right, also because I can see a similar mindset in Indonesia. Maybe it is because in Europe's society the social middle class is dominant to which of course also government officials and employees belong and wealth is quite evenly spread, in addition to a decent social services (healthcare, education, employment...), which on the other hand means that taxes are at times quite high to finance the social scheme. However here is unfortunately still the middle class a very small crust, maybe accounting for 10% of all Indonesians and the majority is poor, whatever government supplied statistics are trying telling otherwise. I know here tons of folks hardly surviving on a daily base, in addition to a poor healthcare, a very selective education system and unfortunately also a very religiously dominated environment.

I am actually not surprised that corruption is so rampant, because everybody wants everything NOW, no matter the consequences and the means to obtain it. Just look on to the new middle class in Indonesia - it seems, for me at least, that exactly this middle calss wants to show everybody "We made it", and this at times in a very exaggerated manner. One car is not enough, it must be 3 or 4 (of course, if possible the newest and biggest models), on mobile is not enough, it must be 3 or 4 and so on and on! you know how many times my wife and me are getting approached by "well meaning" and comparably well off Indonesians asking, why we are only driving one car, and that one is 7 years old. why we are not using the most advanced mobiles available, why my wife is not having lots of jewellery, why we are not having nannies, more maids, a driver and so on (I think you get the point). It is this completely brainwashed generation of "noveau riche", misguided by advertisements, images and symbols of the wealth. Their only god is money, because this generation believes that happiness is found in having more and more on materialistic goods surrounding them and lost their view that happiness lies in living in peace within, having a good family, a good wife, good children, a humble life! Maybe the whole thing is a bit of a cultural shock for many people here, never having anything before and now having "everything at last", no matter the price and the ways to obtain it!

I actually do hope very much that my grandchildren will see a better world than we have to observe daily!

Hi Roland, Of-course, nobody can argue with you, how this country was looked if there was no corruption here. However, I think you extremely underestimate the corruption dimensions in Indonesia. It's not just the politicians, and bureaucracies. The INDONESIAN SOCIETY itself is problematic. The Indonesian electorate is voting once after another to parties and individuals who collaborated shamelessly with corrupted politicians, officials and human rights offenders. I do not know a single Indonesian who never exploit his family/friends-ties to get a job/benefit he/she is not entitled to. Indonesian society like all the indigenous tropical societies in the world, have mental difficulties to adapt themselves to the rules and hectic life of global economy demands. Hence, most of them, are looking for comfortable and easy shortcuts to gain money. Tropical indigenous societies who live in Paradises on Earth, were never felt the need to adapt the culture of long-term planning, with the associated values of accuracy, efficiency, loyalty, honesty, etc.

The harsh experience of recent dozens of years of globalization, has a potential to change something in the indigenous cultures of the tropics. However, cultural changes take generations to evolve. One can not expect to have them installed instantly. Roland, - your grandchildren will see, maybe, the beginning of a change. Do not expect North-European mentality in the Tropics for the next 200 years, at least...