Tolerance and critical thinking

So today I had this class called Workshop 1 and Workshop 2. Workshop 1 basically consists of how to write academic papers, while Workshop 2 is more focused on teamwork with your friends.

What I'd like to discuss here is about these two personality traits that most Indonesians lack, which is tolerance and critical thinking. During a lecture in Workshop 1, the professor encouraged us to write academic papers that consists of 1000 words while stressing the importance of critical thinking. He then emphasized it by talking about someone who reads the news and truly believing in what it says without giving it a second thought that it might not be true. He then told us not to do that since we're college students now and are encouraged to think critically.

All of a sudden it hit me. Just a few days ago I felt infuriated after reading a small piece of news from Indonesia about the government rejecting an investment proposal from Japan and instead gave the opportunity to China. I was on the point of typing swear words when I realized one thing; that piece of news didn't come from a reputable and transparent news site and at the end of the article the writer seems he is intending to spread hatred to the public on the current regime. So I tried to calm down and google about it, and it turns out there were some false accusations on the news that I read before. The facts were different and I could totally understand why Indonesia turned down Japan's proposal.

This has been a major issue among Indonesian netizens these past few years. Technology and social media has allowed normal people to easily access news and express their opinions. Even so, it has its downsides. This also allows people to spread out false information for public consumption. Sadly, most of us get emotional and still lacks the proper skills of critical thinking to filter a piece of information. Many people also spread untrue information without thinking. A journalist once referred to this group as the 'clicking monkeys', people who constantly share pieces of information from the web that are not likely to be true.

Before I get to the conclusion, I'd like to discuss about the second part: tolerance.

On Workshop 2, the professor talks about intercultural communication, on how to connect with various people from different cultures. Since APU is an international university that consists with people from many kinds of nationalities, we are encouraged to work along with them and put aside our prejudice. She said that we should get rid of a judgmental attitude, and try to understand a person's different culture by putting ourselves in their shoes.

Her lecture on tolerance made me reflect on Indonesia's current situation. Although Indonesia is a country of rich diversity, tolerance is still a huge dealーespecially when it comes to religion. Most Indonesians still have a problem on how to accept the small differences between each other, and we tend to associate 'difference' with 'unacceptable weirdness'.

There has been many human rights violations that comes from the lack of religious tolerance. Many tragedies were caused by people who refused to embrace diversity. Many Muslims tend to discard other religions based on the belief that Islam is the best religion. Many Sunnis also tend to disregard the Shias and Ahmadis just because they are different, which eventually leads to discrimination.

This all roots from our education system that lacks these two essential things. We are not encouraged to think critically and express our opinion, but we are told to memorize a whole book and get good scores on exams. They teach us religious education on the emphasis that Indonesia is built on the foundation of Pancasila which emphasizes the importance of religion, but why aren't they teaching us about how to deal with religious differences?

Indonesians should learn more on how to be more tolerant and less judgmental toward others. Students should also be encouraged to think critically and have a passionate curiosity in their studies. Without these two things, Indonesia will go no further on being a developed country.

I think that's all for today. I'd like to write a bit more but I have assignments to do so I'll probably do that some other time. My argument isn't quite as strong but hey, we're all in the process of learning. Hope you'll be able to reflect on my thoughts and write a better opinion on this issue.