analysis

Analysis of Article “Corruption, Violence and Eastern Culture”

Talking about genre, the article about “corruption, violence and Eastern culture” is an arguing a position. The author provides the issue at the introduction. Then the author gives the other opinion. In this article we found five arguments with different view and different position but all of them cover each other and refer to the issue, such as: Hiasinta Galishtheda has an argument about little corruption in school and violence, while Natasha Fibrianty argued that corruption is not a part of culture but it is done because there is a chance to do it. after that, the author gives a statement that demand the action from government to change law.

            The other important thing of analyzing this text is founding main idea and fact or opinion after reading the whole of passage. The main idea of this article is the how practices corruption and violence as the one of western culture are done in East culture, especially in Indonesia.  We can also statement/ claim that is a fact or opinion.  The example of fact is:

·         A study shows that corruption has been practiced since the days the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms ruled the country. The practice thrived during the colonial era and even more so under the New Order.

Those are facts because they are the real causes of corruption and there are no bias words. Whereas Opinion are:

·         These preachers often say that the values of the East are far better than those of the West.

·         Many argue that Western culture is corrupted with indecency, pornography or too much permissiveness.

·         Natasha says Western culture has something that Indonesia needs to copy: law enforcement.

·         Natasha Fibrianty, a student from Al-Azhar Kelapa Gading Islamic High School, said she would like to think that corruption was not a part of our culture, although there was no denying that it is very widely practiced.

Those sentences are opinion because the author uses bias words, such as often, many, and much, and words that show an opinion, such as the word “say” and said.  We have to be aware that there are sentences that combine between fact and opinion, such as:

·         “Definitely. Just look at what happens in schools, there are a lot of students who cheat. It all starts from there. Not to mention in government institutions, where corruption is rampant,” said Hiasinta Galistheda, who recently graduated from Kolese Gonzaga high school.

·         “It is just too easy for people to be stirred up and engage in violence. When people protest, but no one listens to them, in the end there is likely to be violence,” she added.

Two sentences above is a facts in the form of opinion. When we look at the first sentence, we find that it is the real fact about students who cheat in school. It, however, is an opinion of Hiasinta Galistheda as student. It means that this opinion may be a fact because the authority is strong. It applies equally to second sentence.  

By founding facts and opinions in the text, automatically we can find which one the claims or the arguments. Claim is a declarative sentence and has value. Because of it, we can find claim by recognizing declarative sentence. Here the example of claim of this text:

·         When we talk about Eastern culture or the common principles that apply in Indonesia, we are really talking about decency norms or how young people today are wearing clothes that are too revealing, as the blogger mentioned.

This sentence is claim (declarative sentence) because it is pure a statement, not a question, not prayer, not command, etc. After finding out claim, arguments can be found too. The following sentences below refer to an argument:

·         Many argue that Western culture is corrupted with indecency, pornography or too much permissiveness. One Indonesian-language blog puts it this way: “We all know that all things porn are dangerous. Any cultural transition that is heading toward a trend that is corrupted with pornography can never be allowed to happen. The government and all elements of the society must be aware of this danger.”

The blogger goes on to say, “We are all obliged to make sure that ‘today’s trend’ is filled with the virtuous values of Eastern culture. Decency, wisdom, dignity and social consideration are the only ‘trend’ that must prevail.”

·         She also said she often heard news of violence breaking out in various parts of the country.

“It is just too easy for people to be stirred up and engage in violence. When people protest, but no one listens to them, in the end there is likely to be violence,” she added.

·         Natasha Fibrianty, a student from Al-Azhar Kelapa Gading Islamic High School, said she would like to think that corruption was not a part of our culture, although there was no denying that it is very widely practiced.

“But really, it all comes back to the individuals. [The corruptors] just cannot stop themselves because the system itself is already corrupt; their bosses may have been practicing corruption regularly and so have the bosses before them,” the 11th grader told youth speak.

The first sentence is a claim which is a core of argument. For example, He said that many arguments about the bad things of western culture to Indonesian people. Then, the author gives the other opinions (claim) that supports that argument (premises). It is the same as the other arguments.  For easier to understand, we can see the differences colour of fonts. The sentence with blue font points that is the core of argument, and the other sentences are evidence or supporting detail for the core argument. The important thing which must be remembered that each sentence is claim and the whole sentence that consist of the core of argument and supporting details is argument.     

The faults of writing are often done, especially in vague sentence. The author doesn’t give the information clearly. If we identified the sentence below: “But really, it all comes back to the individuals. [The corruptors] just cannot stop themselves because the system itself is already corrupt; their bosses may have been practicing corruption regularly and so have the bosses before them,” the 11th grader told youth speak” , we will find vague word. It makes a question for the reader, what kind of system that gives corruptor the chance to practice corruption? This appears a question from the reader about this system. Then, who is the speaker? Is he a boy? Or is she a girl? Who is his name? This mixes up the readers. The othe example of vague word is “Our president has repeatedly vowed to eradicate corruption, but as hard facts show, he still has a long way to go”. In this case is not mentioned both the name of president and which one the president. Wheather it is the first president, second presiden or the last president. It is not mentioned clearly. Therefore, the readers will be confuse and have a question about who the president is.

In his article, the author includes thought pattern to make the reader easier in reading this text.  Because this article is an arguing a position, so that the author uses more than one thought pattern. They are: listing, cause effect and contradiction. The listing pattern is shown by signal words such as also, added. The sentences that shows them are:

·         She also said she often heard news of violence breaking out in various parts of the country.

·         “It is just too easy for people to be stirred up and engage in violence. When people protest, but no one listens to them, in the end there is likely to be violence,” she added.

In addition, to declare the reasons of argument, the author uses cause-effect pattern. The signal word used is “because”. Here the sentence of cause-effect pattern:

·         “But really, it all comes back to the individuals. [The corruptors] just cannot stop themselves because the system itself is already corrupt; their bosses may have been practicing corruption regularly and so have the bosses before them,” the 11th grader told youthspeak.

Analyzing about though patterns, we can analyse this argument: “Indonesia still lacks law enforcement. Someone who engages in corruption on a large scale may only get two months in jail while another who steals mangos out of starvation may get more,” she said. By this argument, the author wants to show there is contradiction of fact in Indonesia’s law. It is mentioned by the word “while” as a signal word of contradiction pattern.

The author doesn’t write this article free value and without purpose. The purpose of the text is not only to give more information to the readers about corruption and violence in Indonesia but also to demand the action from the government totally to extirpate corruption as soon as possible. Besides it, I think there is a propaganda to the readers about government’s credibility in eradicating corruption in Indonesia even it may consist of effort to crush down leadership of SBY.

Of course, this issue appears because in Indonesia, practices of corruption and violence itself are very rampant. Even, in one of online media mass, The Jakarta Post (12/01/2011), Secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia Teten Masduki said that there is no significance change of Indonesia’s condition about corruption. The evidence can be seen from this report:

It is a slight increase on last year’s score of 2.8, where a score of 10 indicates a highly “clean” country and zero indicates a high level of corruption. Indonesia ranked 110 out of 178 countries in 2010, and 111th out of 180 countries in 2009. (12/01/2011).

That report indicates that in Indonesia corruption practices are done more than before because the rank of Indonesia is very low.   

Why is it like that? The reason is that the government doesn’t extirpate the problem of corruption seriously. That is mentioned in an article of “Religious leaders against Yudhoyono for failing to stop corruption and violence” that 11 religious leaders such as Mgr Martinus Situmorang, the bishop of Padang and president of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia, and Fr Franz Magnis-Suseno, a Jesuit priest and philosophy professor, Prominent Muslim, Protestant, Buddhist and Hindu religious accuse Yudhoyono for his excessive and guilty silence with regards to the nation’s main problems, like corruption and communal violence. “Our concern is more serious now than before,” they say. (Asia news.it 10/19/2011).

I think we often see corruption practices around us. The same as my experience about that when I do national final exam. This a little example of corruption practice in school. Ironically, the students cooperate to do it with teachers. Thus, what’s wrong? Is it about system or individual?

After reading the whole of this article, we can conclude that the government is detrimented by this news. This is the evidence that public doesn’t believe in SBY’s government system of eradication of corruption and preventing the violence. On the other hand, people who don’t like this government are benefited, because this news is the one of the way to kick out the leadership of SBY. 

Source of intertextuality:

Anonymous.(2011). RI ranks 100th in 2011 Corruption Perception Index. The Jakarta Post [internet] 1^st December 2011. Available at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/01/ri-ranks-100th-2011-corruption-perception-index.html. [Accessed 26^th December 2011]

Hariyadi, Mathias.(2011). Religious leaders against Yudhoyono for failing to stop corruption and violence. Asia News.it [internet] 19^th October 2011. Available at: http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Religious-leaders-against-Yudhoyono-for-failing-to-stop-corruption-and-violence-22949.html. [Accessed 26^th December 2011]