YOGYAKARTA – Some culture did not change, although time has changed, from the new order to the reform period. That culture is the behaviour of collusion, corruption and nepotism. Change of culture in the reform era should have been able to change the bad habit, too, but it did not. Such bad practices still mark the society’s way of life.
According to the professor in Faculty of Cultural Sciences of UGM, Prof. Dr. Sjafri Sairin, the mentality of ‘trespassing’, gaining benefit without labour, has become the factor for the culture of collusion, corruption and nepotism in socio-political life. “To reach this goal, they are willing to undergo unofficial, sometimes illegal, mechanisms, said Nugroho Trisnu Brata, doctoral student, revealing the thought of Prof Sjafri Sairin in a discussion on culture of Prof. Sjafri Sairin and Prof. Faruk HT in the Koesnandi Hardjasoemantri Cultural Centre of UGM, Wednesday (13/2).
Nugroho added that the mentality as mentioned by Sjafri Sairin is found in the phenomenon of acceptance of civil servants or non-civil servants, students, and in the phenomenon of working to gain as much wealth as possible. “The mentality of trespassing can become the starting point for corruption, collusion and nepotism,” he said.
Such mentality indicates that society has not fully left the old life pattern behind, nor coming to terms with the new life pattern. “They don’t have a clear cultural reference, very easy to be influenced and provoked,” he said.
Sjafri Sairin is a chairman of the Centre. The Centre was established by Prof. Dr. Umar Kayam in 1977. After Prof. Kayam, the institution was managed by Prof. Dr. Sjafri Sairin for 6 years and succeeded by Prof. Dr.Faruk H.T. Until 2005, the Centre was chaired by Dr. Widya Nayati up to early 2013, when it was chaired by Dr. Aprinus Salam.