Honestly how many of us have truly interact with indonesian hard labourers? you know those labourers working in construction site or plantations. Yeah those hard core hard labourers. Hoping not to be too offensive and not too racist in this post, i must point out some cultural differences between the mentality of indonesian workers and what a normal person would have reacted. I must say this post is not a reflective of the entire indonesian community but it is something which i have seen quite a bit with my interaction with them.
we were on a site trying to build a drain, so there is a lot of “cangkul”ing that needs to be done. Indonesian workers somehow can go in the job looking clean and coming out looking as if they hadn’t done anything. They are very careful in getting themselves dirty. Especially if it is very close to lunch time. they do not like going out for lunch looking dirty. If this scene was to be replay out in the outback australia, those miners couldn’t careless if they are clean or dirty. Get the work done in the best possible manner without much care if they get themselves some dirts.
I have seen on many occasions the indonesian workers in construction sites. For them to get to the workplace, they need to dress as if they are going out at night shopping. Looking nice and neat. They will change into working gear once they are on the site. I find it interesting because most other people, like aussies or even us chinese, would wear our working clothes to the site and if there is truly a need to change after work, then there is still a bunch of fresh clothes for us to get into.
Possibly this is one of the mysteries i can never work out. well anyways, just some rantings and something to think about..
yeah, i noticed that. they can also be quite friendly as opposed to certain ppl’s view of them
If you wrote this post based on your interactions with them, you will be able to tell us,
1) out of how many hundreds of workers you have interacted change/do not change their outfits
2) Why they do that/do not do that, from the horse’s mouth.
heya suanie: this post might have sound a bit prejudice against them. But it is a mystery which i have always wondered.
1) i have interacted with hundreds of indonesian workers for the last 8 years of my life from factory, construction to plantation workers. As there are very few male indonesian workers working in factory, my above post is skewed towards those in the construction and plantation. What inspired me to write that article was what happened to me three weekends ago when i had to dig a drain at a plantation. 5 of them came wearing really nice clothes. They change into their workwear.
I cangkul like mad, getting myself all muddy in the process wearing my workwear. Whereas they are very careful. No doubt even with their care, their speed is much faster than mine. But the point is, they look as if they are worried they get mud on themselves. Just before we go for lunch, the went to a nearby river and cleaned themselves up and change to their clothings which they came with. on the other hand i went to the mamak shop with my entire body with mud. Wash my hand and eat.
Then go back and work. same process happened when we stop work for the day. I used that example because it was kind of extreme. Not everyday we dig drain in a rainy season. dry season the work is quite clean. But the fact that if you imagine this scenario happening over and over again, i would say almost 100% of them does it.
2) indonesians tend to be quite sensitive. I know the reason why they do it. And i bet you do too. But why ask an obvious question? why i call it a mystery? because i cannot understand the mechanics of it.
matthew: you are right. If you don’t place yourself too high up on the pedestal, they can be very nice. Some of them would rather they work hard a bit more than to see you work like mad. LOL.. i am fat, so they tend to help me quite a fair bit.