"Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."

During my new life as a junior in university, I've learned a lot more about the world outside. Being an alumni from an international school, got me used to having a freedom to speak out my ideas, as well as having equality both between senior and juniors; in terms of respect as well as treatment. The world outside (or probably just in Indonesia) however, is different.

As I am currently now preparing for my orientation camp, so far what I learnt is that mistake is equal to punishment. As well as I-do-not-care-how-you-find-it-just-do-it. As well as little things like pun is not meant to be fun.

I wish I could learn a far more better or wiser things though. Unfortunately, nowadays it doesn't go that way. One example is that how we all will get punished if we did a mistake. I don't think this way will resulted in making a person better, or more perfect. We aren't flawless, and yes it's human to do some mistake sometimes. In fact we can learn from our mistake and do better. But with this punishment system, we didn't avoid mistake because we think it is not the right thing to do. We avoid mistake because we didn't want to be punished. And sadly, this is how our future generation is shaped.

That's why people cheat if they have the chance, because as long as they don't get caught they will not be punished. That's why people crossed the red light, because as long as there are no police around they won't have to be responsible. That's why people do bad things when nobody is around, because as long as they maintain good attitude in front of others they will still be loved.

And probably, avoiding punishment is the only principle of living to some human nowadays, without even considering about integrity.



- Caroline Ongkowijoyo