“Between East And West” Reflecting Indonesia’s Character Education Through The Thought Of Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana

Abstract

The arguing issues of Eastern and Western civilizations as performed by Edward Said with his
Orientalism and Hassan Hanafi with his Occidentalism are still interesting to discuss today. Not only in
the countries of the former Western/European colonies,but the problem also occurs in Western countries
themselves. A different condition happens. People in Western countries see that Eastern traditions are
manifestation of relieving the community’s fatigue towards various practices of modernity, whereas
those in Eastern ones try to countinue absorb the Western modernity as something valuable and try
to keep it for their life. This article discusses this issue within Indonesian atmosphere. By discussing
and reflecting on the thought related to the “cultural polemic” which was initiated by Sutan Takdir
Alisjahbana in 1935, this paper tries to trace the issues of conflict between the East and West in
Indonesia as a matter which is now forgotten in the efforts to build national character education.