To Be a Good Global Citizen

Arcadius Benawa

Character Building Development Center, Mass Communication Program, Communication Department, Faculty of

Economics & Communication, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Global Citizenship, Youth

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to mention that as the young citizen every student should be a good global citizen.

In order to be a good global citizen it is necessary to look at how to be a good global. Therefore this study by

using phenomenological methods wants to give real examples to give a clear perspective for the students to

build their ideals, which gives a broader meaning than can be used for his/her nation but also become a good

global citizen of the world. Reinforced by the literature study this research is expected to give information to

be a good global that has implications to maximize the potentials in students as young citizens. Thus, every

student as the young citizen is called to be 100% Indonesian citizen as well as 100% a good global citizen.

1 INTRODUCTION

Citizen and global citizen are two different concepts.

Citizen is bound in a country territorially, politically

and legally. Even in many phenomena, citizen is also

bound socially and culturally. Meanwhile, global

citizen is not bound by the territorial, legal and

political, social and cultural aspects of a country.

Global citizen in this context transcend these

traditional boundaries.

Technological advances in both transport and

information today have encouraged an intense

encounter between citizens in a country and citizens

of other countries. The encounters are not only

happening in the economic, but also social, cultural

and even political context. There are so many moves

by citizens of a country to oppose human rights

abuses that occur in other countries. Movements

supporting Palestinian independence for example not

only in Palestine, but also in other countries of the

world. Similarly, when World Trade Center (WTC)

in the United States was distinguished by terrorists on

September 11, 2001, citizens of various countries

actively and passively participated by condemning

the attack.

In the environmental movements are not only

concentrated in one particular country. Today many

citizens from various countries are involved in the

environmental movements. All citizens from various

countries are equally aware of the dangers that occur

due to environmental damage.

Of course, there are still many activities that can

be raised as an example of citizen participation from

a State with citizens of other countries in addressing

a common issue. The movements showed that

solidarity today is not limited to nationalism issues,

but also global issues. If the issue of nationalism

relates to the rights and obligations of citizens in a

limited territory, global issues transcend the

boundaries of the territory. The social, political and

cultural basic of these global issues is certainly a

common moral interest.

As citizens we are determined by 5 factors,

namely cultural, territorial, social, legal, and political.

The global citizen is the determinant of moral rules,

so we enter into a moral community. For example,

when Israel is plagued by drought and in dire need of

rain, morally anyone we are moved to get involved in

helping the difficulties of the Israelites facing for

moral reasons, namely the moral of life. As the Arctic

ice melts, the Strait of Malacca threatens its existence,

as global citizens of many countries are called to

share its impact because of the moral bond, the moral

concern for environmental sustainability. Similarly,

when Ahok's case, imprisoned and deposed from his

post as governor of DKI, the eyes of the whole world

are drawn to Indonesia because of the moral bond,

namely the moral of religious freedom and freedom

of speech in public.

350

Benawa, A.

To Be a Good Global Citizen.

DOI: 10.5220/0010007800002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 350-354

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

2 RESEARCH METHOD

This research attempts to describe the situation in our

live that in one hand we have to be good citizen but

in other hand we have to be global citizen too. It needs

some criticism attitude so that we can survive as a

good local citizen and global citizen. Therefore, this

research used phenomenological method.

According to Creswell (2003), Phenomenology

method is a method “Whereas a biography reports the

life of a single individual, a phenomenological study

describes the meaning of the live experiences for

several individuals about aconcept or the

phenomenon”.

According to Kurwarno (2010), phenomenology

method is used to explain the meaning of life

experiences of a number of people about a concept or

symptom, which in terms of good global citizens

including their own concept or their view of life.

While Lindlof (2010) said that qualitative

methods with phenomenological approaches,

symbolic interactions, ethnography and cultural

studies, are often referred to as interpretive

paradigms.

3 LITERATURE REVIEW

The discourse on global citizens focuses solely on the

impact of civic participation and cross-country citizen

relations on global life. In the context of such an

understanding, the global citizen by Lagos (2013) is

defined in the following formulations. (1) Global

citizenship is less defined by legal sanction than by

“associational” status that is different from national

citizenship. (2) While various types of global citizens

exist, a common thread to their emergence is their

base in grassroots activism. (3) Any rights and

obligations accorded to the global citizens come from

the citizens themselves, growing public favor for

“universal rights” the rise of people migrating around

the world, and an increasing tendency to standardize

citizenship.

These definitions show that global citizen is not

tied to a particular national territory, unbound in a

given territory. Global citizen is also not bound by

legally formulated rights and obligations for certain

citizen who is bound territorially. In a country there

is a bureaucracy that implements the law for nationals

bound in the country. The bureaucracy will give

legally sanction for non-lawful citizen. But on the

contrary in global citizenship there is no bureaucracy

that imposes law.

Based on the above understanding, global citizen

is essentially more a moral community than a political

community. However, the moral movements by

global citizens can influence the political and legal

policies of a country. The death penalty, for example,

even though it is the autonomous authority of a

country, it can be opposed by other people,

individuals or communities from the other countries.

The execution of capital punishment in a State can be

morally interfered by other communities. These

interventions are of course not political and legal, but

more moral.

A more theoretical explanation of global citizens

is also explained by Stromquist (2009). He said that

global civility is the ability to see oneself and the

world around oneself, the ability to make

comparisons and contrasts, the ability to see plurality,

the ability to understand reality and the language that

comes in multi-version, the ability to see power

relation and to understand power systematically, and

the power to balance the consciousness of one's self

reality with the reality beyond its own. In that

perspective, global citizens have the skills and

responsibilities to engage in politics at the local,

national and international levels, the ability to be

more sensitive to human rights issues, and issues with

global impact.

As Davies, Evans, and Reid (2005) said that

citizens are more focused on interests and structures

at the national level, while global citizens focus on

moral and structural interests at the global level. The

main obligation of citizens is to maintain the national

identity, while global citizens have a major obligation

to strengthen the global identity. Thus, the

perspective is different. Citizens have a perspective

on national history and cultural perspectives, while

global citizens perspective on the extra national

perspective. So, global citizens can be defined as a

moral community based on universal issues, such as

poverty and inequality, economic crises, food crises,

climate change, water scarcity, energy security,

migration and urbanization, the environment,

population growth, demographic shifts, disease

outbreaks, and human rights.

Thus, global citizen is not tied to a particular

national territory. However, moral movements by

global citizens can influence the political and legal

policies of a country. For example, why Indonesia in

the Soekarno government carried guided democracy.

This is bound with the global issue that strengthened

in the independence of democracy on the one hand,

but refering by the age of independence of Indonesia,

Soekarno realized that the Indonesian as a whole is

not ready to realize the spirit of democracy properly,

To Be a Good Global Citizen

351

therefore Soekarno implemented the guided

democracy, a dichotomic term. What is interesting

from the poll conducted by Global Scan for the BBC

is real that not all countries are aware of themselves

as global citizens. Russia has the most bloated

position, while the largest share is Nigeria and China.

According to Falk (1994), people who can be

categorized as global citizens are (1) global

reformers, (2) elite global business people, (3) global

environmental managers, (4) politically conscious

regionalists, (5) trans-national activists.

Kirsten (2010) explained that globalization as the

reinforcement of or go together with localism, as in

“Think globally act locally.”

Based on the above explanation, it can be

summarized that what is meant by global citizen is a

moral community based on issues of concern to

global citizens such as human rights, environment

and poverty. The issue of human rights in a State for

example is not only a matter of the citizens but also a

matter of citizenship from other countries. That

means, when a citizen of a country participates in

issues that become universal issues, then at the same

time the citizen as well as become a global citizen.

According to Karlberg (2008), in relation to the

issue of global citizens should not be neglected nor in

relation to the global identity, namely the difference

between transnational and globalization. An

interesting feature of globalization is that while the

world is being internationalized, it is also localized at

the same time. The world is shrinking because local

communities (villages, towns) have bigger and bigger

interests, so there is also the term glocalization. A

clear example of the phenomenon of glokalization is

the proliferation of McDonald's everywhere around

the world on the one hand, but on the other hand a

change of McDonald's menu to attract the local

consumers in different countries. In the case of

McDonald's this glocalization can be said to be a

phenomenon in which global products are converted

into 'other forms' in order to meet the needs of the

local consumers. The term glocalization first

appeared in the late 1980s in the writings of Japanese

economists in the Harvard Business Review. This

term is used to describe individuals, groups,

organizations, products, or services that reflect both

global and local standards.

Technological advances have become an

important part of the formation of global citizens.

Through technological advancement, nowaday

everyone can build wider associations and transcend

national borders. And through these associations,

citizens from one country can participate in the issues

of global value or impact. For example, Anggun C

Sasmi enters the global level through the world of

singers, as well as Agnes Monica. While Iko Uwais

through cinema arts groups and action film world

community.

In addition to some of the positive benefits of

globalization there are also the dangers or threats of

globalization, such as Cybercrime, Shift of

manpower, and foreign ideology that are

symptomatic in Individualism, Materialism,

Secularism, and Hedonism. Hence to be a good global

citizen needs to be aware of the effects of becoming a

global citizen. Indeed, in the preamble of the 1945

Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, the fourth

paragraph is mentioned that one of the goals of

Republic of Indonesia is to participate in

implementing a world order based on independence,

eternal peace, and social justice.

Those phenomenas show that on the one hand as

citizens of Indonesia we should not feel enough by

being a good citizen, but also must be a good global

citizen. However, given that the current globalization

not only promised the wind of heaven alone, as

citizens who want to implement the goals of the

Republic of Indonesia as formulated in the opening of

UUD 1945 that is participate in implementing the

world order based on independence, eternal peace and

social justice, we need to be citizens and citizens

global as well as good, which is not undermined by

the negative impacts of globalization as mentioned

earlier.

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4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Phenomenologically there are many citizens are still

trapped in the interests of the nation alone, but not a

few also began to open to take part as global citizens

in accordance with their respective potential. In the

meantime, still need a critical attitude so that we are

not eroded in the negative impact of globalization.

Global citizen related to a moral community based on

territorial-bound issues, the activity of the moral

community can have an impact on global life.

According to Kirsten (2010), there are examples of

local and global issues that have so far received the

attention of the global community, such as (1)

Climate change, (2) Extreme poverty and inequality,

(3) Finance and economic crisis, (4) Food crisis, (5)

Water scarcity, (6) Energy security, (7) Migration, (8)

Population growth and demographic shift, (9)

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Urbanization, (10) Health pandemics and infectious

diseases.

Other issues that are often emerge of global

concern in addition to environmental and food related

issues above are human rights issues, such as freedom

of expression, information, freedom of assembly and

expression. Everyone who engages in such issues is a

global citizen, not because of their activities beyond

their national territory, but mainly because the issues

they strive for are also of concern to the global

community.

Now global citizenship also touches on the

economic aspect. It can be witnessed that there are so

many citizens of a country working in other countries.

In this context, the global citizens have an economic

perspective. Work is no longer limited by state

territory. They can work in any country that needs the

skills that they have. The basic of their participation

in this context is solely on the skills and knowledge

that they possess.

Technological advancements that can not be

dammed today, has encouraged the growth and

development of a global identity of every citizen.

Transportation technology has been able to facilitate

the movement of citizens from one country to

another, both for tourism, economic and political

purposes. In addition, advances in information

technology have connected citizens from one country

with citizens from other countries. Technological

advances in this context have become an important

part of the formation of the global citizens. Through

technological advancement, everyone can now build

wider associations and transcend the boundaries of a

nation's territory. Through these associations, citizens

from one country can participate on issues that have

a global impact together.

In the meantime, one of the goals of Indonesian

independence as outlined in the Preamble to the 1945

Constitution (Constitution of Republic Indonesia,

1945) is "... to participate in the implementation of

world order based on freedom, perpetual peace and

social justice." For the citizens of Indonesia based on

the goal of independence, becoming a global citizen

is a constitutional demand. At the state level, these

constitutional demands are realized by sending TNI

troops to participate together with other countries to

take care of world peace. At the level of the citizens

is portrayed through the role of each citizen in

improving his/her potential in the cross-country or

global level, both in the field of social and cultural art,

socio-political, and socio-economic.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Being a good global citizen should be able to

distinguish between being a citizen and becoming a

global citizen. Transnational differences with

multinational, international, and globalization. And

that being a global citizen is essentially every citizen

not to mention students as young citizens should be

more aware on moral issues.

Global citizens are not tied to any territory as

citizens. Global citizens are tied primarily to issues

that have global values or impacts such as

environmental issues, human rights, economic and

cultural issues. When a citizen is actively or passively

involved in these issues, he is at the same time a part

of the global citizen.

Global citizens are not political communities.

Global citizens are essentially moral communities.

However, these moral community movements may

influence the political dynamics of a State or nation.

The transformation of democracy in a country, for

example, from an authoritarian and totalitarian state

is inseparable from the moral movements of the

world's citizens who have every person entitled to

make choices of his own.

6 IMPLICATION

The conclusion above has some implications, such as

understanding the fundamental differences between

citizens and global citizens; aware of issues of

concern to global citizens; aware of the transnational

differences with multinational, international, and

globalization; understand the notion of glocalization

and its examples; as well as the risks of globalization

in the technology sector; and realizing Indonesia's

participation as a part of global citizens.

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