For original article, click here



Berhubung ada kemungkinan kepindahan kami ke Jakarta, kami perlu mempersiapkan diri untuk tahu kondisi hidup di Jakarta. Saat ini gak kebayang berapa sih biaya hidup di Jakarta. Dari beberapa kali pulang kampung semenjak tinggal di Singapura, kok Jakarta rasanya mahal cukup mahal? Perasaan ini timbul dari sekilas membandingkan harga-harga makanan di toserba seperti Hero atau Carrefour Jakarta dengan harga-harga makanan di toserba menengah di Singapura (NTUC atau Shengsiong). Ini baru bahan makanan, kami belum tahu harga-harga kayak listrik, air, transportasi, dan komunikasi. Kami ingin tahu kira-kira berapa banyak sih kami bisa menabung. Sejauh ini, sewaktu kami bertanya kepada teman-teman di Yahoo Messenger, jawabannya sangat bervariasi. Jadi tambah bingung deh.

Karena itu kami mohon (mohon bangetttt plisss) bantuan pembaca sekalian untuk memberi input dengan mengisi komen di bawah atau kirim email ke indrani.soemardjan di gmail. Silakan copy paste poin-poin di bawah ini untuk mengisi jawabannya.

Asumsi dasar: Keluarga dengan dua anak kecil, tidak termasuk biaya / cicilan rumah dan cicilan mobil.

A. Biaya hidup pokok

Biaya hidup pokok ini tidak termasuk biaya senang-senang seperti makan di restoran, nonton bioskop atau biaya non-pokok seperti preschool anak, les bahasa sunda/spanyol, dsb.

1. Berapa rata2 belanja makanan dan kebutuhan pokok sebulan dengan asumsi belanja di pasar becek dan supermarket?
2. Berapa rata2 tagihan listrik per bulan?
3. Berapa rata2 tagihan air bersih per bulan?
4. Berapa rata2 tagihan air minum per bulan?
5. Berapa rata2 biaya gas masak per bulan?
6. Berapa rata2 tagihan telepon per bulan (Bukan seluler)?
7. Berapa rata2 tagihan internet broadband 24 jam per bulan (Huaduh, bagi kami sekeluarga, internet broadband sudah jadi kebutuhan pokok)?
8. Berapa rata2 tagihan telepon seluler dengan penggunaan fasilitas 3.5G per bulan (ada internetnya juga)?
9. Kalau memutuskan untuk rantangan makanan (2 sayur 1 daging), berapa rata2nya per bulan?

B. Biaya transport

Asumsi: Mobil kijang atau avanza dengan kegiatan mengantar ke kantor, belanja, dsb, plus tiap akhir pekan pergi ke luar kota mencari udara segar dan kegiatan outdoor. Mohon kalau bisa ada dua jawaban: 1. Apabila tinggal di pinggir kota (bintaro, cibubur, tangerang atau depok) dan 2. Apabila tinggal di tengah kota (menteng, rasuna, manggarai, etc)

1. Berapa rata2 penggunaan BBM untuk 1 mobil per bulan?
2. Berapa rata2 biaya perawatan / maintenance 1 mobil per bulan?
3. Berapa rata2 biaya tol 1 mobil per bulan?
4. Berapa rata2 biaya parkir 1 mobil per bulan?
5. Jika memakai busway setiap hari (plus ojek, bajaj), berapa rata2 biayanya per bulan?
6. Jika memakai taxi setiap hari (plus ojek, bajaj), berapa rata2 biayanya per bulan?

C. Biaya optional

Kami belum memutuskan apakah akan mempekerjakan staff rumah tangga. Selama merantau ini kami berhasil hidup tanpa bantuan, entah bagaimana nanti di Indonesia... tetapi kalaupun ada bantuan, sepertinya sih kami tidak ingin staff tersebut tinggal di rumah.. entah lah, belum diputuskan.

1. Berapa rata2 mempekerjakan pembantu yang tidak tinggal di rumah (Bekerja 8-10 jam per hari setiap hari kerja)?
2. Berapa rata2 mempekerjakan supir yang tidak tinggal di rumah (Bekerja 8-10 jam per hari setiap hari kerja)?

Terima kasih (atau terimakasih?) sebelumnya!

Oya apakah total / rata2 jawaban yang masuk perlu ditayangkan di blog ini?

For full entry, click here

You readers may have known that we, Indi+Rani, don't have TV at home (many of you asked, "WOW, how do you manage to live without TV?" Then read this, this,  this, and this.)

Well, that doesn't mean we don't have TV set, actually, there is one TV set in the living room (and that's not ours! That's Yodhi's TV Set which he bought for the world cup). But the TV set is only plugged into DVD player and not connected to an external antennae or cable network. So, beside video, there's no possibility for channel flicking in the TV set in our home.

The thing is, although we are disconnected from the TV network, we do not totally prevent Noe from watching videos in the TV set. Why do we prefer video to TV network? Because we want to have the power to choose programs and we don't want to be exposed to TV advertisements. So far, it worked well. We got ourselves various DVDs of kids shows ranging from Sesame Street series (love it), the Wiggles (initially hated it, but now loving it), Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, Winnie the Pooh, and Barney (blech, yuck, hiss, but Noe loves it). We also got into the habit of accompanying Noe while he's watching his favorite DVD, to explain to him what's going on on the screen.

Besides DVD, Noe also loves watching video on youtube. He particularly loves Nascar race videos, music videos such as Daft Hands, anything with cars and balls.

We didn't realize that watching on-demand video led us to a small but interesting problem.

Yesterday, Noe went to Xmas party at our cousin's place. My dear cousin is a TV junkie, and he subscribes to cable network. Noe was instantly glued to the TV that was screening a car racing program. After 20 minutes, the program finished and continued to a different program, which was not car racing. Noe was confused and asked us agan, "Car again, car again!" We tried to make him understand that the car racing program has finished. But it didn't work, Noe began to cry and throw tantrum. We panicked, and started to flick channels to find other programs. Luckily there was one program that screened motor racing event. At first, Noe paid attention to this program, but after 15 minutes he began to ask us again, "Car again, car again". Again we tried to explain to him, that this TV was not playing video, and was unable to repeat or replay programs. Noe became really sad, he cried and threw tantrum again for quite a long time in front of the party guests. It all ended up with Noe vomited his breakfast, and we had to shower him in my cousin's bathroom. What a headache for me! Luckily, after shower he stopped asking for the car racing program and began to play with other kids.

In conclusion, Noe was very much used to having video at home that he could always ask us to replay programs. That is what he does with DVD and youtube. Hence, when he first encountered TV program, he couldn't understand why he can't choose the program he wants, and that TV program can't be repeated.

I hope now he understands the difference.

Hera, Mela, you should try this!

For the original entry, click here

We've returned to Singapore and now struggling with deadlines and work. We'll put down the stories of our Indonesia trip one by one, once we have time to write it down. And let this writing be the last rants about our last trip. I'd like to emphasize that our trip has been really pleasant and fun, but we just want to put down some of the negative experiences that we had before going on talking about the good stuff. This last rant will be about several things, first, can we trust Indonesian doctors? And second, about the living cost in Indonesia. I promise, this will be our last rant from our last trip! Next time, we'll write about the great, fabulous, orgasmic food we tasted in Surabaya!

1. Can we trust the doctors?

Noe Down with Fever

Every time we visit Indonesia, Noe has always been healthy despite the tiring schedule and erratic feeding time (that must be due to mommy's breastmilk). But ever since he was weaned off breastmilk, he's more prone to germs (although, thanks to his past history of breastfeeding, he recovers himself relatively fast as well). At the beginning of this trip, Noe was relatively healthy, but towards the end of the trip he was feverish. Perhaps his stamina was down due to flying off to three different cities in one week, going out at night for dinners, and because we've been sleeping under aircons for two weeks straight.

On 17 July morning, in Bali, he began to have fever. We gave him paracetamol and it helped to lower the fever. Noe felt really good in the early evening that he began to run around the hotel, and we decided to go out for dinner thinking that he had overcome his fever. Bad decision, we should've taken a rest that night, because Noe's fever recurred that night due to his exhaustion. We then decided to stick around using Paracetamol to hold off the fever during our morning flight out of Bali, until we see the doctor in Jakarta.

Going to a Doctor in Jakarta Hospital

We decided to see a doctor in Jakarta because we were worried that it could be typhoid fever or dengue, since Noe had been vomiting, had bad appetite, and the fever had run into the second day already. We chose to go to a pediatrician in a hospital in the fringe of south Jakarta which has the reputation to be a baby-friendly hospital (according to the discussion in ASIforbaby yahoogroups).

When we arrived in the hospital, we were quite impressed to see that there is no blatant promotion of pharmaceutical products and infant formula. Then we saw the pediatrician, Dr. ND, a middle aged male doctor. He came across as a friendly guy. We began with describing Noe's fever symptoms to him. He proceeded to ask the nurse to take Noe's weight and quickly (I mean, really quickly) check Noe's physical condition. Note, the doctor and the nurse did not take Noe's temperature, which was odd, because in Singapore it is a standard procedure. Basically it was a really rapid assessment.

Upon assessing Noe's condition, the conversation continued as follows:

It's OK, ma'am, your son is only having sore throat. I will prescribe antibiotics for him so that he would recover quickly.

Antibiotics? But viral illness won't be helped by antibiotics!

Hmmm… who said it's viral? Antibiotics will surely help him recover faster.

Well, doctor, how do you know that it is bacterial and not viral?

Hmm.. he has sore throat and antibiotic will help to prevent the illness to spread. If it spreads away, it could get really bad, he can even get pneumonia.

But his fever is only for one day, doctor, are you sure antibiotics is necessary?

I was questioning the doctor because I'm so used to the Singaporean procedures, where they prescribe antibiotics to Noe or me after having a fever 4-5 days straight, or when clear signs of infection is visible, such as green mucus or coughing with phlegm. Besides, I've read about the danger of hastily prescribing antibiotics. That's why I was rather shocked to be given antibiotics only at the beginning of the second day of fever. At this stage, the doctor was clearly annoyed because I was not obliging to him.

Look, Ma'am. If this kid is my own, I would give him antibiotics without hesitation!

So, now he's saying that I'm a bad parent for hesitating to give antibiotics!

Besides, what have you been giving your son? He's a bit underweight. Does he have feeding difficulty?

No, he likes to eat, including meat, rice, vegetable.

Hm.. so what brand of milk has he been drinking?

Well, he had just recently been weaned off breastmilk, and now he loves drinking fresh milk with chocolate flavor.

Chocolate milk? That does not have any nutritional value. You have to give your son Pediasure formula milk!

But he doesn't like Pediasure, I've tried.

Well, just give other brand, but it has to be formula milk! If your son is as skinny as this, his growth could be hindered! Do you give him vitamin?

Yeah, I give him toddler vitamin..

What brand?

I don't remember, but it's for toddler..

I don't think it's a good enough vitamin. I will prescribe a better vitamin supplement for your son. Gosh, chocolate milk! Your son must be calcium and iron deficient, I will prescribe supplement for that also.

He then continued to get a phone call at his blackberry, when he was still consulting us. I was really pissed off at this stage. I wonder if this person is a real doctor or a pharmaceutical product salesman. He's also very judgmental, and not open to discussion. At that point, I just zip my mouth shut so that I could get out the clinic really fast.

Paying for the Medicine

When I was out of the clinic, I went to the pharmacy and only paid for the paracetamol drops to lower the fever, and decided not to pay for the antibiotics and vitamins. Out of curiosity, I asked the pharmacist about the price of the prescribed medicine.

The paracetamol: Rp. 13K

The antibiotics and vitamin: Rp. 200K That is, like, a fourth of a monthly salary of a state school teacher in Jakarta.

When I saw the invoice of the paracetamol, I saw the doctor's name. Hmm. So the medicine paid is linked to the doctor's name. I wonder if he had been receiving commission or perks from the pharma company.

When I was paying for the paracetamol, I saw a group of medreps swarming at the pharmacy counter, talking to the chief pharmacist. I overheard them, roughly:

Medrep: Ma'am, the prescription for this medicine has been really low.

Pharmacist: Yes, I know… I have been asking the doctors to prescribe this medicine to the patient, but so far the usage has been quite low.

Medrep: I'd really appreciate if you could always remind the doctors to use our products.

At that time I was really sick to be in the hospital. Somebody should make a documentary movie about the healthcare system in Indonesia, which is overwhelmed with pressure from pharma companies.

To certain extent it is similar to the situation described in Sicko (Michael Moore). The difference is: in the US, the doctors are sponsored by the insurance company, while in Indonesia, the doctors are sponsored by pharmaceutical company. The similarity: there is no control over such nepotistic practices.

Noe's Recovery sans Antibiotics

Back to Noe. we decided to just give him paracetamol to lower the fever, and take a rest in the house to let Noe fight the virus by himself. No antibiotics were given. The next day, the fever had fully subsided, but we stayed home for the day to minimize the risk of recurrence (besides, we have a wedding to attend, the next day). And true enough, Noe's fever has totally subsided by the wedding time on 20 July.

I am glad that I didn't have to pay for those expensive antibiotics! But then, seeing Noe's speedy recovery, I become skeptical too, can I trust Indonesian doctors?


2. Living Cost in Jakarta

Indi has been living away from Jakarta since 1992, and it's funny to see that he is still gauging the living cost using the 1992 prices. But even for me, who only had been away from 2001, is still shocked by how high the living cost nowadays.

Indi still remembers when 1 USD to Rupiah was just 1,500. Even until now, Indi still thinks that Rp 20,000 is a lot of money.  As for me, I still remember when I began college in 1996, I can still go to warung tegal and get a complete fulfilling meal for Rp 1,000, with meat or egg.

When we visit Jakarta this year, we realized that virtually everything comes in 5 digit price! Rarely can we find food in the restaurant that is priced with four digits. It is interesting to see, that Rp 100,000 felt as "cheap" as Rp 10,000 in 1997. And indeed Rp 5,000 felt like Rp 500  in 1997. Really, there is no use to have Rp 1,000 and Rp 5,000 in paper bill anymore, they are should be in coins. I am not an economist, so those figures are not based on any calculation, but I was just using my feeling. I don't know how far have the inflation or the shift in purchasing power been quantitatively, but for me, it really felt that everything is 10 times more expensive than ten years ago.  Why is it the case? Can any economist answer this?

For the original entry, click here

It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got--Sheryl Crow

We've not really written much thing into our blog because we've been busy with different stuff.

Busy Reading and Other Activities

Although I have completed my thesis, and I should be relaxing by now, in reality both of us were busy reading books from library. We're trying to read less blog and read more books. Since we haven't been really reading books lately (instead we read too many blogs), we have just come to realization that book is a different animal altogether from blogs. I'm not saying that books is better than blog, it's just different. We were so used to reading short blog entry that we forgot how it felt to read thick books that contain thorough elaboration of one issue only. Also, how different it feels to be able to flip pages instead of scroll down, mark quotes by pencil instead of copy-paste to local computer, easily refer back to previous chapters with a flick of a page, and search the index pages instead of google. Of course, blog has different advantages such as that it is more recent, more updated, and more interactive. Also, after the thesis, I have also been busy with my breastfeeding volunteering activities, while Indi is busy with sailing and tennis. Indi thinks he needs to lose weight, although I don't think so (I like him chubby). Nevertheless I try to accommodate his wishes to eat less carbs.

Reviewing Needs and Wants

Second baby is coming our way, so we've focused our energy and time these past few weeks in reviewing our financial stance, ranging from reviewing insurance policies, rebalancing investments, and approximating the revised monthly budget upon the arrival of Noe's little brother. The review activity boils down to two key things that are so not new (I'm sure everybody knows about it) but often difficult to implement, and we felt we need to remind ourselves about it. First key point, live within your means - spend less than you earn (so that you save more). Second key point, separate needs and wants, and only spend for needs (and don't lie to yourself by saying that your wants is necessary, because it won't change the facts).

Reviewing Our Indulgence

The thing about needs and wants lead me to ask myself, "Have we been paying too much for our wants instead of needs?" One key thing on focusing on needs is to identify our indulgence and see what can be done about it: keep fulfilling your indulgence, or reduce it, or toss it away altogether.

Let's list my indulgence from the most important to the least:

1. Travel - backpacking, see the world
2. Food (experimental, gourmet)
3. Techie Gadgets
4. Books
5. Music and Movie
6. Self-Grooming (clothes and cosmetics)

Indi's indulgence list may be like this (I need to confirm with him):

1. Travel - backpacking, see the world
2. Sailing and Sports
3. Music and Movie
4. Art and Photography
5. Cars
6. Self-Grooming (clothes and cosmetics)

Ways to Cut Cost on Indulgence

Having listed down the indulgence items, the next step is to identify what can be done about it in order to save more or to cut cost.

I'm so happy that "shopping" is not in the list. I think this is a good indication that we have started to restrain ourselves. Moreover, it shows that the indulgence items can be replaced by means other than buying or shopping.

Non-negotiable Indulgence

I'm also so glad to see that almost all items are negotiable. Travel, for us, is the most non-negotiable one. It's almost like "absolute needs" for us because we consider traveling (backpacking) as learning experience while we're young and able, hence we consider travel to be some sort of "investment" - to be able to see the world before we're getting too old and frail to travel. Anyway, we always try to travel at the lowest budget possible, since we don't really like luxury travel. So, we can't eliminate or replace travel from our indulgence list. At the most, we can only reduce travel. Therefore we plan to keep on budgeting for travel and saving a portion of our income for this specific purpose, and to always plan ahead to fulfill this.


This is non-negotiable

Negotiable Indulgence

The rest of the indulgence items are fortunately more negotiable. This means we do not need to resort to buying the stuff to fulfill our indulgence, and there are alternative ways to achieve the goal.

For me, I need to learn to resist the temptation of buying food (sushi, cakes, cookies etc) on impulse. This is my main weakness, because food expenses are often small, but when accumulated over time, it can become significant. So I have to keep the Ramadhan spirit alive in this aspect. Moreover, I should've learned new recipe so that I can make the food I want in a cheaper way.

As for Indi, he is better than me in overcoming the impulse to fulfill his indulgence. He can patiently wait for opportunity to sail or to play tennis with friends, which is definitely cheaper options than going onto package sailing tours or to enroll in sports club membership.

For techie gadget, so far we're able to resist the temptation to keep upgrading our stuff unless absolutely necessary. As a result, we use our gadgets (cell phones, computer) until the gadgets are totally broken and useless. And we're not ashamed to say, that, to save money further, we even auctioned the useless gadget in ebay (with total honesty of the condition of the item of course). We view tech gadgets as productivity tools instead of having to keep up with latest technology all the time.

For books, music and movie, we are grateful of the library system in Singapore that has great collection of books, music, and videos. Therefore we never buy those things, we only borrow them from library and use it (read, listen, watch) until we finish them or are bored with them. Moreover, by not buying those stuffs, we make more space in our house, and less mess. In fact, currently we're donating and selling our old books, to make room for storage for the second baby. Moreover, instead of buying music or paying for concerts, our appetite is adequately satiated by playing music in our house, watching concert website, borrowing concert DVDs from library, going to free concerts (i.e. on campus), or wait for the opportunity to get paid to attend concerts and write review about it.

For art and photography, we focus on the activities rather than on the tools. As a result, we rarely buy cameras or art supplies. When we need higher-end stuff, we borrow from our good friends who have access to equipments. Also, there are many websites and forum online to get involved with art and photography activities for little or no cost.

As for Indi's passion for cars, we can easily restrain it since the cost of owning a car in Singapore is just unreasonable. So far he's able to drive around using the car-sharing scheme in Singapore that gives pay-per-use access to cars (including petrol, and no need to pay for maintenance and idle costs). Moreover, he's quite satisfied to be able to drive around in road trips when we travel.

Lastly we're grateful that we put clothes and cosmetics as the lowest indulgence priority. This means that we see clothes and priority more as needs rather than indulgence, and therefore, we only buy it after having evaluated the real need of it. As a result, we rarely have problems with impulse buying on clothes and cosmetics. Also we feel that we do not have to resort to branded clothings, and happier when we find cheaper alternatives to the branded items. I guess this is partly because I have been quite satisfied buying branded items when I was in high school and college, and realized that I didn't find happiness from owning branded goods. When people pity me because my husband never bought me branded stuff or pricey jewelry, I am actually very happy that we could put the money into something else more fruitful!

Lessons Learned in Separating Wants and Needs

In a nutshell, there are three lessons derived from identifying needs and wants.

1. Think twice, thrice, four times when buying stuff to avoid impulse buying. Is it a need? Or is it a want?
2. Think about accumulated value of small impulse purchases (such as food and eating out), and opportunity cost arising from it
3. When identifying needs and deciding to buy stuff, think on what actual goal you want to achieve after owning the stuff, and think if there are ways other than buying-owning to achieve the same goal.

So, what's your indulgence? How to stay frugal and save money without sacrificing so much of your indulgence?

For full article, click here


Gordon (Joyo), me, and Budiman

Gordon Bishop, the founder of Joyo Indonesia News, passed away in New York City on July 21, 2007.

I was introduced to Joyonews in 2001 by Jeremy Wagstaff as part of his research project. I was amazed to find out that Joyo dilligently distribute good selections of english-language Indonesian news by email without absence for even one day. I became a subscriber ever since.

During my trip to NYC in summer 2002, I contacted him even though he might not even know me among hundreds of his subscribers. I wanted to meet him to see this curious and mysterious person that not many people know the real name. He was really kind to invite me to come over to his apartment in downtown Manhattan. I asked Budiman Sudjatmiko, who happened to be in NYC as well for exchange visitor program.

I stayed at his place for couple of hours, chatting around about many things. He showed me the subscribers list of Joyonews, including some high level Indonesian officials and US government bigshots. He showed how Joyonews operate from his small apartment (and he complained about AOL service too) It was obvious at that time that his physical condition (he had walking difficulty, and one eye was blind) is almost crippling his daily life, but he endured. He took the time to service us, his guests, with drinks and snacks, and even offered Budiman a place to stay at a vacant room in his apartment.

One thing that really strikes me is that he truly loves his late wife and Indonesia with all his heart. He told me stories about his romance history with the Javanese princess, and showed me the photos of the happy days in Central Java, before the tragic accident struck in 1993 and forced him to move back to NYC. His apartment was full with Indonesian items. But aside to the love and passion to Indonesia, he also spoke out loudly against injustice and corruption in Indonesia in a no-nonsense manner.I was lucky to be able to meet him, even though I only met him once. It was a meeting that had shown me the human side of Joyonews. The meeting taught me that I haven't done enough thing for my home country, and that there's many ways to make a difference to Indonesia. Being blind, sick, and crippled does not even hinder Joyo to fight for his beloved land.

See also:

• A Rebel With A Cause
• Gordon Bishop Meninggal Dunia (Andreas Harsono)
• Gordon Bishop Mendapatkan Anugrah AJI
• Jurnalisme Joyo
• Pemenang AJI Award 2005 Meninggal Dunia
• Siaran Pers AJI Tentang Meninggalnya Gordon Bishop

For full entry, click here

I managed to get my last blog entry as an article in the frontpage of the Jakarta Post Sunday Edition 22 July 2007! See the bottom left of the scanned page. As an amateur, I'm happy about it :> Click here to read the full JPEG or click below for the flickr page



Thanks H for your great editing work (Sorry can't mention your name since you specifically asked me not to be named)! Also click here.

For full entry, click here

There are many good things and bad things from this current trip. However I’ll save the good things for later, and for now, I’ll write about the bad things I’ve encountered in Indonesia.

Indonesian TV: Disgusting and Distasteful  

I have heard a lot of bad things about Indonesian TV, from lousy sinetrons, gory crime reportage, to invasive gossip shows. But I have never really watched them because I tried to avoid them, not wanting to waste my time. However, this time around in Indonesia, I came across with the worst piece of TV “journalism” I have ever seen.  

What ticked me off is the reportage of the death of the comedian Taufik Savalas due to road accident. Indeed it was a sad loss for the comedy industry in Indonesia, as he is a good comedian and a good personality as well. He appears to be a sincere, charitable person and a loving family man. But the ten minutes TransTV reportage on his death made me want to kick the TV set.  

TransTV made an exclusive story covering the reaction of Savalas’ family members in a very insensitive manner. It began with a group of TransTV crews arriving in Savalas residence close to midnight. They said that they were looking for Savalas. Obviously, the TV crews knew about Savalas’s death or at least the accident, why else would they be coming to the house? But Savalas’ wife clearly did not know anything happening with her husband as she had just arrived home from a prayer gathering. Hence the TV crews are saving the bad news from her. She showed the TV crew the last SMS that she received from Savalas, and said that she hadn’t received any reply since then.  

Then the wife kindly allowed the TV crews to enter into the house. Minutes later, the wife received the sad news about Savalas’s death at her cellphone and it was clearly unexpected for her. She began to cry and fainted at the staircase. The whole house began to cry, and one person repeatedly asked the reporter to turn off the camera as it is a very sad and private moment to the family. BUT THE DAMN TRANS TV NEWS REPORTERS KEEP SHOOTING THE ENTIRE SCENE OF THE WIFE’S SADNESS. They even swarmed into the staircase to get a close-up look of the wife fainted reaction. Then the household staff carried the wife onto the second floor, trying to wake her up from the faint, and the TV crews keep following her. Minutes later, Savalas’ mother arrived, head covered with scarf but still wearing her sleeping gown. She clearly did not have the time to change clothes upon receiving the sad news. She was crying all the way from the car to the house, AND THE CAMERAS KEEP SHOOTING HER CLOSE-UP!  

It was really distasteful and insensitive. IT WAS CLEARLY AN INVASION OF PRIVACY, AND I DARE TO SAY, HUMAN RIGHT ABUSE FOR THE SAKE OF SELLING TV SHOW. For God’s sake, the family is in mourning!  

This is exactly what happened during Chrisye's burial as well, as Jockie wrote:

    “Sinting sekali….! Ada seorang kerabat almarhum ibu-ibu tua (cukup berumur) yang sedang duduk dikursi dia berteriak kesakitan karena kakinya terjepit (terdorong) oleh kerumunan orang-orang infotainment yang meringsek memaksa mendekati liang lahat. Seketika itu juga keponakan saya berinisyatif menarik tangan kerabat almarhum tersebut agar tidak terjadi kejadian yang lebih parah. Istri sayapun berseru agar jangan mendorong-dorong, karena didepan sudah sangat sempit: hormati dan kasihanilah anggauta keluarga yang sedang berduka…, imbuhnya. Terbayangkan..kah oleh kita semua? jawaban yang ‘asal’ dari mulut mereka? “ya… kasihanilah kita juga dong… bu, kalau engga kan ngga bisa makan… palingan juga ketiban kamera…“, cerocosnya masa bodoh seolah tak ada sesuatu yang salah. Mereka tidak peduli bahwa hanya berjarak beberapa meter dari lokasi, prosesi pemakaman baru saja selesai.

 

It is not a piece of journalism at all. I became really angry and literally put away my sight from the TV set during the afternoon news coverage.  

Upon watching the reportage, I began to empathize with the so-called celebrities. They are constantly being chased with the gossip show reporters, even at the expense of their privacy. Those reporters are really insensitive and distasteful.  

I don’t understand why the Indonesian reportage is focusing much on the emotional aspect of a piece of news rather than getting factual things across. I also saw the news of the student bus plunging 25 meter down the bridge, and much of the reportage was about the gory aspect and the crying reaction of family member rather than investigating the cause and chronology of the event. Is it because emotion sells on TV more than facts? I think it does not educate the people and instead it just sells sensation and emotion. Basically it’s not news at all, a far cry from BBC reporting, of course.  

But the problem is, there will be no improvement if the demand is still there. So, should we just blame the mass, follow the market force, or take the authoritarian stance to ban such TV show? I don’t see any alternatives.  

Also I’d just say this to the celebrities: YOU DO NOT NEED THOSE GOSSIP SHOW REPORTERS. BE TOUGH ON THEM, DO NOT RESPOND TO THEM. If you are indeed a good entertainer and a good artist, it will show based on its own merit. You do not need to be covered by the paparazzi. Well, if we can’t do anything about the demand side, let’s tackle the supply side.  

Behaviour in Public Place  

I’d iike to emphasise that I experienced good things related to people’s behaviour in Indonesia, but let me save this for later. However, there are also bad things related to people’s behaviour in public place that ticked me off during this visit, but I guess I have to just accept it as local Indonesian culture. Part of the problem is perhaps, I have lived outside Indonesia for too long, hence my critical opinion about these behaviours.  

The first thing that sets my red alert is the fact that people seemed to smoke anytime anywhere, despite me (obviously pregnant) and Noe being around them. Sadly this includes my family members. Somehow Indonesians are unable to see the bad of cigarettes.  

I personally think that cigarettes are worse than narcotics or drugs. This is because cigarettes affect people around the smokers and it induces secondhand smoking. On the other hand, drugs only affect the users. Therefore I don’t understand why the Islamic cleric ban drugs but not cigarettes. Personally my aunt is badly affected as second-hand smoker. Her husband smokes a lot, even in the bedroom, which was airconditioned. This husband died of lung cancer (obviously). Sadly, years later, my aunt was discovered of having a bad case of lung cancer as well, despite being a non-smoker.  

The second thing that ticked me off is the inability to queue. I was so stressed out in check in area Terminal 1 Soekarno Hatta because everybody cut queue. And if people do queue, they do it in such a way that they stick into my ass and keep shoving me to the front. My mother in-law’s toes got hit by a heavy trolley because people were cutting queue. And I couldn’t do anything because I’m a woman, pregnant, carrying a big suitcase and a toddler. This is a far cry from the treatment I got in Narita airport, where I was able to get priority treatment for carrying a toddler.  

Other thing that ticked me off is how people are throwing out small trash anywhere. This includes my family members. Things like dirty paper napkin, cigarette butt, or candy wrap, people just let them slip through the finger and once it reaches the ground, they ignore it.  

I guess for all these aspects of people’s behaviour in public place, because it is what majority of people are doing. In this aspect, I appreciate Singapore more than Indonesia. But as an Indonesian, I just have to accept it and adapt to it as a cultural thing. I just keep my own little “Singaporean” way of doing things but do nothing to make Indonesian people change, because it’s Indonesian culture anyway.

For full article, click here

I just heard a news about an acquaintance, who works in an organization within in the Indonesian army. He/She was tasked to sell a thing owned by Indonesian army to fund his/her organization. After a few months, finally that thing was sold with a high price.

But then he/she got a phone call and was asked to attend a meeting in a top-notch hotel. In the meeting, there was a group of high level army officers. Right in front of his/her eyes, shamelessly, these high-level officers asked for the money from the sale and they started to share the money among themselves, leaving the organization with nothing. My acquaintance was really pissed off, after all the hardwork devoted for selling that thing, and seeing corruption right in front of his/her very eyes. 

At the end, my acquaintance asked for a letter signed by his/her superior in order to make it clear that he/she was not the one authorizing the money to be transferred to those high-ranking army officers, and putting the organization into a disadvantaged position. Basically he/she wanted to reiterate that he/she was not responsible for the money sharing. He/she was just a small dot amongst sea of corrupt officials in Indonesia. This is how sad Indonesia is, and I don't know if I ever want to go back. Not until there's no more corruption.

For full article, click here

Death of Cliff Muntu as the tip of Plonco Culture Iceberg in Indonesia



The death of IPDN student is not surprising. In Indonesia, seniority is very much embedded into local education culture. I began to sense this when I enter junior high school, and as I moved up onto higher education in Indonesia, the sense of seniority is felt even more.

It is customary to go through rites of passage / initiation rites when one enter a new school in Indonesia, as well as entering extracurricular organizations in school. This initiation rite is governed by a basic rule that the seniors has more authority than the juniors, and that the juniors has less rights than the seniors. Oh I just found out from wikipedia that there is an English word for "plonco" and "ospek" which is "hazing". In the developed countries, hazing is considered as crime, and students involved in it are sent to jail. Wow, in this regards, Indonesia is so behind!


Basic Rules of Plonco/Ospek

Let's go back to the hazing culture in Indonesia. The unwritten rules are to never question your seniors, and that the seniors always know better. And don't talk to your seniors unless they talk to you first.

Basically, during the first few months in the new school, you have to keep yourself low profile. Otherwise, you are considered as "sinned" and those sins are going to be used against you during the initiation day. But who measures the standard for being low profile? It's the seniors, of course. Anything can be used against you. One of my friend, who is really beautiful, attracted a lot of attention of male seniors, and therefore she had sinned. As for me, I was always eager to get to learn about new things as I enter new school, and this eagerness is also considered as "sin". I was judged as "acting up", and of course, during initiation day, it was used against me. You are not supposed to be different from the crowd, or else, you've sinned. No matter what, the juniors are always wrong. This does not fit into common sense and logic, but what the heck, it's the tradition!

There is too much of these initiation rites that I started to question what is the purpose of all those. There is a rite upon entering junior high school; then again, upon entering an extracurricular organization in junior high, then three years later, the same repeats itself in high school. And then when one enters the university, there is several layers of rites, first, at the university level, and then at faculty level, and then at department level. I was lucky to only get through a series "reasonable" rites - at least no one is injured or died in the process. Although come to think of it now, I think many of the stunts performed during the rites did not yield any benefit for my later adult life. Or, that many of the "goals that are intended to be achieved by the stunts" can actually be achieved without having to subjugate oneself under the seniors' authority. One thing common in those rites is the quasi-military style presentation: standing in line, marching together in rows, keeping your eyesight down, be totally obedient, and never protest, never talk back, no matter what the seniors do to you.


My Plonco/Ospek Experience

What are those stunts? From my experience, it ranges from stupid to really unreasonable things. Among the stupid things are:

• to put on silly costumes:
• to do physical exercise: push-ups, sit-ups. It is argued that these are done to keep the body warm.
• to drink and eat disgusting stuff: a mix of cereal with noodle and bitter herbal medicine was really disgusting for some people. Luckily I have high tolerance of disgusting food.
• to parrot whatever your senior tells you to say and do: "I'm really ugly" "How poor I am"

Among the unreasonable thing (which I cannot understand the purpose) are:

• to be deprived from human rights, as announced by the seniors at the beginning of the initiation rite: "your human rights are taken away, and you're all under our authority!". Who are they to take away our rights?
• to bear with the verbal abuse from the senior: "You're a slut!" "You're ugly" "You're stupid!" "You're only trying to attract male senior's attention" (which is all lies, but of course, no use to protest during initiation rite)
• to bear with (light) physical abuse from the seniors: my hair got pulled, my t-shirt got pulled by a drunken senior. But no physical harm was done.
• to eat my fellow junior's booger, to lick my fellow junior's armpit
• to literally eat dirt and mud from the forest ground.

Other People's Plonco/Ospek Experience

I was lucky to only experience those things (at least there was no physical violence). I also have heard stories from other people on how initiation rites were done in their experience, ranging from stupid to unreasonable. Among the stupid things are:

• To walk in a dark mortuary with seniors posing as dead body.
• To bring a dead chicken painted in yellow and having lipstick on the beak
• To go to a traffic light and take photo when the light turn yellow and red at the same time

Among the unreasonable things:

• Seniors spit into a bottle of tea and the juniors are supposed to drink it
• To bury the lower body of the juniors, then kill a rabbit or chicken on top of their head, letting the blood flow onto the juniors' body.
• In IPDN, all seniors spit and put their mucus into a bowl and the juniors are supposed to drink it.
• Of course, the verbal abuse, seniors screaming nonsense right besides the juniors ears
• And of course, the physical abuse ("punishment") that ranges from soft ones (slapping, hair pulling) to very harsh ones (kicking, being stepped on). As I remember, even ITB had two students died from initiation rites. And of course, IPDN allegedly has 35 dead victims, according to Inu Kencana. I remember during my time in my university, I heard that two students became hysterical and had to be sent to insane asylum. Of course, those cases never made it into big media, and furthermore it was still the Soeharto era, where the media are restricted.
• And I'm sure there are many more examples, which never get into public. But it's a public secret in Indonesia. Everybody knows about it, and it's the culture, but nobody takes action about it. It's given, and it's the norm.

Oddly, the students felt really strong to be able to pass the stupid initiation rites, including me, at that time. There is a sense of achievement, which is stupid, because all the stunts done, and all the seniors' rage, are all dramas and fake.


From the Perspective of the Seniors

Let's see it from the perspective of the seniors. Why do they do this kind of thing? Well, at least in my experience being one of the senior later on, it was agreed that it was the seniors' responsibility to "train" the junior to fit into the student community. The rites are done in military style in order to instil and "indoctrinate" the value of "togetherness" and "solidarity" among the juniors. The values are absurd and unrealistic in the real world. At the end, when one graduate, everybody enters the real world and nobody is going to wait for the ones lagging behind just because of "solidarity". Of course my classmates are helping each other once in a while, but that's not because of "solidarity" per se, but more because of professional networking and real friendship that did not result from the 3 days initiation rites.


The Impact of Plonco Culture into Adult Working Culture in Indonesia

Besides, the emphasised value of "togetherness" and "solidarity" manifests itself negatively into avoidance of individuality and "being different" in Indonesian society. I remember, my sister in law told me, that once she worked in a bank where many lawyers are receiving gifts and bribes from client. My sister is the only lawyer who refuses bribes, and guess what she got? A cynical look and hatred from other colleagues, because she refused to join the bandwagon of corrupt lawyers in the bank! She was hated for lack of "solidarity" to be corrupt together. In conclusion, this cycle of "solidarity" helps perpetuates the culture of corruption in Indonesia, because whistleblower are seen as unpopular choice for "being different".

Moreover, the concept of seniority is very much reinforced due to the cycle of initiation rites from very beginning of a student life. This perpetuates itself into the working environment in Indonesia. It is common that older people or more senior persons in the office have more authority in making decision, just because they're older. The young are therefore forced to suppress themselves under the authority of older (albeit more stupid) people. "Saya sudah lama di sini, tahu apa kamu?" (I'm here longer than you, and you know nothing) is a common closing argument in meetings.


A Bunch of Bullshit Concept

Let's go back to the initiation rite. The seniors also argued that the military style will instil discipline to the students. Eating disgusting stuff and wading in mud will teach the juniors not to be easily disgusted by natural conditions. The seniors also argued that indoctrination is more easily done with exhausted and weak physical conditions. Basically, the seniors come with all kinds of concepts and reasons to justify what they do during the initiation rites. Come to think of it now, to achieve those "noble goals" of discipline and togetherness did not have to be done that way. Because the underlying reason of doing the ritual, which nobody ever mention it publicly, are to maintain tradition (the seniors felt weak if they're unable to continue this tradition), to have fun by making the juniors perform silly stuff, and finally, to avenge ("balas dendam").

Moreover, I really don't see the purpose of having architecture students eat dirt, eat booger, and lick armpit. I don't see the point why an architecture student needs to see oneself as ugly and a slut.


Let the Free Market Decides the Attractiveness of Students Organization

A good friend of mine is a supporter of initiation rites. He argued that the rite is necessary to enter the student organization. If a junior hasn't gone through the rite, he is not a member of the student organization, and therefore, he is excluded from the student community. I think that is exactly the flaw of the system. Why do you need to go through a rite in order to be registered in an organization? If the student organization is so compelling and attractive, student will sign up by themselves without having to be forced through obligatory initiation, or having to be excluded from community. The student organizational structure will automatically weed out the people who are not serious, and of course, people have choice to join or not to join the organization. IT'S ALL IN THE FREE MARKET MECHANISM! Why one needs to be forced to go through initiation and join a single organization? Let people have choice, and let people be different from one another.

As I grew up, now I look back and think of it as totally waste of time and did not make any sense at all. Of course, there may have been some positive side effect of the rites, but I felt that the negative side is even more prominent.


Experience Outside Indonesia

When I shared my experience with Indi, he was really surprised at how bad the hazing and seniority culture has been in Indonesia. He never experienced higher education in Indonesia, and in the US where he grew up, there is no such thing as seniority (age discrimination). Individuality and openness to debate are the norms there, despite differences in age, skin color, etc. Hazing is considered as grave crime there. Despite of the absence of seniority and hazing in the US, their education system thrives even more than Indonesia. I'm not saying that US system is perfect, but certainly in some aspect it is better than Indonesian education system and culture.


A Parent's Perspective

I began to felt the futility of initiation rites, when I became seniors themselves. I was just unable to get myself to scream at the juniors, because I couldn't understand why it has to be like that. This surprised most of my friends, because they thought I am easily "ignited" and really loud in real life. I just ended up watching from the tent, and when juniors passed by, I just talk to them in a polite manner. It is really enjoyable to engage in conversation with juniors rather than being authoritarian towards them.

Now as a parent, I felt really happy when my son can become disciplined he understands why he had to be disciplined, after series of giving out examples to him and talking to him. Now Noe always cleans his table and takes dirty dishes to the dishwasher, because he understands that it's good to do that. I'm glad that I didn't have to resort in spanking or hitting or even punishing. It's definitely more difficult and slower to teach my kids by example rather than by authority, but it is also more rewarding. And it won't perpetuate cycle of violence. I just wish that the student community of Indonesia has a mentality of a parent rather than of military officers.


Indonesia has More Important Needs

I think the initiation rites are just a waste of energy. There are millions people needing help due to earthquake, tsunami and flooding in Indonesia, and the university students are wasting time painting chicken yellow and putting lipstick on the beak. Or kicking other students' butt. This is really pathetic.

So, what's your take on this?

www.indrani.net original entry

From Agagooga's blog:"Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you." - Spanish Proverb