Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia

By Beni Bevly

It’s my tendency to get to know the topic more from the seminar or discussion that I am going to attend. The night before attending the discussion in San Francisco, CA, USA with Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti (MA ’66 Public Admin and PhD ’81 Political Science UC Berkeley Alumnus) who was a Professor of Economics at the University of Indonesia, Former Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, and the 14th former Indonesian Ambassador to the United States, I conducted a brief research on current Indonesia economy. There were two findings that’s quite interesting. First, about the positive progress of Indonesia economy represented by statistics economy growth, and second, it shows the decrease of wealth, increase of poverty and unemployment rate among Indonesian people. How could it be? I thought the discussion with Dr. Kuntjoro-Jakri would help me to understand this issue better.

In that seminar, he presented the statistic data regarding IV quarter of 2007 Indonesia economy improvement and a new tendency that was happening in Indonesia economy which involved private equity that had been buying undervalue, under-manged and high risk companies, including public companies. He called it P2P (Private Equity to Public) business. All the data he presented was so impressive and very promising. In term of economic growth, he mentioned from 1998 with -13.8% of GDP, has been improving persistently up to 6.3% in 2007 and would be 6.5-7% in 2008. In term of investment, it raised to 145% from 2006. He also mentioned that inflation was under control, which was around 6% in 2007-2009. And there were many other information and statistics to support the argument that Indonesia economy was already in the right track.

Unfortunately, I did not get the answer for my contradictory findings, which were the positive progress of Indonesia economy represented by statistics economy growth on one side, and showed the decrease of wealth, increase of poverty and unemployment rate among Indonesian people on the other side. In fact, my expectation on this seminar was not too high considering that Dr. Kuntjoro-Jakti had different reputation compared to his seniors at the University of California Berkeley who were known as Berkeley Mafia. He was considered as an populist scholar and a supporter of the rights and power of the people. Below is the statement I quoted from Kompas:

“Akan tetapi, sebetulnya posisi yang diambil Dorodjatun itu tidaklah aneh, bahkan mungkin dia memang tidak pas untuk dimasukkan ke dalam kelompok “epistemis liberal”. Meskipun dia dikenal sebagai generasi terakhir Mafia Berkeley, dia sebetulnya sudah menyimpang dari jalur liberalisme ekonomi yang dianut kelompok teknokrat tersebut.

Dalam sebuah diskusi Senat Mahasiswa di FISIP UI, dia secara bercanda mengatakan bahwa Pemerintah Indonesia waktu itu berhenti mengirimkan ekonom mudanya ke Berkeley setelah melihat hasil dari generasi terakhirnya (maksudnya dirinya sendiri) menjadi melenceng. Maka, kalau dulu Hadi Soesastro mengajar pengantar ekonomi di FISIP UI memakai textbook Samuelson, Dorodjatun lebih menyukai textbook Todaro.”

He even did not refer to Samuelson’s Economic text book when he taught at the college, instead he used Todaro’s.

As we know, Paul Anthony Samuelson (born May 15, 1915) is an American neoclassical economist who wrote Economics. Samuelson’s text was first published in 1948, and it immediately became the authority for the principles of economics courses. The book continues to be the standard-bearer for principles courses, and this revision continues to be a clear, accurate, and interesting introduction to modern economics principles. Bill Nordhaus is now the primary author of this text, and he has revised the book to be as current and relevant as ever.

Whereas, Michael P. Todaro is an American economist and is a pioneer in the field of transportation economics. His Economic Development in the Third World is a book to aim at undergraduates and focuses on development problems such as poverty, inequality and unemployment. In order to help students grasp important economic concepts, emphasis is placed on explaining them in the context of the actual problems confronting Third World policy makers.

However, there is always the other side of a coin. An article which discusses his economy policy on Pikiran Rakyat news paper mentions:

“Sementara itu ketua Tim Pemantau Kebijakan Publik P3R Ahmad Iskandar menambahkan, semua kebijakan ekonomi yang dikeluarkan tim Menko Ekuin Kabinet Gotong Royong (Dorodjatun Kuncoro Jakti cs) cenderung hanya meniru konsepsi kebijakan yang dibuat oleh arsitek ekonomi Orde Baru yang lebih mementingkan kepentingan pihak asing ketimbang kepentingan rakyat. ”Kami menyayangkan kinerja Pak Dorodjatun yang memperlihatkan dirinya tidak lebih hanya kelanjutan dari ”mafia berkeley” generasi kedua,” ungkap Iskandar.

Ia menambahkan, krisis ekonomi nasional yang sudah berlangsung hampir 5 tahun tidak bisa dilepaskan dari kesalahan konsepsi, policy, dan strategi pembangunan yang dibuat arsitek ekonomi Orde Baru yang beken disebut Mafia Berkeley (Widjojo Nitisastro, Ali Wardhana, Emil Salim, M. Sadli, dan Subroto).”

Basically, this article discusses that Dr. Kuntjoro-Jakti’s performance as Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs was the continuation from Berkeley Mafia who prioritized foreigners’ vested interest and set aside people’s interest.

Despite of the above arguments, from February 2005 to March 2006, the poverty rate increased from 16.0 to 17.8 percent. There are 39 million people, 4 million more than in 2005, who were getting poorer. There are two main elements that caused the increasing of poverty rate. First, the increase of fuel price. Once, it increased 126% in 2005, and the majority of the people still feel the impact until today. Second the increase of rice price. Between February 2005 and March 2006 the rice price increased double. While the people wages barely increased. The number of poor Indonesians would have soared even more, to 51 million people according to the statistics office.

According to the CIA-The World Fact Book, the unemployment rate had been increasing steadily since 2004 that stared with 8.70 %, becoming 9.20% in 2005, 11.80% in 2006, and it was estimated 12.50% in 2007. There are two main elements that cause the unemployment keeps increasing in Indonesia. First, the economic development does not reach the rural areas. From time to time, these areas are far left behind. Many of them are getting poorer. People who live in these areas no longer can rely on what they have been doing to support their life. As a result, a lot of them seek for jobs in urban areas such as Jakarta, Surabaya and other big cities. Many of them become jobless and they even create more problems in big cities, such as increasing crime rate.

Second, there is lack of trained human resources. According to a recent international survey on quality of human resources, Indonesia ranked 59th among 60 developing countries surveyed, just below Vietnam. From 106 million-strong work force, 18% have never attended school, 36% are elementary school graduates and dropouts, 20% are junior high school graduates, 21% are senior high school graduates and less than 6 percent are academy and university graduates (Jakarta Post, retrieved on November 12, 2007). The industries have offered numerous job opportunities but they cannot be filled because of the absence people or lack of competence.

What these tell us? Even though Indonesian GDP growth has persistently improved since 1999, however, first, the economy development does not support agricultural development and its infrastructure, especially in cultivating rice or paddy properly. Second, the development only concentrates mostly in big cities. Third, there is no real effort and political will to establish effective and efficient power/energy plant and refinery and/or look for fossil fuel substitution. Fourth, the education system/program does not match to the requirement of the labor market. Because of these four elements, poverty and unemployment remain increase, regardless how much the statistics show that Indonesia economy improves.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

BY Beni Bevly
On July 16, 2007 there was a labor strike against PT Nike Indonesia that involved thousands of employees from PT Naga Sakti Paramashoes (NASA) dan PT Hardaya Aneka Shoes Indonesia (HASI). This strike took place in front of Bursa Efek building in Jakarta, where PT Nike Indonesia that lead by John Richard leases its office (Nike Dituntut Bayar Pesangon, Tempo Interaktif, Juli 17, 2007). The employees of NASA and HASI demanded PT Nike Indonesia to provide them with severance pay or termination pay due to the termination of shoes order contract as of March 2008. This demand was also supported by Indonesia Manpower and Transmigration Minister, Erman Suparno. The questions are: is it correct decision for Suparno as a minister of Indonesia who carries Indonesia name to support this demand? What is the impact to Indonesia reputation in global economy?

Let us analyze this issue carefully. First, the contract is between Nike Indonesia and Hartati Murdaya, the owner of the NASA and HASI. The contract, of course, includes the production of shoes that has to meet certain standards, such as policy and procedure, price, quality, quantity and delivery time which must be fulfilled by both parties. In this case, Nike Indonesia does not deal with Murdaya’s employees.

Second, Murdaya, through her two companies had breached the contract. According to the Director of Nike Indonesia, Erin Dobson, the termination was caused by those two companies failed to maintain the minimum quality standard of the products and the delivery date. Dobson mentioned these issues had been addressed before. “It has been two years, the delivery of the products are rarely on time,” he said. Even Indonesia Industry Minister, Fahmi Idris admitted between Nike Indonesia and those companies had been dealing with these issues.

Understanding the above issues, it makes sense for Nike Indonesia to terminate the contract. Form Murdaya’s side, instead of showing the improvement in quality and service to Nike Indonesia, she mentioned to the media, “Nike has been arrogant.” She also mentioned that her companies had been humiliated and employees knew about it.” According to her, Nike should terminate the contract 18 months before with HASI dan 30 months before with NASA. She denied that she mobilized her employees to strike against Nike Indonesia.

Beside Murdaya, Indonesia Manpower and Transmigration Minister, Erman Suparno said, “PT Nike Indonesia must take the responsibility in rescuing 14,000 employees from NASA dan HASI who are threatened from getting laid off.”

On the other side, Indonesia Industry Minister, Fahmi Idris mentioned that the lay off case is the responsibility of Murdaya’s because so far Nike does not have relationship with her employees.

Recalling the above questions, is it the correct decision for Suparno as a minister of Indonesia who carries Indonesia name to support Murdaya dan her employees demands? What is the impact to Indonesia reputation in global economy?

By looking at the contract, it is obviously wrong to support Murdaya’s and the emplyees’ demand. In this case, Murdaya should have fulfilled all the requirement in the contract. The employees themselves should have demanded the severance pay or termination pay from Murdaya, not from Nike, simply because Nike is not their employer and their actual employer is Murdaya who had allegedly breached the contract.

From global economy perspective, the labor strike, Murdaya’s action and Indonesia Manpower and Transmigration Minister, Erman Suparno’s reaction have created bad image on Indonesia economy. How come, the employer is the one who breached the contract, and it is obvious that Nike is not the employer of 14,000 employees, yet both employer and employees demand severance pay from Nike?

Nowadays global economy, most country, such as China, India and Vietnam fight to get their businesses or contracts. The governments compete to provide better infrastructures, facilities, procedure/policy and more educated employees who know their responsibilities, obligations and rights about their jobs. While Indonesia, through its Manpower and Transmigration Minister, Erman Suparno, supported its employer who allegedly breached the contract to demand unrealistic compensation.

What would you do if you were Nike? I would start looking for other country which provides me better business contract and could keep their promise because I need a peace of mind in doing business.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

UK national branding logo
Image source: logolounge.com

By Beni Bevly
The government of Indonesia plans to create national branding that will be used nationally as one of the efforts to develop tourism, investment and trading sectors. The Minister of Trade, Mari Elka Pangestu said, “For Indonesia, the branding issue must start from changing the bad perceptions about the people of Indonesia, safety, and natural disasters” (Antara.co.id, June 4, 2007). The question is what is actually national branding? What are the obstacles to promote Indonesia’s new branding? How to change the bad perceptions that mentioned by Pangestu?

The terminology of branding originally was derived from business or management discipline. Management and business guru Philip Kotler in his B2B Brand Management mentioned branding is about promising that the company’s offering will create and deliver a certain level of performance. The promise behind the brand becomes the motivating force for all the activities of the company and its partners. Furthermore he said, thus branding is the road that a company must travel to define what it wants to be excellent at and how its offerings differ from competitors.

In other words, if we put it in a nation context, national branding is about promising that the nation’s offering will create and deliver a certain level of performance. It is the road that a nation must travel to define what it wants to be excellent at and how its offerings differ from others.

In the case of national branding for Indonesia, the government needs to define what they want Indonesia to be excellent at. Despite of what the government would say about it, it is easier for us to discover what we, as the people of Indonesia do not want Indonesia to be.

Do we want to be a barbaric and be one of the most unstable nation in the world? This question is asked because Indonesian government never solves the barbaric actions that conducted by New Order under Soeharto who killed more than one million people in his anti-communist political campaign in 1965-1966. The government also never punishes the actors behind May 1998 riot that caused at least 1,000 people died, 168 cases of rape, destroyed an estimated Rp. 3,200 billion in stock and property. There were civil wars between tribes and different religion practitioners that caused more than 1,000 people died in late 1999 and early 2000s. It was reported that one fourth of East Timor population (200,000 people) were eliminated by Indonesian army or died because of starvation, but there was no consequence for the commander in chief who involved (etan.org, February 18, 1999)

Do we want to be a nation that easily destroyed and has difficulty to recover from natural disasters? The Asian tsunami of December 26, 2004; a magnitude-8.7 earthquake on Nias Island in March 2005; the Yogyakarta earthquake; a mud volcano in East Java in May 2006; a magnitude-7.7 quake and tsunami along the southern coast of Java in 2006; flooding and mudslides in North Sumatra and Aceh provinces in December; flooding in Jakarta in February; and a magnitude-6.3 earthquake and magnitude-6.1 aftershock in West Sumatra in March stroke Indonesia. Indonesia was just like a tiny puppet that had lost its effort to survive and recover.

In the Asian tsunami itself, Indonesia suffered 4.45 billion dollar AS (ADPC, 2005). The main problem is about how Indonesian government responds to these disasters? Compared to Thai government, Indonesia was far left behind. Now there is almost no sign seen if there was a disaster in Thailand, while we still see a lot of people are suffering in Indonesia because of that disaster (beritaiptek.com, December 26, 2006).

Do we want to be portrayed as a nation that is ranked as the most corrupt country in Asia by foreign businessmen? (tvnz.co.nz , March 8, 2005). In my previous article, I identified that there was Rp. 2,100 trillion had been corrupted for the last 30 years.

Do we want to be perceived as one of the nests of terrorists just because the minority Muslim fundamentalists’ actions? Kim Barker from chicagotribune.com described, “Extremist groups have recruited new members, fought a jihad, or holy war, on one of the country’s islands, and staged three major terrorist attacks against Western targets, including one in October 2002 at two nightclubs on the island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.” (chicagotribune.com, December 15, 2004). This statement even scares more westerns by looking at the fact that Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, i.e. 90 percent of the 238 million people in Indonesia say they are Muslim.

The above questions become the bad perceptions and finally they also become Indonesia government’s obstacles and challenges to create a new national branding.

Regardless what kind of national branding that government will promote, these obstacles and bad perceptions have to be changed or removed. Firstly and foremost, we need to change the character of our people and the government officials. The purpose of changing the character is to eliminate and prove that the above incidents, such as the barbaric and immoral actions will not be repeated again, the corruptions will be treated as infidel, and Indonesia will be more moderate and ready to cooperate with the international society.

Secondly, to meet our new national branding, the people need to be trained in line with the message in the new national branding. It would be impossible to promote the new national branding without supported by Indonesians’ new behaviors.

With the government’s plan to create the new national branding, will the new Indonesia emerge in international forum? Will it benefit its people? Let’s wait and see.
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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

By Beni Bevly
I notice that there are a lot of information, trainings and seminars about leadership, but it is hard to find things regarding followership. I think to achieve the common goals in an organization, followership skills are just as important as leadership skills. That’s why, it is worth it to discuss.

I knew a person who was quite good in leading, that’s why he always wanted to be a leader in any organization, at any situation and at any time. However it did not always come up with the good results because he had some limitations that prevented him to be a good leader at certain situation. One of his weaknesses was lack of delegation skill. For example when there was a need to negotiate with American, he wanted to do it directly himself. At the end, the negotiation did not come up with a pretty result. One of the problems was his language barrier. He coul not communicate very well in English.

At another occasion, when there was a meeting among organizations, discussing a project to be carried out and forming a team. Before the meeting ended, he walked away because no one voted for him as a leader of the team.

These two cases show how he was lack of followership skills. First, a person only understands how to delegate when he know how to be a follower because by delegating means trusting other people to take lead and take a part of his leadership’s portions. In this situation, besides acting as a leader, he also needs to be a follower from a person he delegates.

Second case shows that he did not understand that to achieve a common goal, one does not need to be a leader all the time. Follower also can contribute as much and as important as a leader. There is a time for one to be a good follower.

To master followership skills, at least one needs to know, understands and adjusts himself to the best basic style of followership. Robert Kelly (1992) suggested five basic styles of followership:

First, alienated followers habitually point out all the negative aspects of the organization to others. While alienated followers may set themselves as mavericks who have a healthy skepticism of the organization, leaders often see them as cynical, negative, and adversarial.

Second, conformist followers are the “yes people” of organizations. While very active at doing the organization’s work, they can be dangerous if the orders contradict societal standards of behavior or organizational policy. Often this style is the result of either the demanding and authoritarian style of leader or the overly rigid structure of the organization.

Third, pragmatist followers are rarely committed to their group’s work goals, but they have learned not to make waves. Because they do not like to stick out, pragmatists tend to be mediocre performers who can clog the arteries of many organizations. Because it can be difficult to discern just where they stand on issues, they present an ambiguous image with both positive and negative characteristics. In organizational settings, pragmatists may become experts in mastering the bureaucratic rules which can be used to protect them.

Fourth, passive followers display none of the characteristics of the exemplary follower. They rely on leader to do all the thinking. Furthermore, their work lacks enthusiasm. Lack initiative and a sense of responsibility, passive followers require constant direction. Leaders may see them as lazy, incompetent, or even stupid. Sometimes, however, passive followers adopt this style to help them cope with a leader who expects followers to behave that way.

Fifht, exemplary followers present a consistent picture to both leaders and coworkers of being independent, innovative, and willing to stand up to superior. They apply their talents for the benefit of the organization even when confronted with bureaucratic stumbling blocks or passive or pragmatist coworkers. Effective leaders appreciate the value of exemplary followers and create the conditions that encourage these behaviors.

What type of basic followers are you? I believe most of you are the exemplary followers. These types of followers are the best among other basic followership types. For an example, regarless of what they are pursuing, many Falun Gong followers can be categorized as this type. When it is a time to be a follower, let’s be the exemplary followers, the organization and society will get the full benefit from us.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Image source: aacu.org

Oleh Beni Bevly
Menyambut hari Kartini pada tanggal 21/4/2007 lalu, banyak orang membincangkan masalah perbedaan dan persamaan hak antara wanita dan pria, seperti dari Evelyn (Happy Kartini’s Day), Jennie S. Bev (Ibu Kartini dan Inspirasinya) dan lain-lain. Perbedaan antara hak atau perlakuan wanita dan pria disebabkan oleh banyak hal. Sebagian orang melihatnya sebagai sentimen pria yang menyebabakan wanita didiskriminasi. Tetapi ada faktor lain sehingga wanita di perlakukan lain dibandingkan perlakuan terhadap pria. “Faktor lain” ini direalisasikan dalam sistem penggajian di Amerika Serikat yang memberikan gaji lebih rendah kepada kaum wanita. Sampai sekarang hal ini belum ditemukan jalan keluarnya yang tepat. Tentu, suatu saat aku berharap ditemukan cara yang baik untuk mengatasi perbedaan ini.

Aku yakin issue ini juga terjadi di Indonesia, karena itu, penting bagi kita untuk mengetahui mengapa sistem penggajian yang lebih rendah diberlakukan bagi wanita.

Perlakuan ini sudah terjadi sejak ratusan tahun yang silam di Amerika Serikat. Para feminis di negeri ini yang dikenal memiliki lobby dan gerakan yang boleh dikatakan paling efektive di dunia masih tidak berdaya menghapi issue ini, yaitu perlakuan yang memberikan gaji lebih rendah terhadap wanita seperti yang aku kutip di bawah ini:

Women make only 80 percent of the salaries their male peers do one year after college; after 10 years in the work force, the gap between their pay widens further, according to a study released Monday (Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer, Yahoo.com, 4/23/2007).

Menurutku faktor utamanya adalah bahwa employer atau atasan (yang juga banyak yang wanita) melihat bahwa wanita dalam hal bekerja tidaklah seefektif dan seefisien pria. Pandangan ini terjadi karena keadaan fisik, seperti pria lebih kuat secara fisik. Oleh karena itu, pekerjaan yang membutuhkan kekuatan fisik, pria digaji lebih tinggi.

Masih berkaitan dengan fisik, pada periode tertentu, wanita mengalami menstruasi. Pada peride ini — yang tidak dialami oleh pria — secara umum, efektifitas dan effisiensi kerja wanita cenderung menurun.

Hal lain, hingga saat ini, termasuk di negara modern, wanita masih lebih memprioritaskan keluarga dan anak mereka dari pada pekerjaan. Sedangkan pria cenderung mendelegasikan tangung jawab terhadao anak pada isterinya. Dengan kondisi seperti ini, tentu saja pekerjaan sanf isteri menjadi terganggu.

Masih berkaitan dengan hal di atas, karena itu di mata employer, wanita tidak terlalu membutuhkan dan mementingkan karir.

Upaya mencari jalan keluar supaya wanita bisa bekerja seefektif pria memang sudah dan sedang dilakukan di Amerika Serikat, seperti menyediakan tempat penitipan anak kecil. Tetapi semua yang dilakukan belum maksimal dan memakan biaya yang cukup mahal bagi employer. Apakah masih ada upaya lain yang bisa dilakukan?

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Megawati Soekarnoputri,
The First Indonesian Female President
Image source: wikipedia.org

By Beni Bevly
Megawati Soekarnoputri, the first female politician leader who had achieved a milestone by reaching a presidential position in Indonesia in 2001. She was chosen to replace Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) by Indonesia House Representative. In 2004, she was defeated by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) in direct election. Many people said she failed to transform Indonesia to be the better one. Some of them thought because she was a female.

Lately, there was a bill which proposed that one at least must have a bachelor degree to be a president of Indonesia. According to some resources this bill was created to stop Megawati to run for president again, simply because she din not hold a bachelor degree. My question, is it something to do with gender, since she is a female? And did the party that wanted to stop her think she might not be an effective president?

These questions pushed me to do a mini research. Finally I found the “gender and leadership topic” in Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2003). Organizational Behavior. Boston, MA: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Kreitner & Kinicki concluded that female and male leaders were rated as equally effective.

Below is the comparison of female and male leadership that I compiled from them:

By reviewing Kreitner’s & Kinicki’s finding, I could tell that leadership is almost nothing to do with gender.

Recalling Megawati’s problem, it seems it is more to do with herself, her personality, her style of leadership and her intelligent. It is better for us, as Indonesians not to differentiate whether the candidate of a president is a female or male, but we have to evaluate him or her carefully as an individual.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia>

Image source: mappa.blogsome.com

Oleh Beni Bevly
Bela diri tae kwon do (tkd) adalah hobiku yang tidak bisa ditinggal. Pada tahun 1987, tepatnya tahun petama di Universitas Indonesia, aku mulai latihan tkd dengan formal dan sungguh-sungguh. Sejak itu di manapun aku pergi, philosofi dan gerakan fisik tkd ikut bersamaku.

Suartu hari pada tahun 1990, sebagai pelatih dan ketua Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa Tae Kwon Do Universitas Indonesia (UKM TKD UI), aku memimpin murid-muridku yang berjumlah sekitar 40 orang latihan dan gasuku kenaikan tingkat di Gunung Putri, Jawa Barat. Dalam kegiatan ini ada dua yang aku mau diskusikan. Pertama, mengenai mobil yang mogok. Kedua, mengenai jam tangan aku yang hilang. Dari kedua peristiwa ini akan direflesikan pada keadaan sosial, ekononi dan politik Indonesia.

Menegenai mobil yang mogok. Beberapa minggu sebelum anggota TKD UI berangkat ke Gunung Putri, aku dan beberapa temanku survei ke tempat itu. Kami mencarter sebuah mobil yang menurut pengamatan kami mobil itu reliable untuk dipakai naik ke Gunung Putri. Karena aku sering naik mobil kutu pulang pergi dari kampus UI Depok – Pasar Minggu, aku tahu bahwa mobil yang kami sewa itu sering kebut dan kecepatannya melebihi mobil sejenisnya.

Tetapi apa yang terjadi, ketika malam hari, mobil tersebut jalan tersendat-sendat di lereng Gunung Putri. Mesinnya keluar asap, sopirnya hendak nyerah dan mau meninggalkan kami, sedangkan tujuan masih jauh, jalan gelap gulita, hujan turun deras dan diselang sambaran petir. Aku bernegosiasi dengan mengatakan bahwa aku akan menambah uang sewa jika sampai tujuan dan memintanya untuk mendinginkan mesin. Akhirnya setelah berhenti beberapa kali dan mobil tersebut berjalan zikzak dengan lambat, kamipun sampai ke tujuan.

Pada hari pertama latihan, aku dan beberapa temanku sampai dahulu. Menurut jadwal, peserta yang lain mestinya sudah sampai sebelum jam 6 sore. Tetapi mereka baru nongol sekitar jam 9 malam. Ternyata metromini yang kami carter juga mengalami hal yang sama. Mogok!

Agaknya gejala ini mewakili kualitas yang rendah dari produk mobil secara khusus dan produk lainnya secara umum di Indonesia. Yang dimaksud dengan kualitas adalah bagaimana kemampuan suatu produk melakukan pekerjaan sesuai dengan tujuan dibuatnya. Dengan kata lain, kualitas berhubungan denga reliability atau kehandalan suatu produk. Jelas kedua mobil di atas tidak reliable atau rendah kualitasnya.

Adalah suatu hal lumrah bahwa produk dari negara maju terdiri dari tiga tingkat kualitas – A, B dan C grade. Kebiasaan yang diketemui, A grade diekspor ke sesama negara maju, B grade ke negara berkembang dan C grade ke negara terbelakang. Hal ini tergantung dari standar mutu pemerintah, kejelian dan negotition power pihak penerima produk. Tetapi yang menjadi issue utama bagaimana kerja sama pemerintah dan produsen dalam negeri dalam untuk berswadaya dengan memproduksi produk yang bermutu, harga terjangkau dan mempunyai daya saing di dalam dan di luar negeri.

Sebagai contoh, pemerintahan Cina dan Korea Utara bekerja sama dengan produsen mobil mereka dalam meningkatkan mutu. Salah satu caranya adalah mematok standar emisi. Kedua negara ini, yang tadinya dianggap remeh, kini telah berhasil melewati kualitas mobil Amerika. Bahkan, produsen Amerika tidak bisa menjual mobil di Cina, karena standar mutu lingkungannya yang rendah (Al Gore, dalam bukunya yang terkenal Inconvinience Truth: The Planet Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It (New York: Rodale. p. 272).

Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional (PROTON) dari Malaysia, walaupun belum mempunyai kedudukan yang sangat penting, tetapi mulai diperhitungkan di dunia internasional. Enam puluh percent dari mobil dalam negeri adalah produk independent PROTON. Diprediksikan bahwa pada tahun 2010, PROTON akan produksi 1 juta unit untuk pasar internasional (Pedal to the Metal, Far Eastern Economic Review, May 2, 1996. pp. 64-66).

Selama ini, produk otomobil dari Indonesia tidak terdengar di pasar Internasional. Pada masa menjelang kejatuhan Orde Baru, Tommy Suharto melalui perusahaan Timor yang bekerja sama dengan otomobil dari Korea berusaha mengembangkan produk mobil dalam negeri. Tetapi hal ini kandas karena kolusi dan ketidak-jujuran berbisnis. Lalu siapakah pemain yang bisa mengangkat nama Indonesia seperti Hyundai mengangkat nama Korea Selatan atau Proton mengangkat nama Malaysia?

Peristiwa lain yang aku alami saat gasukhu adalah jam tangan aku yang hilang. Setelah selesai gashuku, kami semua siap di dalam bis dan hendak pulang. Saat itu aku baru sadar bahwa jam tanganku tidak ada pergelangan tanganku. Aku pikir, jamku pasti ketinggalan di rumah penduduk tempat kami nginap.Aku tergesa-gesa hendak turun dan menanyakan hal itu pada pemilik rumah, tetapi seorang temanku mencegah dan bilang, “Jangan! Nanti kamu dikira menuduh mereka mencuri jam tangan kamu dan mereka bisa tersinggung dan marah.”

Aku ragu mengenai perkataan temanku. Teman-temanku yang lain membenarkan. Pada akhirnya aku memutuskan untuk melupakan jam tangan tersebut.

Aku mengerti maksud temanku mencegah aku balik ke rumah penduduk tersebut karena mereka hendak mencegah konflik yang mereka perkirakan akan terjadi. Memang konflik terhindari, tetapi masalah tidak terselesaikan. Ada dua hal yang aku tangkap dari peristiwa ini bahwa bangsa kita masih menganut budaya diam. Di lain pihak keterbukaan diperkirakan akan menjadi masalah.

Dalam demokrasi, budaya diam dan ketidak-terbukaan adalah hal yang harus dibuang jauh-jauh. Karena kommunikasi dan keterbukaanlah yang menjamin tumbuhnya demokrasi. Di negara maju yang telah menerapkan demokrasi, keterbukaan sangat dijunjung tinggi. Kritik dan mempertanyakan sesuatu pada pihak lain adalah hal yang wajar. Pihak yang ditanya atau dikritik lantas tidak menjadi marah, tersinggung, timbul konflik dan melakukan tindakan kekerasan.

Contohnya, awal tahun 2007, ketika aku berada di San Francisco, AS, aku melihat seseorang sedang mengkampanyekan untuk tidak melakukan hubungan sex sebelum menikah dan setia pada pasangannya. Hal itu, antara lain, dikatakan untuk mencegah penyakit AIDS.

Tiba-tiba datang seorang wanita dan menunjuk kepada orang yang sedang berkampanye tersebut sambil berkata, “You are crazy. You think you are an angle. You live in 21th century. Wake up!” Kemudian argumen berlanjut hingga beberapa menit. Tetapi setelah itu mereka pergi tanpa terjadi konflik fisik yang lebih jauh. Si tukang kampenyepun meneruskan usahanya.

Contoh lain, jika anda nonton tayangan iklan di saluran TV Amerika. Tidaklah heran jika anda menemukan bahwa satu merek dagang mengungkapkan kelebihan produk mereka dan menerangkan dengan rinci kekurangan produk pesaingnya. Hal yang serupa juga ditemukan dalam kampanye pemilihan presiden. Kubu Al Gore tidak segan menyerang kekurangan baik pribadi araupun kebijakan partai politik kubu George Bush. Tetapi setelah pemilihan, pihak yang kalah akan memberi selamat kepada pihak yang menang.

Keterbukaan dan kritikan menjadikan demokrasi mereka semakin kuat, karena kekurangan mereka terbongkar dan untuk survive, mereka harus memperbaiki. Selayaknya hal serupa pula yang mesti terjadi di Indonesia. Bukan hanya tersinggung, marah dan menghasut untuk menimbulkan kekerasan.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Image source: npsnet.com

By Beni Bevly
This morning I turned on my computer and read several comments on Overseas Think Tank. I never moderate the comments, nor edit them. To me comments are the thoughts should be freely delivered and without getting censored, especially when the comments are written on a blog.

In reading comments, I several time come across with unexpected, yet excited idea. One of the comments on the article that I wrote (Can SBY Handle it?) triggered me to write this article. Here is the comment:

Indratno Widiarto said on April 10, 2007 at 1:24 am |
It seems that we have different point of views in seeing democracy
I couldn’t agree more with your three elements.
Adding my ‘ideas’ as you called it, to those three is, in my opinion, too premature.
Let’s take a look at history:
Singapore: Do you think it was built upon democracy?
Unites States Of America: Do you think it was built upon democracy? (please look back to the era of slavery for this matter)
UK, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Spain….
Don’t you think that ‘they’ don’t take advantages of democracy just for their own benefit?
Who was supporting Batista? Shah Reza Pahlevi? Marcos? Soeharto? And all other corrupt regimes? That ‘democratic’ country, wasn’t it?
I dream about democracy day and night as you do…but not that fast and not as define by those who only takes benefit of it.
Kindly regards,
Indratno

Indratno, thank you for your comment. In responding his previous comment, I think I was not clear enough. Here is my point. I agree with Indratno’s statement, “The Indonesians are simply not ready yet for living the life of ‘democratic’ dreams and ideals.”

My discussion with Indratno reminds me the discussion between one of my American fellows who believe in American democracy and that democracy will be the panacea for every single politics problem in Indonesia. I am not trying to exaggerate what he said, but that was he meant. I was in the position who had the idea that Indonesia was not ready yet for American democracy. I also mentioned to him that democracy was just like a knife. You can use it to cut fruits and vegetables, or on the other hand, someone also can use it to kill people.

I still keep the documentation of my arguments as follows:

As you mentioned that American Democratic has been existing over 200 years. Do you realize that even though the United States has been practicing the same value and system of democracy, but the results were different from time to time? Why, because it was implemented by different people who had different moral. In this point, please note, that I do not or never suggest that democracy will change somebody’s moral. But politician’s or majority moral will influence how democracy implemented.

Below are several cases that support my argument and I would like you to know:

Joaquin Murietta
In 1850′s there was a law that created by Legislative, one of the American Democracy entities. This law did not allow Indian descendants to report, complain or sue Caucasian. This was exactly what happen to Joaquin Murietta who roamed from San Joaquin County, Sacramento, LA to Mexico in 1850s. He was an Indian descendant. One day, his gold that he mined was robed, his wife was raped, his brother hung to death. Can you imagine how he felt? He went to a sheriff to seek for justice and explained what happened. But what the sheriff said? “You are not covered by the law since you are an Indian. You have not right to seek for justice.”

Murietta was so mad. He decided to bring justice by himself to people who robed himself, raped his wife and murdered his brother. While doing that he also helped other Mexicans by giving them money and gold that he robed from Caucasians. In Caucasians point of view he was a bandit. But in Mexicans he was a hero. He became a legend. Now people call him “Zorro.”

The message from this case is in that society, legislative produced that kind of law that prohibited executive and judicative to help Joaquin Murietta seek justice. Why this case happened? Because most people in legislative and other branches did not have moral conscience to Indians, they thought Indians were not human being like them.

Bommingham
Judicative, one of the American Democracy branches, failed for many times to bring people who killed, terrorized, beat, kidnapped African Americans, set bombed and burned their houses to justice in early 1960s in Birmingham, Alabama. Because of that, Birmingham was called Bommingham. Judicative already had all the facts that the actors of the crime never could deny what they did. There was a law about not to harm people as well. But why did this judicative fail many times?

In American Judicial system, there are juries who decided whether alleged actor convicted or not. In early 1960s, majority of people in Birmingham did not have moral conscience for African Americans. They thought they were not part of the United States. They were excluded from most activities that involved Caucasians. These people with this kind of mentality were asked to be juries. Of course you can guess what the result.

Again, no matter how good this democracy system, but if run by these people, the democracy will be meaningless. Later on the output of Democracy system is getting better because of the moral movement from Martin Luther King Jr. His movement influenced and changed majority people’s moral.

Bush’s Government
In modern day, you still can see how American democracy is abused by politicians who have bad moral regardless how good the democracy system established. After Bush and Cheney won the election and led the United States to Iraq war, it is obvious how they took the advantage of the democracy system that had brought them to be President and Vice President.

There are two cases that prove how this president takes the advantage of American Democracy:

First, many sources mentioned that Bush and Cheney had been doling out multi-billion-dollar contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel because these two corporations had made million-dollar contributions to their political campaign. Also, these corporations have the close relationship with them, where they can have other financial gain indirectly.

Regardless the latest CBS News poll finds Bush’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, he is still sending troops to Iraq. Remember, in Democracy, power must be in majority of the people. In this case Bush does not care the majority. It means he does not car the democracy. Here is another prove that moral of politicians play important role in shaping better democracy.

You were doubt about, “What justification to be used to measure that a person is being and having good moral anyway? Is it social values or religious values? Is it Christian values, Islamic values, Hinduism values, Buddhism values, Jewish value, Javanese values, Maduranese value, Batak values?” There is a guideline called “the magnificent seven” to emphasize their timeless and worldwide relevance moral as follows (Hudgson, K. 1992. A Rack and a Hard Place: How to Make Ethical Business Decisions When the Choices are Tough. New York, NY: AMACOM):

1. Dignity of human life: The lives of people are to be respected. Human beings, by the fact of their existence, have value and dignity. We may not act in ways that directly intended to harm or kill an innocent person. Human beings have a right to live; we have an obligation to respect that right to life. Human life is to be preserved and treated as sacred.

2. Autonomy: All persons are intrinsically value and have the right to self-determination. We should act in ways that demonstrate each person’s worth, dignity, and right to free choice. We have a right to act in ways that assert our own worth and legitimate needs. We should not use others as mere “things” or only as means to an end. Each person has an equal right to basic human liberty, compatible with similar liberty for others.

3. Honesty: The truth should be told to those who have a right to know it. Honesty is also known as integrity, truth telling, and honor. One should speak and act so as to reflect the reality of the situation. Speaking and acting should mirror the way things really are. There are times when others have the right to hear the truth from us; there are times when they do not.
4. Loyalty: Promise, contract, and commitment should be honored. Loyalty includes fidelity, promise keeping, keeping the public trust, good citizenship, excellence in quality of work, reliability, commitment, and honoring just laws, rules, and policies.

5. Fairness: People should be treated justly. One has the right to be treated fairly, impartially, and equitably. One has the obligation to treat others fairly and justly. All have the right to the necessities of life—especially those in deep need and the helpless. Justice includes equal, impartial, unbiased treatment. Fairness tolerates diversity and accepts differences in people and their ideas.

6. Humaneness. There are two parts: (1) Our actions ought to accomplish good, and (2) we should avoid doing evil. We should do good to others and to ourselves. We should have concern for the well-being of others; usually, we show this concern in the form of compassion, giving, kindness, serving, and caring.

7. The common good: Actions should accomplish the “greatest good for the greatest number” of people. One should act and speak in ways that benefit the welfare of the largest number of people, while trying to protect the rights of individuals.

Indratno, to emphasize my thought that goes hand in hand with yours (hopefully), I have a hypothesis that I hope one day can be proved. By borrowing Vilfredo Pareto’s theory, I hypothetically say that only 20% of Indonesian politicians have good moral, ethics and dignity, the rest of them do not. This condition, I think, is contrary to the U.S., that’s why the democracy can run much better in the United States even though there are weaknesses such as the above examples.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

By Beni Bevly
After listening and having short conversation with Bob Woodruff, I was thinking how lucky that the United States has him as its citizen. Not only that, the United States was also the home of 67 out of 100 people who were mentioned by Time in 2006 as the world’s most influential people (Time, May 8, 2006). I believe that they will be a part of them next year.

With 4.6% of the world population (301,482,484 US population compared with 6,585,242,360 world population), U.S. owned 67% of the world’s most influential people (http://www.census.gov/, retrieved on March 28, 2007). These people were ranging from leaders to entertainers, from Bill Gates to Will Smith. The rest of the world’s most influential people were from China, Korea, Japan, Iran, Nigeria etc. Unfortunately I did not find any of them from Indonesia. Indonesia with 3.7% of the world population (241,973,879 Indonesian population compared with 6,585,242,360 world population) is not a home even for one of them. How come?

This question even bugged me more after I left the “In An Instant” seminar conducted by Commonwealth Club, at the Fairmont Hotel Terrace Room, 950 Mason St. (at California), San Francisco, on March 27, 2007. Before discussing this question, I would like to share my experience about this seminar.

The seminar was featuring Bob Woodfruff (Anchor, ABC News; Co-author, In an Instant) and Lee Woodruff (Public Relations Executive; Co-author, In an Instant) as presenters. They – husband and wife – told the story on how Bob, as a new co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight” went to Iraq and his convoy was attacked that leaving him critically injured. A severe brainstem injury forced Bob to give up anchoring and focus on his recovery, and his wife Lee has stayed by his side. They described how this traumatic event has helped them define themselves as a family and led to the creation for their new inspiring book “In an Instant.”

Basically, this seminar brought up a message that this couple had outstanding characters that made them more than worth to be heard. They represented the courage, integrity, patients, smart, and determination. They were not shy telling the audience how ugly their life and relationship during his recovery, how they were behind with the mortgage, and how “stupid” Bob was. He even did not remember what mortgage was, and who Tony Blair was.

According to Bob, at that moment, he was 99.6% recovered from brainstem injury. He could explain a lot of things, but his wife still reminded him what the correct word to say in one or two occasions.

Even though Lee did not agree if Bob went back to Iraq, he said that it would be an honor if he could go back and did his job.

They were also candid in telling their opinion about George Bush’s Administration. Basically, they did not agree with war on Iraq. Lee even expressed this with strong words to warn Bush such as, “ … kick his (Bush’s) groin.”

I believe one day, Bob and Lee Woodruff will be categorized as the world’s most influential people.

As an Indonesian, I am jealous that none of us is chosen as one of the world’s most influential people. How can it be? Look, Indonesia has almost as many people as the Unites States does. If I ask Time about this, what do you think their answer? I will let my question open, so you as readers can be the judges.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Image source: cartoonstock.com

By Beni Bevly
At work place, the more diverse the workforces are, the more potential for discrimination to happen. According to the similarity-attraction paradigm from the field of social psychology that members’ perception of others, as frequently inferred on the basis of similarity in demographic attributes, lead to attraction among team members (Tziner, 1985). For example, bio-demographic attributes such as age, gender, and race/ethnicity are immediately observed and categorized by individual members, and differences tend to be negatively associated with team performance and social integration.

Image source: worth1000.com

Managers that believe in this paradigm tend to discriminate in hiring and assigning tasks to their employees. They see that homogeneous teams are likely to be more productive than heterogeneous teams because of mutual attraction of team members with similar characteristics. In contrary, heterogeneous groups are hypothesized by them to be less productive and have lower team cohesion because of inherent tensions and relational issues arising from those differences.

It seems the similarity-attraction paradigm turns out to be the framework for Indonesian managers in hiring and assigning tasks. Because of this framework, they tend to practice discrimination. Below is one of the hiring advertising that retrieved on March 20, 2007 from www.yellowpages.co.id Indonesia:

RECEPTIONIST (RC)
Qualification :
* Age : max. 25 years old
* Sex : female
* Education : Diploma degree in related disciplines, preferable from recognized institution
* Experience about 1 – 2 years in a related task/job (Applicants without experiences will not be processed further)
* Able to speak and write in English is an added value
* Have a good relationship skills, self motivated, and able to perform under pressure
* Have a good personality, good looking and an attractive (preferably)
* Filing and administration
* Computer literate
Responsibilities :
GA Administration and receive incoming and outgoing calls and documents

On this ad, it shows maximum age, sex, and good looking. All resumes in Indonesia must be accompanied by candidate’s picture to proof how they look.

In contrary, most western managers are urged to embraced diversity and avoiding discrimination. It seems they tend believe in cognitive resources diversity theory from the field of management (Basely, 2001).

According to this area, diversity has a positive performance because cognitive resources that members bring to the team. The underlying assumption of value in diversity is that teams consisting of heterogeneous members promote creativity, innovation, and problem solving, hence generating more informed decisions. Supporters of the cognitive resources diversity theory suggest that diverse individuals with varying experimental, cultural, and racial/ethnic backgrounds add more dimensions to problem-solving and decision-making process while providing multiple perspectives on issues.

This approach automatically reduces discrimination at work place in western society. The hiring advertising that was retrieved on March 20, 2007 from sfbay.craigslist.org reflexes its working environment:

A friendly community bank in Novato is looking for an experienced receptionist with great customer service skills. Experience with Excel and Word are required. The position needs a friendly voice over the phone and a smile when greeting customers in person. You are their first point of contact. You should have knowledge of office protocol and not consider that a barrier. Organization skills, multi-tasking abilities, dependability and a great attitude are also highly regarded. Clean credit record a must.

Word and Excel skills – you must at least be able to:
format
highlight
bold
change fonts
add bullet points
copy and paste
follow a formula
create a simple formula

Health benefits are available after 90 days, 401K with matching after 6 months, 2 weeks vacation.

Please forward your resume along with a cover letter outlining your strengths and weaknesses. I look forward to hearing from you.

It emphasizes most in skills rather than age, sex and good looking.

Ironically, if you have good looking you will get hired easily in Indonesia. So where will the average or ugly people like me go?

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Image source: 100plusposters.com

By Beni Bevly
Some people say that leadership is all common sense or leaders are born not made. Many people believe these myths. Are there correct?

In 2001, I was asked to be the Customer Service and Information Manager at one of the Nordstrom’s stores in California, USA. I was doubt because I did not have any experiences in customer service field.

One of managers said, “Don’t worry, company believes in you and this is all about common sense. All you need to do is assigning your employees for certain responsibility, than you control and check the resulst.” In the first week, before I attended Customer Service Skills for Manager class, I had the difficulty in handling customers’ complains and demanding employees. I answered all customer complains and employees’ questions based on the company policy that I knew. Yet, not all problems were solved easily, in two occasions, my supervisor had to get involved.

After attending the Customer Service Skills for Manager class, I handled customers’ complains and employees’ questions more professionally. Not only related the complains and questions to our policies, but I stressed a lot on “building rapport, finding out what their needs, matching their needs with our current or future products/services, and getting the agreement how to solve their complains.”

This experience taught me that by studying the definitions and theories of leadership that researchers had compiled, made me much easier to understand what going on in any leadership situation. Common sense alone is not enough.

Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy in “Leadership: Enhancinf the Lessons of Experience describe that there are three myths in leadership: (1) good leadership is all common sense, (2) leaders are born, not made, and (3) The only school you learn leadership is the school of hard knocks.

First, good leadership is all common sense. This myth says one needs only common sense to be a good leader. The problem, of course, is with the ambiguous term common sense. It implies a common body of practical knowledge about life virtually any reasonable person with moderate experience has acquired. In Fact, common sense can often play tricks on us.

Here is one of them: A study, after World War II, from U.S. Army to reach conclusion that, many believed, should have been apparent at the outset. One, for example, was that southern soldiers were better able to stand the climate in the hot South Sea Islands than northern soldiers were. This sounds reasonable but this statement is exactly contrary to the actual findings. Southerns were no better than notherns in adapting to tropical climates.

To me, to be an effective leader, there must be something else than just common sense.

Second, leaders are born, not made. Which view is right? Some people believe being a leader is either one’s genes or not; other believe that life experiences mold the individual, that no one is born a leader. Both views are right in the sense that innate factors as well as formative experiences influences many sorts of behavior, including leadership.

Yet, both views are wrong to extent they imply leadership is either innate or acquired; what matters more is how these factors interact. Becoming a college professor depends partly on what one is “born with” and partly on how the inheritance is shaped through experience.

Third, the only school you learn leadership is the school of hard knocks. Formal study and real-life experience, in fact, complement each other. By studying the different ways, researchers have fined and examined leadership, student can use these definitions and theories to better understand what is going on in any leadership situation. It is difficult for leaders, particularly novice leader, to examine leadership situations from multiple perspectives. By developing this skill can help a person become a better leader.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Oleh Beni Bevly
Tahapan kuliah yang terasa paling sulit adalah ketika seorang mahasiswa harus menyelesaikan skripsi. Dalam tahap ini, kemampuan nalar dan menulis, serta kerja sama dengan dosen menjadi kunci utama suksesnya suatu skripsi. Dalam tahap ini pula sering ditemui hal yang tak terduga.

Sebagai mahasiswa angkatan 1987 jurusan Ilmu Politik, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik (FISIP), Universitas Indonesia (UI), aku menyelesaikan semua mata kuliahku kurang dari 4 tahun. Hal ini terhitung cepat. Maka tibalah saatnya bagiku untuk menyusun skripsi. Topik yang aku sukai adalah masalah politik komunisme di Republik Rakyat Cina sejak tahun 1920an sampai tahun 1970an yang minitikberatkan perkembangan Khun Chun Tang (partai komunis) dibawah Mao Zedong sampai keberhasilan Deng Xiaoping menduduki kursi kekuasaan. Untuk itu aku minta dua orang dosen pembimbing ahli Sinology (ilmu mengenai Cina) masing-masing dari FISIP dan Fakultas Sastra UI.

Aku mulai membuat proposal yang kalau disetujui oleh dosen pembimbing maka proposal ini akan menjadi Bab I, Pendahuluan skripsiku. Proposal yang tebalnya sekitar 40 halaman ini dikeritik dan dikembalikan ke aku oleh dosen pembimbing dari FISIP dengan beberapa komentar. Sedangkan pembimbing dari Fakultas Sastra tidak melihat adanya masalah pada proposalku. Tarik-ulur antara aku dan pembimbingku ini terjadi sekitar emam bulan. Berarapa koreksi aku lakukan. Akhirnya pembimbing dari FISIP bilang ke aku, “Aku menyerah dan mengundurkan diri sebagai pembimbingmu. Skripsi kamu terlalu komprehensif.”

Setelah mengambil cuti panjang, aku meneruskan skripsiku dengan topik politik Apartheid di Afrika Selatan dan memilih dosen pembimbing yang lain. Skripsi itu selesai dalam waktu 4 bulan.

Pengunduran diri dari dosen pembimbing pertamaku, menurutku sedikit banyak berhubungan dengan Avoidance Culture. RA Cooke dan JL Szumal dalam Measuring Normative Beliefs and Shared Behavior Expectations in Organizations: The Reliability and Validility of the Organizational Culture Inventory, Psychological Reports, 1993 mengatakan bahwa Avoidance Culture adalah bebiasaan anggota organisasi atau masyarakat untuk mengalihkan tanggungjawab ke pihak lain dan menghindari kemungkinan disalahkan karena kekeliruan. Lingkungan Avoidance Culture ditandai dengan kegagalan untuk memberikan imbalan (reward) terhadap kesuksesan seseorang, tetapi hanya menerapkan hukuman untuk kesalah yang diperbuat.

Agaknya dosen pembimbing aku itu terjebak dengan Avoidance Culture ini. Kultur seperti ini tidak semestinya tumbuh di kalangan intelektual dan akademis, atau bahkan di kalangan masyarakat awam sekalipun karena ia menghambat inovasi, kemandirian, keberanian untuk bertanggung jawab atas perbuatan sendiri atau sifat satria. Kutur seperti ini juga menghambat sifat persaigan yang sehat. Lalu kultur seperti apa yang patut ditumbuhkan di lingkungan kampus? Atau di lingkungan masyarakat awam?

RA Cooke dan JL Szumal mengajukan beberapa jenis kultur. Kultur yang patut dikembangkan di kalangan intelectual adalah Humanistic-Encouraging dan Self-Actualizing Cultures. Dalam Humanistic-Encouraging Culture anggotanya tampil mendukung, membangun dan bersifat terbuka dalam hubungan sesamanya. Organisasi atau tatanan masyarakatnya diatur untuk membantu anggotanya tumbuh dan berkembang.

Self-Actualizing Culture juga sangat mendukung aktivitas akademika di kalangan kampus. Organisasi yang menganut kutur ini menghargai creativitas, kwalitas dan hasil kerja dan pertumbuhan individu. Anggotanya dianjurakan untuk mencari dan menikmati kesenangan akan pekerjaan, pengembangan diri. Mereka juga disarankan untuk mencari aktivitas yang baru dan menyenangkan.

Selain dua kutur di atas, terdapat dua kultur lainnya yang patut dikembangkan di lingkungan masyarakat Indonesia, yaitu Competitive dan Achievement Cultures. Dalam Competitive Culture, kemenangan sangat dihargai. Anggota masyarakat diberi penghargaan karena karyanya melebihi orang lain. Dengan semangat bersaing dan penghargaan yang diperoleh akan karyanya, maka daya cipta akan berkembang lebih pesat.

Jenis kultur terakhir yang patut dikembangkan adalah Achievement Cultures. Kutur ini menghargai orang yang membuat rencana dan merealisasikan rencananya itu. Anggota masyarakat dalam kultur ini mempunyai kebiasaan untuk menyusun rencana kerja yang menantang tetapi realistic dan antusias dalam mewujudkan cita-citanya.

Dosen, sebagai agen perubahan, mestinya tidak mudah menyerah dan meleburkan dirinya dalam Avoidance Culture, sebaliknya ia perlu membuktikan kepada muridnya bahwa dengan kecerdasan dan keuletan, hal yang dianggap tidak mungkin bisa diwujudkan.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

By Beni Bevly
The essence of self-fulfilling prophecy is that people’s expecting or beliefs determine their behavior and performance, thus serving to make their expectation come true. In other words, we strive to valid our perception of reality, no matter how faulty they may be. Thus, the self-fulfilling prophecy is an important perceptual outcome we need to better understand.

The roots of self-fulfilling prophecy, historically, are found in Greek mythology. In the mythology, Pygmalion was sculptor who hated women yet fell in love with on ivory statue he curved of a beautiful woman. He prayed to the goddess Aphrodite to bring her to life. The goddess granted his wish and the statue came to life. That’s why, self-fulfilling prophecy is also known as Pygmalion effect.

Eden in “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as a Management Tool: Harnessing Pygmalion,” Academy of Management Review, January 1984 proposed the Model of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy that attempted to outline how supervisory expectation affect employee performance as follows:

a. High supervisory expectancy produces better leadership, which subsequently leads employees to develop higher self-expectations.

b. Higher expectations motivate workers to exert more effort, ultimately increasing performance and supervisory expectancies.

c. Successful performance also improves an employee’s self-expectancy for achievement.

So, expect high to your employees, love ones and yourself. Make that expectation as your prophecy, then it will be fulfilled.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Oleh Beni Bevly
Hari-hari kuliahku di Universitas Indonesia (UI), Depok antara tahun 1987-1992, diwarnai dengan naik kereta rel listrik (KRL). Setelah menetap di Amerika, beru aku sadari betapa tidak efisien dan “boros”nya cara kerja KRL di Indonesia. Berikut aku membuat perbandingan cara kerja KRL dan Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) di San Francisco serta melihat implikasinya bagi perkembangan ekonomi Indonesia secara nasional dan usulan cara mengatsinya.

Dari segi kenyamanannya, kondisi stasiun dan KRL seringkali semerautan. Tidak jarang aku harus berdesakan di pintu dan di dalam kereta dengan penumpang lain, termasuk para pedangan yang memanggul sayur dan ayam hidup yang mempunyai aroma bau khas.

Dari segi jumlah pekerjanya, karena pengalamanku naik jalur yang aku tempuh adalah Stasiun Kota (Beos) – Pondok Cina, Depok, di Stasiun Kota, aku temui beberapa loket untuk membeli tiket. Total penjual tiket bisa sampai belasan orang. Di stasiun tersebut terdapat beberapa pintu masuk. Di setiap pintu masuk itu juga dijaga satu sampai dua orang. Umumnya, aku melihat dua orang di bagian depan depan tempat mengendarai kereta. Ketika ada di dalam kereta, paling tidak ada dua orang yang keliling dan memeriksa tiket.

Aku perkirakan, jumlah petugas penjual tiket, penjaga pintu masuk dan ditambah personnel untuk mengoperasikan satu kereta, terdapat lebih dari 30 orang. Supaya mempermudah, aku tidak memasukkan jumlah orang yang bekerja di departemen lain seperti Maintenance Department dan lain-lain.

Beberapa waktu yang lalu aku peri ke San Francisso Downtown dengan naik kereta. Di stasiun Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Powell, pusat kota San Francisco, adalah stasiun kereta yang paling besar dan ramai di Kalifornia Utara, USA. Kondisi stasiun dan keretanya rapih. Penumpang yang jumlahnya ratusan orang tenang berbaris menunggu giliran. Kereta yang bergerbong 5 sampai 15 itu datang dan pergi setiap menit. Secara fisik, Stasiun Kota lebih luas, tetapi frequensi lalu lalang kereta dan jumlah penumpangnya diperkirakan tidak jauh lebih sedikit dari Stasiun Kota.

Di Stasiun Powell, tidak terdapat loket penjulan karcis, tetapi setiap orang membeli karcis melalui belasan mesin yang tersedia. Terdapat puluhan pintu untuk masuk ke stasiun, tetapi tidak ada satupun penjaganya. Setiap penumpang cukup memasukkan tiketnya ke dalam mesin di pintu masuk, lalu pintu tersebut akan membuka halangan supaya penumpang bisa masuk. Di dalam kereta, tidak ada orang yang memeriksa karcis kita, hanya ada satu supir di depan gerbong kereta.

Aku perkirakan jumlah personnel secara keseluruhan di stasiun Powell dan ditambah dengan personnel satu kereta, terdapat 3 orang. Tidak ada petugas penjual tiket dan juga tidak ada penjaga pintu masuk. Yang ada hanya dua pos informasi yang masing-masing dijaga oleh satu orang.

Dari perbandingan di atas bisa dilihat betapa tidak efficient-nya cara kerja Stasiun Kota, Jakarta. Efficiency diartikan sebagai jumlah input yang dibutuhkan untuk menghasilkan output tertentu dalam suatu proses. Jelas input pada stasiun kota, dalam hal tenaga kerja jauh melebihi Stasiun Powell, karena itu Stasiun Powell jauh lebih efficient.

Mungkin ada yang berargumen bahwa pemerintah atau pemilik usaha di Indonesia sengaja merekrut jumlah pekerja yang banyak karena menerapkan sistem padat karya. Sistem padat karya dimaksudkan oleh pemerintah untuk memberantas pengangguran. Tetapi apakah benar cara ini tepat untuk memajukan perekomian dan pembangunana nasional?

Mari kita lihat efficency dan kaitannya dengan angka penganguran data tahun 2005 (www.cia.gov, diambil pada tanggal 4 Janaury 2007). Jepang – yang terkenal dengan sistem Just In Time (JIT)-nya yang sangat efficient dalam segala hal, antara lain tenaga kerja dan sistem ini banyak ditiru oleh negara lain termasuk Amerika – hanya mempunyai angka penganguran 4,4 persen. (Fundamental dari philosophy JIT adalah menghilangkan “waste” (segala kelebihan dalam proses, seperti tenaga kerja, waktu, material dan lain-lain) untuk mencapai minimum input, mempercepat proses pertukaran atau perpindahan tahap kerja, bekerja sama dengan suppliers, menyusun kembali “work flow,” mempergunakan sumberdaya yang flexible, memperhatikan kwalitas, “expose” permasalahan, dan melibatkan karyawan untuk memecahkan permasalahan (Russell, R. S. & Taylor III, B. W. 2000. Operation Management, Multi Media Version).

Korea Selatan yang hari kemerdekaannya hampir sama dengan Indonesia yaitu tanggal 15 Agustus 1945, juga terkenal dengan sistem kerjanya yang efficient memiliki 3,7 persen.

Singapura, negara tetangga kita yang paling dekat dan juga terkenal dengan efficiencynya memiliki angka penganguran 3,1 persen.

Amerika sebagai sumber dan otak dari cara kerja efficient yang dipelopori oleh W. Edwards Deming memiliki 5,1% angka penganguran.

Indonesia yang menerapkan sistem padat karya memiliki angka penganguran 11,8 persen

Dalam kaitannya dengan sistem padat karya yang penekananya untuk meningkatkan jumlah tenaga kerja dalam suatu kelompok, ahli “organizational behavior,” Robert Kreitner & Angelo Kinicki, 2003, dalam Organizational Behavior, melalui “social loafing teory,” mengatakan bahwa usaha atau effort individu dalam suatu kelompok cenderung menurun jika ukuran kelompok tersebut membesar keanggotaanya.

Menurunnya usaha individu jelas mempengaruhi efficency kerja kelompok. Usaha individu menurun disebabkan oleh (1) pemerataan usaha (“Jika setiap orang bersikap masa bodoh, mengapa aku harus berusaha keras?”). (2) kehilangan tanggung jawab pribadi (“Aku tenggelam di tengah keramaian, jadi siapa yang peduli”). (3) Hilangnya motivasi karena imbalan harus dibagi (“Mengapa aku harus kerja lebih keras dari mereka, jika aku mendapat imbalan yang sama.”).

Dengan kata lain, peningkatan jumlah anggota dalam suatu kelompok kerja daripada jumlah yang semestinya menimbulkan: Pertama, anggapan dari anggotanya bahwa tugas yang di berikan mudah, tidak penting dan tidak menarik. Kedua, pemikiran anggotanya bahwa output secara individu tidak terdeteksi. Ketiga, kelompak anggotanya berharap rekan kerja mereka untuk tidak peduli terhadap tugas mereka.

Timbulnya ketiga gejala di atas pada gilirannya menurunkan efficeincy dan kwalitas beserta kwantitas output yang diharapkan.

Lalu bagaimana supaya bisa menciptakan eficiency dan meproduksikan hasil yang diharapkan yang sekaligus bisa menekan angka penganguran? Menurut hematku kuncinya adalah menumbuhkan sifat “entrepreneurship” di masyarakat Indonesia. Menurut Robert D. Hisrich dan Micheal P. Peters dalam Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship adalah prosess penciptaaan sesuatu yang baru dan bernilai dengan mengerahkan waktu dan usaha seperlunya dengan adanya resiko pengorbanan finansial, psychological dan sosial, dan menerima hasil yang berupa imbalan materi, kepuasan pribadi serta kemandirian.

Dari hasil penelitian mereka, Hisrich dan Peters menggarisbawahi bahwa untuk menjadi seorang entrepreneur atau pengusaha yang sukses, paling sedikit seseorang harus memiliki 5 hal. Pertama, kemampuan untuk menekuni informasi data (termasuk sistem pem-file-lan yang efective) dan mengkontrol keuangan yang meliputi cash flow, inventory, receivable, data pelanggan dan pengeluaran atau biaya.

Kedua, kemampuan dalam hal inventory control. Terlalu banyak inventory akan menguras cash flow, sedangkan terlalu sedikit inventory bisa mengakibatkan perginya pelanggan.

Ketiga, kemampuan dalam mengelolah human resources. Kemampuan ini meliputi perencanaan sumberdaya manusia yang dibutuhkan, penyusuanan job descrition, pengrekrutan, pelatihan, evaluasi kinerja, motivasi dan pemuntusan hubungan kerja.

Keempat, kemampuan marketing antara lain meliputi pengembangan produk dan jasa baru secara berkesinambungan yang harus berbeda dan lebih baik dari pesaing. Cara yang paling umum adalah mencari tahu apa saja kebutuhan customer dan bagaimana memenuhinya. Langkah berikutnya adalah menuntukan harga bagi produk dan jasa yang dijual.

Kelima, kemampuan perencanaan. Sebelum membuat perencanaan, keadaan mikro (yang berkaitan langsung dengan keadaan si pengusaha) dan mikro (yang berkaitan dengan industri yang digeluti, dan kondisi lingkungan yang lebih luas seperti keadaan perekonomian propinsi atau negara) perlu dirumuskan. Umumnya, para ahli managment mengusulkan penggunaan metoda SWOT, yaitu strengths dan weaknesses (kekuatan dan kelemahan yang berasal dari internal organisasi), opportuinities dan threats (kesempatan dan ancaman yang berasal dari external organisasi). (lihat David, F. R. 2006. Strategic Management: Concepts & Cases).

Kembali lagi ke peristiwa naik KRL di atas, alangkah menyenangkannya jika efficiency dan kwalitas pelayanan KRL kita di Jakarta bisa seperti BART di San Francisco. Jika demikian halnya bukankah semua pihak menikmatinya?

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

Image source : saskschools.ca

Oleh Beni Bevly
Teriakan, “Yope me, tangka ye me!?”(Aku kurang yakin apakah ejaannya benar, kalimat ini berasal dari bahasa Melayu Sambas yang kurang lebih berarti: “Mengapa bisa begitu?”) tidak akan terlupakan olehku. Kalimat itu diteriakan oleh seorang guru SD Negeri 1, Sekura, Kalimantan Barat kepadaku dengan mata melotot dan sambil mencubit dada sebelah kiri atasku. Cubitan – yang dilakukan pada tahun 1975 – tersebut meninggalkan lecet dan memar kebiruan. Hukuman fisik seperti ini banyak ditemukan dalam sistem pendidikan Indonesia. Fenomena situasi pendidikan seperti apakah di atas? Jika pepatah “guru kencing berdiri, murid kencing berlari” benar, apa jadinya murid-murid yang menjadi objek perlakuan guru di atas nantinya? Berikut adalah pengalaman yang aku alami dan renungan akan sebagian sistem pendidikan kita.

Di lain saat, di SD Negeri 5, Pontianak, Kalimantan Barat pada sedang upacar bendera, aku melihat teman kelasku naik sepeda yang dikebut laju ketakutan karena terlambat, diparkir dan langsung masuk barisan untuk mengikuti upacara bendera. Kepala sekolah menghentikan upacara itu dan memanggil teman saya ke depan. Dengan ketakutan dan gerakan perlahan, temanku mendekati kepala sekolah tersebut. Tanpa berkata sepatahpun, dia menempeleng anak yang baru berusia kurang lebih sebelas tahun itu. Anak itu terpelanting jatuh. Kepala sekorang itu kemudian membentak, “Kembali ke barisan mu!”

Pada waktu di SMP Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, Jakarta, aku menyaksikan seorang guruku melontarkan penghapusan kayu tepat ke kepala teman kelasku sambil berkata, “Rontok gigi kamu!” Timpukan itu meninggalkan benjol besar kebiruan di jidat temanku tersebut.

Pada saat SMA Negeri 19, Jakarta, seorang guru lelaki mudaku mendatangi teman kelas perempuanku, berdiri di belakangnya dan menarik tali BH-nya, kemudian dibiarkan menjepret ke punggung teman perempuanku tersebut. Kemudian guru tersebut cengengesan sambil memperhatikan muridnya yang cemberut.

Tradisi pendidikan Konghucu yang keras – saya sempat rasakan langsung dari ayahku sebagai mantan guru Mandarin – dan juga menghukum secara fisik dengan memukul rotan ke tangan dan pantat murid agaknya ada kesamaan dengan hal di atas. Sama-sama mengancam dengan menimbulkan rasa sakit pada fisik dan ketakutan mental. Tapi bedanya, ayahku melakukan itu jika aku tidak mengerjakan PR atau pergi bermain. Dia menggunakan satu spesifik rotan yang ujungnya dibelah kecil-kecil. Tidak menggunakan penghapus kayu untuk menimpuk, atau telanjang tangan untuk mencubit dan menempeleng atau menjepret dengan tali BH yang sedang dipakai oleh murid perempuan. Aku tidak mengatakan bahwa tradisi pendidikan Konghucu yang mengunakan ancaman keras fisik dan ketkutan mental itu adalah baik.

Tetapi yang aku ingin gugah adalah bagaimana perasaan anda mengenai tindakan guru yang agaknya hanya dilandaskan pada kemarahan, kebencian dan kecabulan terhadap murid didiknya. Di mana moral guru yang menarik dan menjepretkan tali BH murid perempuan tersebut. Sungguh memalukan!

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.