Maverick Indonesia

“They’d call me a dirty old man…”

My lazy Sunday brunch with a few friends was turned into a heated discussion over an article published on yesterday’s The Jakarta Post (29/04) titled “More sex please, we’re British”. Read the complete article here.

I have nothing against interracial/multinational marriages, but I’m personally sickened by the insensitive and ruthless comments given by Sheldon Archer as follows:

“Let’s face it; every middle-aged man has a fantasy of making it with a young girl – just ask Bill Clinton. Here in Indonesia fantasy can become fact.” You don’t take this as a compliment, really.

“I married a child.” Yuck.

“I had to become a Muslim to marry. I just mumbled a few words I didn’t understand. I’m not religious and Yuyun isn’t serious about religion.” This is what I meant by insensitive and ruthless.

And here’s a gem…

“There’s a bit of hero worship. They like white skin.” As one of my friends put it, “I’m jumping up and down with fervent-hero-worship joy.”

I’m writing an email to Srikandi, a non-profit organization in Indonesia for local women who are married – or were married – to foreigners, to ask their views about this. Will keep you posted when I hear from them.

Update 1 May: Srikandi is currently developing a written statement outlining their views about this article. They are not too happy though… A representative from Srikandi was replying to my email saying that “the article is truly degrading Indonesian women”.

In the article, Sheldon also said that people would call him “a dirty old man” back in his hometown, Sheffield. What would you call him here? But before you answer, please also visit this website to get a better sense of the sort of business he’s running.

Seriously accountable

It’s always gratifying to receive messages from Charles M. Ham, the Country Director of HOPE worldwide – Indonesia. HOPE operates in more than 100 countries, focusing on helping societies in the education and health sectors as well as children and social welfare.

Charles Ham has been proactively sending updates of HOPE’s activities in Indonesia.  Below is the latest message I received in my mailbox. Glad to know that HOPE is taking accountability issue seriously.

“Dear Friends & Donors of HOPE worldwide Indonesia,

Greeting from Jakarta!

We would like to share with you the March 12, 2007 report from Independent Auditor’s report on 2006 Financial Statements of HOPE worldwide Indonesia (locally registered as Yayasan Hope Indonesia) :

“In our opinion, the financial statements presented fairly in all material respect…………in conformity with generally accepted accounting principals (GAAP) in Indonesia”

As many of you may notice, There has been plenty of pressure among the media regarding accountability issue of NGOs in Indonesia. President of Indonesia request more regulation on NGOs for professionalism, The Global Fund for Aid Tuberculosis, and Malaria has frozen its funding for Indonesia since April 2007 after discrepancies reported by Pricewaterhouse Cooper, Oxfam scandal in Aceh, The World Bank’s Director scandal are just some of the coverage we have seen in the media lately.

Every year without failure, HOPE worldwide Indonesia is audited by independent auditor to keep up with our core values and beliefs, which is headed by Accountability. Charity Navigator , the international NGO watchdog for 6 years in a row since its formation has awarded  HOPE worldwide 4 star rating (highest one for exceptional) in fiscal management. Only 45 non profit organization are recipient of such honor, in which only 29 are NGos while 19 are top universities. (www.charitynavigator.org).

In 2005, Resource Alliance also recognized HOPE worldwide Indonesia as one of the NGOs in Asia Pacific that “have very good practices in the areas of resource mobilization and governance, accountability, transparency”.

With your support, we are able to continue services to the people of Indonesia holding on to these principals.

Thank you for your continuos support.”

Our first association with HOPE was for one of Citibank Peka’s community development programs called the Citigroup Success Fund (CSF). CSF disburses funds to high school teachers for developing creative and fun learning experiences for their students. The program has been running for four years in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya.

In conjunction with the National Education Day on May 2, HOPE and Citigroup Indonesia will organize the 2006 CSF Winner Announcement - so fellow journalists please feel free to come.  More info about this event is available on the ‘Check This Out’ column in this blog.

Away to develop my bones

“The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.” Elaine Agather

Early this month I was in Singapore to attend a leadership training at the INSEAD Campus.

It was a pleasant experience. The training facilitators, Dr. J. Stewart Black and Dr. Hal Gregersen were two of the most communicative, experienced and resourceful management coaches I have ever met. They have known each other for so long that they complement each other impeccably. Together, they wrote a management book titled Leading Strategic Change.

The program organizing was flawless. INSEAD employs only the most helpful staff. The campus is also supported with sufficient facilities: library, cafeteria, lots of desktop computers, and wi-fi enabled areas to name just a few. INSEAD also has its own adequately sized residence within the complex so that people traveling from overseas could stay there for a few days without having to worry about commuting.

There were lots of wonderful things about my three days training, but if I have to single out just one, it has got to be the shared experiences from all of the training participants. It has never ceased to amaze me how people from different industries experience almost similar obstacles and challenges in working life.

Talking about training participants, there were 29 people from 20 different countries in my class. I couldn’t believe that most of my new friends actually flew over across more than four time zones to undertake this course. I even made friends with people from Russia and Kazakhstan!

All in all I must say that INSEAD really lives by its motto to be “The Business School for the World”. The program fee is far from cheap, but it’s worth every single penny [of your company’s money ^_^]– and I’m so thankful that I was given the opportunity to do this. It only goes to show that the company is serious in terms of developing its people.

Here’s a group photo taken on the first day.

I swear on John Lennon’s ashes that I did not wander off and gone shopping on day two and three…

A tribute to Morgan Mellish

It’s a week after the accident of the Garuda GA200 which caused 21 passengers lost their life. One of them was Morgan Mellish, an Australian journalist for the Australian Financial Review, the winner of the Walkley Award 2006.

As a journalist, he was persistent in getting information from news sources, besides his laid-back and relaxed characters. As an expatriate who lived in Indonesia, he loved to try different kind of local food here. He even told his maid to cook local food three times per week. As a friend, he was a good fellow to the others.

Morgan had reached his dream: to be a foreign correspondence. He told me that he really loved it here. He tried to go away from the city in the weekend, to surf, to climb mountains, or anything. An adventurous guy, indeed. He definitely knew how to live a life and embrace every moment of it.

Today is supposedly his 37th birthday. He left us just one week before his special day.
What a great loss for all of us in the communications industry to lose a talented young journalist like him.

Happy birthday, Morgan. You’ll be missed by all of us here.

Lunch with Indria Samego

Pak Indria Samego, Indonesia’s well-known political observer, loves yoghurt.

The first thing he did when he stood up to order some food at Marche Movenpick was to walk to the beverage section asking for yoghurt. He wasn’t lucky though. They restaurant was temporarily ran out of yoghurt.

We met up with Pak Indria yesterday. He will serve as the final judge for political subtopic in this year’s Anugerah Adiwarta Sampoerna. Friendly and humorous was the first impression that crossed our mind as he entered the room. Pak Indria said that he felt honored to become AAS 2007’s final judge, and we talked a bit about last year’s AAS and journalism in Indonesia.

Pak Indria specifically mentioned about high-solidarity amongst Indonesian journalists based on his experience: “For instance, I gave my cellphone number to one journalist, and the next thing I knew, other journalists will have my number as well!” he laughed.

After our lunch arrived, we started to talk about many things, including the controversial businesses’ contribution to the community we once posted in Maverick’s blog. Pak Indria told us that we can’t blame people for being skeptical when controversial businesses are trying to give back to the community. “Philantrophy is needed and it is good for the community,” said Pak Indria. “I think it’s better for them to give back rather than taking the profit for their own good and do nothing for the community.”

The part I like the most was when he talked about the tendency of today’s generation. “They have millions of rupiahs to spend on a concert ticket, but they don’t have that same amount of money to produce something. This nation can’t stop consuming things, but we don’t have the will to actually produce something. We have to change our mentality if we’d like to step ahead.”

Everyone, are you ready for a change?

Salute to Dewa…!

Last Friday, when I got home a bit late, I spotted a pretty familiar face on TV; it’s on Om Farhan’s show, to be exact.

That day, Om Farhan did not invite celebrities or other prominent figures to his show. As opposed to that, he exposed those faces that are usually hidden behind their huge camera: ANTV reporters. I didn’t watch the show since the very beginning, but as I arrived, I saw Dewa’s face on screen.

I met Dewa ocassionally in several events. He is a big and tall guy with friendly smile who always stands out in the crowd. As a reporter in ANTV, Dewa sometimes come over to Maverick client’s public activities—mainly entertainment and urban activities. And sometimes sport. Thus, I was a bit surprised to see Dewa in Om Farhan that night, since Om Farhan was discussing about dedication in journalism, the risks and dangers awaited the journalists, and some ‘breath-taking’ moments that happened while they’re performing their job.

I gasped when I heard the story that actually Dewa was once being beaten by Brimob officials in Kotaraja, Papua, while reporting the succession of Kasat Brimobda Papua. This incident has also been reported in Seri Papua Aktual no. 5 published by Sekretariat Keadilan & Perdamaian Keuskupan Jayapura in June 2006 (p.16). I texted Dewa that night, and gave him a salute. Dewa replied humbly to that: ”Wow, I’m so ashamed. Hehehe. I don’t know that people will watch tonight’s show…”

I believe that there are lots of other ‘Dewa’ out there. Dedicated journalists who are just trying to perform their duty, and received unlikely treatment from opposing parties—a treatment that violate human rights; a treatment that could risk the journalists’ life. It reminds me of Kompas Cyber Media’s senior editor’s comment, Mas Cahyo Sasongko, on last year’s World Press Freedom Day. “Yang pasti, wartawan Indonesia itu many threats, less protection. Ada 3 unsur pelindung sekaligus ancaman: owner, state and society. Kita bermain di 3 unsur ini.”

However, we hope that threats experienced by Indonesian journalists won’t reduce their spirit to speak up and tell the truth to the whole wide world. Because we need transparency. Because we need to know the truth about what’s happening out there. And oftentimes, in this country, you’ve got to pay a very expensive price just for telling the truth.

What a shame.

Budi Putra is no longer in Tempo

Budi Putra, a journalist of Tempo, has no longer worked in the publication. He decided to become an independent writer, specializes in issues on technology for printed and online media abroad.

“I learned a lot during my five years in Tempo”, he says. “Now is the time for me to move ahead and realize two of my passions, which are to be an independent writer and a full time blogger”.

A full time blogger? “Yes, why not? We need someone who is brave enough to declare him/herself as a full-time blogger”, he says. Blog is a new communication tool and sooner or later will become more powerful. “I want to encourage Indonesians to take part in the development of this new tool”.

“Apart from that, now I have more time to enjoy life. FYI, now I’m in Bandung, enjoying a lovely afternoon with my family”, he says. Oowwwhh.. that’s so nice. I envy you, mas Budi!

Although now he’s no longer with Tempo, he will still be a contributor for Tempo’s blog. He’s also actively blogging at CNET Asia, Asia Tech, 3GWeek, The Gadget, Blog Jurnalisme and Indonesia Tech.

Good luck, Mas Budi. All the best for you yaaah!! And please, since now you have more free time, come and visit us at the orange house!

A Not Surprise Birthday Party for Ira Koesno

What happened if a surprise birthday party turned out to be a not surprise birthday party at all?

Well, I guess, the birthday girl should just pretend to be surprised to satisfy the guests.

This scene happened in Ira Koesno’s birthday party last night. Some of her friends organized the supposed-to-be-a-surprise-birthday-party at Romeo Café, Automall. Numbers of people were there, including IKComm’s clients, journalists, communications practitioners, etc. They were all waiting for the birthday lady, hoping to see her expressions when she entered the venue.

But then, when she got in to the place, she didn’t look surprise at all! Apparently, she said, “Someone sent me sms asking about this party! Hahaha…”.
Ooowwhhh.. who’s that clumsy guy?? But then, Ira said, “However, I’m still surprised as I didn’t expect that there would be so many people attending this party. Thank you so much everyone..”.

After she blew all the candles on her birthday cake (there were thirty something candles.. am not gonna write it here, Ira, don’t worry! Hehe..), the organizer presented a video showing some pictures of Ira when she was a little girl until she became a famous TV presenter then started her own company together with two of her best friends.

It was a fun party. There were some fun games and lots of doorprizes. Even I got two presents from winning a doorprize and “being forced” to participate in a “dangdut” dancing game! Hahaha..

Well, happy birthday, Ira Koesno! All the best for you and keep shining, girl!

Ps: You have one year to practice on your act: pretend to be surprised in case there will be another surprise birthday party for you next year!