Of Doodling

At first, I thought it was only me. But if you were elementary schooled in Indonesia during the 80 and 90’s perhaps you are familiar with it too. I am talking about the formulaic recipe of drawing Indonesian scenery.

At one point or another we probably drew bright blue sky, two mountains and a sun, green rice field to the left and right of an asphalt road. The variations generally on the shading technique, additional hut and car, birds, and the lamp post.

I asked some of my friends in the office, and they confirmed it. We had fun joking about it afterwards. It was pretty nostalgic and brought back recollections of our childhood.

There was this program called ‘Gemar Menggambar’ on the telly hosted by the late Pak Tino Sidin. All of us have a very fond memory of him. It was so fascinating to see him brilliantly create illustrations from some simple lines and curves.

He also had this session where children all over the country send their works and given comment by the good man. He’s the one coined the ever popular phrase, ‘Yak Bagus’. Definitely The Must See TV show back then and we’d be hard pressed to name any of today’s offering as inspirational and educative as that.

Back to the scenery drawings, just like other aspects of public schooling back then, they were all too rigid. During Suharto’s three decades in power indeed there was a vast expansion of public schooling at primary and secondary levels, alongside a significant growth in private education.

The New Order however required public and private schools to teach the same nationally mandated syllabus to all school children. National history along with the Morals of Panca Sila were compulsory subjects, right to the way we dressed and cut our hair.

I’m not saying this is necessarily bad; it probably has its own merit. There’s a tie that bound us all together as a nation. But on another level it killed creativity and suppressed individualistic expression during the times when school kids need to be more expressive and imaginative.

This probably has an indirect effect on our ability to accept and embrace differences. The one official history is, without a doubt, essential in uniting the diverse Indonesians. The doctrinal curriculum on the other hand eliminated any disputes between classes or ethnic groups; social and religious conflict was focused towards the Dutch and Communism.

Critical discourse of issues and alternative interpretations were frowned upon. The social classroom functioned to curb knowledge of difference. Yet the root of conflicts and tension between differing groups were brewing silently in the background. After The New Order collapsed, this tension and conflict has reared its ugly head on plenty of occasions.

When I was little, I used to scribble a lot. I can’t see a white paper or a blank wall without the need to doodle something on it. My parents bless them, luckily allowed me to do just that at the expense of the living room. My drawing teacher though once rebuked me because I drew Superman and Batman on a class assignment. Although I was unhappy, I get back to the usual standard of scenery drawing in no time.

I certainly hope teachers nowadays are astute enough to let little children be as creative as they want to be. Many Tino Sidin, Affandi, Basuki Abdullah, or more could possibly emerge from amongst them.

Of Success and Happiness

A couple of weeks ago, some old high school friends took a trip back to Magelang to inspire the ‘would be graduates’ currently in their third grade. It has been a tradition for sometime now and I’m proud to say that the bond between alumni and the high school is as strong as ever.

I was told that the event was a big hit. A student came to contact me online via one of those social networking site and told me how impressed they were at their older brothers. It’s hard not to be impressed really, amongst the alumni were a vice president of Danamon, members(?) of the honorable KPK, several successful entrepreneurs, air force pilot of the F16, and others holding important positions in some elite organizations at a very young age of thirty.

The student then went on to ask me, what I do for a living and tidbits about my career so far. It was a harmless naive curiosity, yet when juxtaposed with the above, I have to admit that it got me thinking for a bit. When I did mention my occupation, I don’t know if it’s insecurity kicked in or something else, but I could’ve sworn that his reaction was like, meh …

Parading successes of some alumni would do a world of wonders to motivate the students. I certainly hope it will not give a false sense of security among them and thinking that success will come for granted. Life outside the dormitory could be pretty harsh. Even the best and the smartest of alumni had to work hard to get to where they are now.

I also believe that success is a relatively loose term and that in life it's no longer solely linked to privileged or even overseas academic venture, as it once was. Nevertheless, I understand that society at large has its own yardstick to measure success. In the end, most things come down to money. Sad but true. It is still traditionally associated with these five things: beautiful spouse, elite professions, luxurious cars, lavish houses, and expensive hobbies.

I can safely say that I have none of those, well except perhaps beautiful spouse (I had to put this one in, otherwise no dinner for me this week). I am at my early thirty now and while some of my colleagues have set out to do stuffs that would make people around them proud, I had to dig deep to really find things that would stand out from mediocrity.

This usually don’t bother me that much as I’ve accustomed to the fact that there are people who could make things look easy and sharper at responding to the general public demands of success. Or just plain lucky, but you gotta make your own luck in life.

As it happens, I stumbled on a TV program some weeks ago, a motivator, went on to say that The Biggest Mistake a person could make is to aim low and then achieving the target. As I watched there and saw the large audiences nodding in unison, I wondered, have I been one of those? While I can see where he's getting at, I also remember thinking, so what?!

However, add that factor to some nonchalant questions from my junior, and several events that happened during the last holiday, I began to seriously muse on things. Although, true to the form, after questioning my philosophy, instead of actually aiming higher and planning to pull them off, I blog my way out of it. I suppose it's inertia of protracted custom where predictability carries its own comforts.

In my defense (as if I need to), success does not equate happiness. When I look around and look behind, I think I’m pretty happy and content with the way things are in my life. Cynics may cite that I’m easily satisfied, or worse, making the biggest mistake by aiming too low. I’m the only one who knows where I came from, the limitations and the road blocks, my effort all this time, and my contribution to my family and people around me.

Thinking back, it may be simplified over as; have I been a worthy son and a worthy friend? Have I been paying my duty, taxes and brought about benefit to the society?

I could have done better, there’s no question, but when it comes down to that, I could have done a lot worse too.

Of College Graduates

In some alumni gathering by my university, there’s several sessions of seminar by older members. Usually they’re business owners or directors of some ‘big’ national company. Their grief was most of the same concerning the younger generation; that is the lack of ‘ready made’ graduates from our educational system in general.

They claim that most of the new intakes are awkward and not necessarily skilled to perform even the entry level in their organization. It is arguable whether this is a hyperbole or not, considering most of these so called ‘big names’ were once awkward new graduates struggling to impress their bosses too back in the day.

Perhaps it’s a valid criticism. With them able to step into the highest ladder of their own respective company means that they have proved themselves, therefore they have earned the right to pass judgments.

In reality though, state owned schools and universities in Indonesia very rarely teach practical and technical skills to their students. They are usually aiming their curriculum to produce individual capable of future learning and develop their own internal ability to perform non specific tasks, broad in general yet merely scratching the surface.

We can’t really fault the institution. In the understanding that ‘society’ is a massive and complex system with complicated interconnections between many subjects, consequently it’s not academic to direct the teachings to exceedingly specific channels. Unfortunately not many of their students realize this dilemma.

An easy example in the computer science education is regarding the many programming languages within the industry. Universities usually have classes that teach the basics and logical foundation of the entire programming languages popular in that period. They can’t be specific teaching in depth PHP and MySQL to all of their students. Who would know for sure that PHP will still be used in three or four years ahead?

The other factor would be that their professors are not well resourced to master all those different programming languages and following the ever-changing trends in the business. They probably feel they were not paid enough to do all that. Hence they simply teach the basics, the ones that will not change much overtime.

Back in the seminar, case in point they were using was of ITB and Binus. In recent years the growing trend absorption level of employment proved that Binus’ graduates were relatively more ‘ready’ than their competitors from ITB on computer science and informatics. For information in Binus they were taught that specific proficiency right from the bat.

The same thing happened in Architecture. ITB graduates, compared to Parahyangan University, in entry-level job would have more difficulties adapting to mundane drafting tasks. This is due to different approach in their curriculum. In my days of studying, we focused a lot on design methodology, history of architecture, rule of reporting, and evolution of style, instead of ‘how to actually draw’ using pen or CAD.

In fairness the professors may argue that they’re not preparing us to become mere coders or drafters, nevertheless in actual fact the industry requires graduates to pass three or even five years struggling with coding and drafting works before they can apply the bulk of knowledge they learned in the university. In the long run it may prove otherwise, yet that is still depending on plenty of other factors. It is a conundrum really.

Here we are talking about one of the better state university in Indonesia. I cannot speak too much about other leading institutions such as UI, UGM, and ITS. I figure they are just about the same.

Students who are motivated and ambitious enough would learn that specific extra curricular skill set themselves in their own time. Even though this may hamper their effort to attain good marks but in the long term it will help them greatly in the working arena.

So it’s no strange that one new graduate with perfect marks in his/her diploma would struggle to perform real entry level jobs in a company. They study all the time and forget to mingle with their friends in student’s organizations. In working place, teamwork and social soft skills would definitely help them a lot to find their feet.

There’s an unhealthy difference of paradigm between the educational society and business world in relation to the term ‘ready made’ and ‘qualified’. This shows a wide gap between those two planes, how detached they are one to another. Some institutions have acknowledged this and bridging the two worlds early by involving relevant business professionals in their organizations.

Conceivably that is also one of the reason more than one million of university graduates in Indonesia currently unemployed. This staggering statistic was the headline in national newspapers last week. They are probably smart full of knowledge yet very few able to translate it to practical level.

I think it’s high time the Education Department to worry more about this phenomenon instead of spending too much time choosing sound card brand of their department’s high end lap top that they’re going to ‘pinch’ by the end of this year’s budget.

My last trip back to Bandung showed that my alma mater have changed some of their education model. There's some buzz about the place and the word ‘techno-preneur’ is bandied around a lot, whatever that means.

Of Public Squeaking

Continuing a tag from Mbak Anita, with a theme of “Age That I Wish to Get Back to and Why?” I insist on returning to the year of 1994. That year saw a mixed blessing for me indeed. There were so many things that I would just love to do differently. The following story is one of them.

Indonesians around my age bracket must be familiar with the term Penataran P4. It is basically a short one week course during Suharto era, which is a requirement in every formal institution, such as university and government offices. The upgrading course revolved around guidance to better understanding and ways to implement Pancasila, our national foundation.

For years, it was mostly lip service and used as formality, yet it came with certificate and all, so some circles deemed it was prerequisite to continue entering the institution. I am not going to talk about the sheer comedic value of the whole process. That has been done to death since reformation in 1998.

To make things short, one of the fundamentals about P4 was that every participant must write and explain an essay about the thirty-six formulaic precepts of Pancasila. The early phase of the sessions was held in a class of around thirty people. Therefore, it was not exceptionally daunting for me.

In fact the professors was rather impressed with my essay and speech, they appointed me to become one of two keynote speakers on the latter phase of the course, which will involve hundreds of participants in a huge hall. Later on, I suspect that perhaps they had something sinister going on behind the appointment.

OK, so there I was, on the podium feeling all handsome and important, in front of many new and smart graduates from all over the country, completely oblivious of the impending disaster that will soon follow.

My essay was about the dual role of Indonesian Army in preserving Pancasila as the sole foundation of Nation principles (yes, please don’t laugh too loud). Little did I know, there’s no love lost between the military and the students ever since 1966. As I went deeper into the topic, restless faces and rumblings began to color the proceedings.

It all erupted during the questions and answers session. I was like a standing duck at the center of the hall with students taking turn sniping loaded questions one after another. I returned some of the flak with interest, some insult and name-calling began to fly towards me. Not a very wise move on my part, I must say. At this point in life, I was a hotheaded inexperienced brat.

Sometime during the barrage, I glanced haplessly to the row of professors, begging them to wrap this nightmare. However, they seem to enjoy the occasion and chattering among themselves. How cruel!

After a good one hour, finally the moderator stopped the seemingly endless session and let me limp down the podium to my hot seat, amidst condescending and piercing stare from the participants. As if it was not humiliating enough, the next speaker, a girl (whom I became good friend months after), got a standing applause from the audience. I buried my head beneath the books.

Now you can understand why I am just itching to go back to the year of 1994. Ever since that infamous incident which lives long in the folklore of my class, I shun public speaking like a plague. I also had to endure some time under scrutiny of some seniors who thought I was an Intel for the military.

I am sure that the esteemed professors knew full well about the animosity between campuses and the army. If they were asking me now to be the keynote speaker, I’d probably tell them to shove it where the sun don’t shine.

Of Crossroads

Someone who shall remain nameless (pssst, unless you click on this link) tagged me the other day. The title in question is ‘What age do I wish to get back to, and why?’. Friendly word of caution, this entry will be very personal. I might bore you to death; quickly skip it while you still can.

Well, I haven’t heard anyone actually invented the time machine as of late, but if some one did, I would love it if they beam me back to 1994, when I was merely a skinny naïve 17 years old teenager.

In a classic Twilite Zone style, I’d like to correct a couple of choices I made on that particular year. 1994 was a major crossroad in my life, time of big changes and frequent soul searching. I might have wound up in a completely different place altogether in my parallel universe and here’s why.

Right after high school, frantic tests and college applications came thick and fast. I managed to complete the whole Military Academy tests and barely passed. I was already inside their camp and munching those horribly brittle rice and sandal like meat.

Two weeks have gone when I received the news that I got in STT Telkom’s list for Information Technology faculty.

Frankly, it was never my intention to become military personnel. It served plainly as an alternative just in case I didn’t get through anywhere. I was already disillusioned of living inside a dormitory for three years. Another four years would definitely drive me insane.

Therefore, I made up my mind and plead to flee out of the camp. Got me a good slap in return from a two star general no less. Darn it, I toughened my heart; even with a bruised cheek at least I got out.

Just to let you know, I was all alone during this period. My family was hundreds of miles away and communication was minimum at best due to pricey long distance call. I took a bus from Magelang to Bandung for the first time and process the administration to enter STT Telkom. There’s a horrific tale involving some transvestites when I stepped my foot in Bandung soil, but that’s another story.

I rented a room near the campus. It was so cheap I had to sleep on top of the praying mat. To take a bath one needs to sweat first, drawing bucket of water out of a well. Because the fee to STT Telkom was rather expensive, I needed to cut some cost in other places. Those were some rough days.

Several weeks later, the newspaper listed names of people who got through the UMPTN. My name was among the fortunate ones. This was very dilemmatic for me, Architecture Engineering of ITB; a government-subsidized institution was a lot cheaper than STT Telkom. It’s not too shabby either way.

I was inclined to stay at Telkom knowing IT and Communication would be a hot property in the future. However, I sincerely doubt I’d enjoy sleeping on that dingy floor and showering with some dodgy water, as the well mostly covered with mildew and some sort of fungus.

Once again, I made a decision to take my money uptown and gamble towards the elephant campus of ITB. Found me a decent enough room and immediately meeting my soon to be best friends from class of 94. There, for six long years, I was succumbed by landscape sketches, rendering, and building designs. Truth be told, I was not very good at it.

As you probably have known, currently I am not working in the Architecture field at all. During the last nine years, IT has been my bread and butter.

Now what if and this is a big if, back then, I stick to military academy, or the IT Faculty of STT Telkom, where would I end up.

With the time machine given to me by this tag, I’d be able to go back and capture a glimpse of things that may have come to pass, shall I chose the other paths, the road not taken.

Perhaps, looking back to our past might encourage us to be thankful, for our own ‘here and now’.

PS:

• Told you it’s very personal, hope I didn’t put you off and you’ll still be visiting this site next time.
• As with the custom of tagging, I’ll pass this flaming torch to five other bloggers. Their name and address shall be posted in here in coming days. First, I need to confirm that they wouldn’t mind being tagged.
• UMPTN is a test to enter state-owned universities in Indonesia. A lot of luck involved in getting pass that.
  
• Here is the link of the page where I was tagged, if time permits please read it also, good stuff.

Of General Sudirman

Baptism by fire is what we call it. Every year our high school orders the students to march 40 km following the footsteps of the Late General Sudirman during our struggle for Independence in 1948.

It was a gruelling task. We stopped only at nights and slept in some tents deep inside the forest. Yet we marched on, motivating each other all the way. We were only young and full of spirit.

To be honest, I didn't really understand the true meaning behind the whole trip at that time. It dawned to us all right, but somehow it got lost due to tiredness and naivety. In my recent surge of patriotism (pardon the sarcastic tone), I started to learn more about this great man and why he's considered as one of the best sons these shores ever produced.

Sudirman is the first Commander-in-chief of Indonesia Armed Forces. It is an even greater achievement considering he was merely 30 years old when President Soekarno appointed him in 1945.

Just like Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) in Saving Private Ryan, Sudirman was a simple schoolteacher. He got his reputation when he organized a guerilla attack against the British and the Dutch in Ambarawa, forcing them to move away towards Semarang.

Back then, in a vacuum of power after Emperor Hirohito acknowledged defeat, the British and Dutch army tried to wrestle Indonesia as their colony once more.

The recently declared independence made thousands of young men euphoric. They fought hard and long against enemy with a more powerful arsenal. However, these are young untrained fighter. There was an urgent need to elect a leader to coordinate the battle.

Fresh out of big combat, and in control of the largest soldiers with weapons seized from the Japan, Sudirman was chosen unanimously by his peers. Those days were very different. People are able to cooperate with each other and the spirit was awe-inspiring.

It was an interesting choice, because Sudirman have this very unimpressive appearance. He was a thin and quiet man. Yet the other commanders saw in him a mental toughness, charisma, and bravery exceeding that of his compatriots.

Theodore Friend who wrote Indonesia: Peoples and Histories describes him as having "A strangely blended samurai discipline, Marxist disposition, and raw courage." It’s quite a fearsome combination of characters.

“I do love peace, but I love freedom so much more!”
That is the code Sudirman lived and die for.

That quote maybe overused in recent decades, but I always shiver at the thought of those words coming out of this once great General. Just like my eyes glistening every time I watched the end of Braveheart when William Wallace shouted out “Freedom!”

Tuberculosis hampered Sudirman’s effectiveness in battle. Because he was so important to the army morale, his men had to carry him on a legendary palanquin, walking through a hidden route from Jogjakarta to Magelang for hundreds of kilometers. Imagine the hardship. Those men who carried him on their shoulders are also heroes in my eyes.

On the 29 January 1950, Indonesia lost one of her greatest defender. He was buried in Jogjakarta where the government bestowed the National Hero status he thoroughly deserves.

Now I know why my high school ordered us to walk through his footsteps. Now I also know why almost every city in Indonesia have a major street named after him.

PS:

• Jejak Langkah Panglima Besar Sudirman
  

For a Good Cause Anyway

An SMS from my youngest cousin got me thinking real hard. She asked whether I can pay some of her college tuition, because her father and mother is now retired and it’s a pity if she would have to quit her school only because of that. I understand what they have been through and if this had come a year earlier I would not have to think twice to help her.

For almost a year now I’ve been giving some amount of money to our office boy, (well probably office aid because he’s much older than me), Mr. Noor, to help him with the education of his two children. It’s not a burden really, I am truthfully and honestly glad that I could help him, and in the process he shows me his son and daughter’s report book each month to actually follow their progress.

They’ve been pretty good at school with several eights and nines in Math and English. Besides, if you meet Pak Noor, he’s this very nice and religious man with plenty of hilarious ideas and a helpful hand. He’s just unlucky that he didn’t have the chance to enjoy decent education like others especially with his wife being sick from time to time. It is not possible to stop helping him now even though he said that he just had a rise this month.

With the oil and gas prices hiking up and without any significant pay rise from my office, I’ve been pretty lucky lately due to several side projects that pay handsomely. But most of them will have to go to the account to pay for our future house. And by purchasing a PDA a while a go (something I needed badly, it’s not an impulse buy or for showing off), the purse string is pretty tight right now. I have some other projects in the pipeline that will due to payment in near future but I cannot count my chicken from the eggs just yet. I’ve been too familiar with clients suddenly goes missing when it’s time to pay up.

Well maybe I just have to learn to live rather more cost effective. Perhaps I will have to skip every breakfast and in the meantime reducing my weight in the process. That would be great, isn’t it? I’ve been doing some sit ups lately and I can hardly see any difference on my belly. In fact this morning in front of the elevator I met Lily, my former classmate and she said how I look fatter than ever. That’s not very flattering. And also especially with the flag price for Taxi in Jakarta is up 30% I will have to lessen the frequency of using taxi too, there’s plenty of motor taxi available near here though, and walking every now and then will always be good for my cholesterol, he he … It’s for a good cause anyway.

Anyway, don’t mind this. It’s only a random musing just to pour it somewhere so that I can actually think clearly. Hopefully side projects will keep on coming my way and conceivably it’s not too late to hope for the oil and gas price return back the way they were right? Or is it?