Singapore Scholarships Info

I just finished my master programme from NUS Singapore under ASEAN scholarship programme. And I think it is always good to share scholarships information and some tips to get the scholarships successfully especially for prospective postgraduate students from Indonesia and other ASEAN countries.

Singapore is a small country located at the southern tips of Malay peninsula.It is nearby Malaysia and Indonesia. It is a city state of 700 km sq which managed to transform itself from 3^rd world country into 1^st world country in term of prosperity for just 30 years. The great achievement of Singapore can be traced to many fields such as health,education,Singapore Airlines and etc.

Education in Singapore is relatively more advanced compared to neighbour ASEAN countries. It is largely due to consistent and large government support and commitment to it for developing the only resource that Singapore has which is human resource.

Several universities in Singapore have good standing and recognition from the world which proved from certain surveys each year. NUS,NTU and SMU are the well recognized and wellknown universities so far from here.The graduates from this universities can be accepted easily for further education in US or European countries.

NUS Singapore ( www.nus.edu.sg ) is the oldest university in Singapore which deemed to be the best one in Singapore and previously known as University of Singapore.It is located in Kent Ridge area,West side of Singapore. It is a government endowed university ( same like state university in Indonesia ) and have many faculties ( Engineering,Medicine,Law,Business and etc. )

NTU Singapore ( www.ntu.edu.sg ) is a government endowed university also which previously known as Nanyang University. It is located in Boon Lay area,the West end of Singapore.It focuses more on engineering,science and teacher education.

SMU Singapore ( www.smu.edu.sg ) is another government endowed university and the newest one among all. It is located in city centre nearby Bugis and City Hall.It focuses more on finance,management and economics study.

There are several other universities in Singapore such as UniSIM,UNSW and etc.

They are private and brand new universities in Singapore.

For prospective students who try to get scholarships can access the following link :

1. http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/prospective/graduate/researchscholarship.htm

Link di atas berisi informasi beasiswa mahasiswa riset untuk mendapatkan gelar MEng dan PhD di NUS.

Above link contains information about scholarships for research students pursuing MEng and PhD titles in NUS.

2. http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/sfau/pg.htm

Link di atas berisi list beasiswa untuk mahasiswa pascasarjana baik itu yang dengan riset maupun dengan mengikuti kelas.

Above link contains scholarships list for postgraduate students both by research or by coursework.

3. http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/prospective/graduate/gsa.htm

Link di atas berisi beasiswa untuk mahasiswa coursework dari negara2x ASEAN.

Above link contains scholarship information for coursework students specially from ASEAN countries.

4. http://www.ntu.edu.sg/publicportal/prospective+students/scholarships/default.htm

Link di atas berisi list beasiswa2x untuk studi di NTU ( Nanyang Technological University ).

Above link contains scholarships list for studying in NTU.

For SMU I do not have definite information about it. For prospective students can search directly from its website : www.smu.edu.sg.

After basic information about universities here and links to get more information regarding the scholarships then I would like to share several tips which I did before to get the postgraduate scholarship here.

Several tips which may be useful such as :

1.Get relevant work experiences for at least 2 years.

It can be really useful to convince them ( the universities ). The name of companies where we work is important also as it actually can give a quick glance of how good the prospective scholarship holders.

2. Get the needed TOEFL,GMAT and GRE.

TOEFL is necessary if you studied previously with medium other than English and from non English speaking countries.

Students from Indonesia need to get the latest TOEFL.
GMAT is necessary for Business students.

GRE is necessary for Engineering and Science students .Mostly the universities in USA and Western Europe ask it more often than in Singapore.

3. Write an honest,detail and clear objective for pursuing postgraduate education by scholarship

To get ASEAN scholarship we are required to write an objective letter.

It is a kind of description why we want to pursue postgraduate here by scholarship and further plan upon graduation ( let see in 5 years time upon graduation ).

I wrote a honest,brief but clear letter explaining my reasons for further education and my career goal afterwards. Some people might try to bullshit by writing sweet but dishonest letter but it will not effect or guarantee they can get the scholarship as the people who read and select us are very experience and already face this kind of letters each year.

4.Make sure you have at least 3-12 months in advance prior your planned education time.

3-12 months needed for you to prepare the required letters,time for the university to process and decide your entry and whether to give scholarship or not and etc.

That is all some information which I can share about scholarships in Singapore universities. Hopefully prospective students can read and make the use of it.And hopefully you can get it !!

Rank of Universities by Webometrics

There are several international institutions which conduct research on universities’ profiles in the world and do the yearly rank after that. Shanghai Jiao Tong University ( Shanghai,China ), Times Higher Education Supplement ( THES ) which is a part of The Times,a newspaper from United Kingdom and the new one,Webometrics affiliated to Spanish Research Council.

Webometrics ( www.webometrics.info ) classify the rank mainly based on the electronics publication ( e-publication ) which contained in each university’s website. There are further 4 indicators for it such as

1. Size : number of website pages which contain e-publication
2. Visibility : number of other pages which referred or put link onto the original website
3. Rich File : the relevance of the electronic sources for the academic and publication of the university
4. Scholar : number of qualified publication and citation in the university website.

Later on it process the data and then put rank for total 3000 universities worldwide. The rank come out each January and July each year since 2004.

Though the ranking from each international institution can be not believed 100% as it is merely result of collected statistics which we know can be played around and the different criterions set by the international institutions and the universities being researched but surely we still can use it for quick glance and overview on how competitive universities which we belong to or our home country universities

Let see the list of top 100 universities in Asia as follow :

1. National University of Singapore ( Singapore )

2. National Taiwan University ( Taiwan )

3. Keio University ( Japan )

4. University of Tokyo ( Japan )

5. Beijing University ( China )

6. Chinese University of Hongkong ( Hongkong )

7. University of Hongkong ( Hongkong )

8. Kyoto University ( Japan )

9. National Chiao Tung University ( Taiwan 0

10.Tsinghua University China ( China )
……..

73. Bandung Institute of Technology ( ITB,Indonesia )

100.Gadjah Mada University ( UGM,Indonesia )

First I am personally happy with this rank as the universities where I studied for my bachelor degree ( UGM,Indonesia ) and my master degree ( NUS,Singapore ) are in the top 100 Universities in Asia. NUS is no.1 and UGM is no.100.

I am also happy because two Indonesian top universities ( ITB and UGM ) manage to share the spot in top 100 universities in Asia which is a big push and pride for Indonesia which this several years facing so many problems and degradations. Despites lack of fund ( compared with other universities ) ITB and UGM still managed also to push higher quality and bigger presence in international spot ( aimed in Asia first ).

If we see the above top 10 also we can see that the spots mostly being taken by universities from East Asia ( Japan,China,Taiwan,Hongkong ). The strength of universities in this area long has been recognized even in other type of ranks from THES and Shanghai Jiao Tong. Is it the high quality education which propel and help the economics growth and industrialization for years ? Or is it because hard work ethics ( Confucian work ethics ) complemented together with big support from local government ? Or simply because the people from East Asia are smarter ? I can not give a definite answer for this.

Just to close this small article that I personally hope more Indonesian universities able to surface into top spot in the Asia first before aimed for the top world position.If this year only 2 universities then probably next year can be 3-4 universities in top 100 Asia Universities. I believe that if more Indonesian Universities can surface and get better recognition from the world then it can help the alumni finding global and best jobs,help Indonesia also with higher quality graduates and education and etc. Hopefully it can come true soon.

From Brain Drain To Brain Gain : Case Study For Indonesia

I got the idea of writing about this topic mainly after reading so many comments and discussions in Singapore after Senior Minister Goh of Singapore made statement about it as follow

During his visit to Iran, he said:

"The issue which we are most concerned with is the loss of our own people at the very top. These are bright young people, children of very well educated Singaporeans."
Singapore is losing the top 0.5 percent of its talents.

I am not going to discuss more about Singapore problem with leaking of talent but more on Indonesia problem with leaking of talents. Indonesia with a big population around 240 million people and the world 4^th most populous country in the world right after China,India and USA. So in general Indonesia supposed to have enormous amount of talented people from such big population.

Let give a defining idea about talented people. I tend to limit it as people who have talents in academic,sport,art,business and etc Talent should not be limited because the people have good education or good performance academically only. Many other people have talents which can give valuable contributions like in the economics,art,social work,sport and etc.

During my working period before which took me to several countries I observed at the same time many young Indonesian studying and working overseas. The reasons behind this decision are so many and not a single reason can explain it out.

Before discussing further about Indonesia brain drain or leaking talents I would give an overview first about what happened in China and India. China and India as world number 1 and 2 populous countries in the world have enormous amount of talented people which then absorbed readily by developed countries in Western World ( mainly the ultimate destination is USA followed by UK,Canada,Australia and several other western countries ). China and India even not allowed to take Green Card anymore as they already constituted large amount of immigrants in USA. Then the question should it then poses problem to China and India especially when they are also developing rapidly and need many talents for it.

When I was assigned to India for quite sometime I managed to differentiate that mostly the best and brightest Indian already went to work somewhere out of India and only small number of the best and brightest stay and work in India itself. I asked my Indian colleagues several times about this issue. And the answer from them is very surprising.Despites deep nationalism and deep rootedness of the Indian culture most of them happy to see their fellow countrymen went overseas to work and stay. Only little amount of opposition or negative feeling toward it.

.Why is that ?

There are several reasons for it. I am going to elaborate it as follow :

1. The experiences and the money which they can get overseas are very valuable for their future life in India. Most of the Non Resident Indian ( NRI ) plan to go back to India after several years working overseas.
2. Despite rapid development and industrialization of India this several years,the number of high tech and skilled jobs are still less than the number of talents ready to take it. Yes,there are still many low tech and unskilled jobs but those brightest one surely will not take it.
3. Effect of globalization : People just simply choose where they want to work and stay as the effect of globalization.If they miss home they simply can make a call,chat,watch TV cable and in some places like Dubai,Abu Dhabi where many Indians going there then the life is not so much different as in India. Indian also have relatively fluent English ( with certain local accents ) which actually a plus point in globalization.

This several years itself there is reverse trend that many affluent Indian ( NRI ) came back to India either temporary or for good. They brought together with them experiences,companies,wealth and etc.The effect is enormous for Indian economics as it help the growth of Indian further and open more jobs. The reverse trend somewhat called as brain gain. The brain drain that Indian felt 10-15 years ago has reversed slowly to brain gain. Now then I understand why most people in India proud of their countrymen who work overseas.

How about the case in Indonesia ? I myself currently working overseas. I believe there are some kind of brain drain trend from Indonesia though the exact percentage and number of it can not be known precisely.The response toward Indonesian working overseas quite varied. Many actually support as currently Indonesian economics not so good and number of high tech and skilled jobs not available in abundance. But surely there are certain small opposition for this also as with working overseas can not help Indonesia directly,sense of nationalism and etc.

Several good things for Indonesian who can work overseas for sometimes :

1. Get the valuable experiences which can be got only outside of Indonesia

Some high tech researches not exist in Indonesian universities,high tech and specialized jobs are also still limited.

2. Creating ‘devisa’ or revenue for the countries

Not a secret that the salary for people working overseas much bigger than working in Indonesia. And I believe many people who work overseas still send money to their family in Indonesia regularly. The family then use it inside Indonesia which then help Indonesian economics although indirect.

3. Fluency in international language such as English,Mandarin,Japan and etc.

Most of the people in Indonesia do not speak English in their daily life compared with Singapore,Malaysia,Philipine,India and etc. When people work overseas they are being forced to use and practice their English,Mandarin and etc in daily bases.

It is very essential as English is now the most widely used language in the world for business,study even diplomatics.Followed later on by Mandarin as the large number of Mandarin speakers in the world and the big potential for China becoming the superpower in next century.

4. Get the best ideas and cultures which can complement the current ideas and cultures in Indonesia

As currently Indonesia is still healing from the post 1997 crisis and transforming itself into a democratic country,less corruption,better appreciation of human rights and etc then getting direct experience with other countries which already faced and implemented it can be a very precious thing to do.

It is not importing 100% from overseas but more on choosing and taking the best from it,ignoring and deleting the bad parts of it.

There are at least 2 negative sides from Indonesian working overseas :

1. Brain drain as Indonesia is currently developing though the rate is little bit slow. Indonesia needs brightest and best talents also for its development

2. Some of the people working overseas imported rubbish and dangerous culture and habits to Indonesia when they coming back. It is a negative one surely as it can destruct the culture and social harmony in Indonesia.

For me I tended to believe Indonesia should learn and take India as role model for this case.India as another democratic and developing country and had previous brain drain problem can manage it well and make it as a reverse trend currently when India healing and developing very fast. The brain drain become brain gain and further propelling India economic growth. If Indonesia can use this as a role model ( with certain adaptation surely ) I believe that in 10 years the current brain drain also happen in Indonesia can become brain gain which can help Indonesia further in the development. Hopefully useful.

Information For Job Seekers In Singapore

I spent quite sometimes before and after graduation from NUS Singapore trying to find ‘good job’ for me. During this time I did research and tried many ways on how to find ‘good job’ in Singapore for me. And in this article I would like to share some of it.

Finding a ‘good job’ in Singapore may seem easy for some people but for me it is a quite long journey.It is not because lack of positions here but mainly I can not suit my expectations and experiences with the companies expectations ( mostly my expectation higher than the companies here ). Not to be snobbish but I spent quite sometimes working in a big multinational companies ( not in Singapore ) and even held position as expatriate.That is why my expectation is not the same with most of the fresh graduates from NUS Master Programmes.

One of the best way to find job positions in Singapore is by registering and accepting regular newsletters from online job databases.

There are several good online job databases containing position in Singapore as follow :

1.Jobstreet.com ( www.jobstreet.com )

One of the best and many companies here in Singapore post their positions here.

The update is qute fast. Some companies also use its website facility for their online applications and recruitments. You can realize it from the directed website address to jobstreet.com when you apply into this companies.

2.Monster.com.sg ( www.monster.com.sg )

I got several calls and interviews from employers who read my online resume in Monster. It is one of the effective way of reaching unknown employers and job positions.

3.Jobsdb.com ( www.jobsdb.com )

Quite big one also and wellknown ( also in Indonesia and several other Asian countries ). But never got any calls from employers who use its database.

4.ST701 ( www.st701.com )

This is a relatively new online job database. It is a baby of SPH ( Singapore Press Holding ). Most of the positions are exact positions advertised on Straits Times before ( also a subsidiary of Singapore Press Holding ).

Another way to find job positions is a conventional one. Simply buying Straits Times,Singapore local newspaper every Saturday. The Saturday edition always have special section for job advertisement. Sometimes it can take up to 50% of the total newspaper content on that day. It is only 80 Cent ( equivalent 4800 Rupiah ) here and worth to buy and read.

Alternatively you can also put your resume and contact several job agencies here in Singapore. There are so many job agencies here ( hundred of them ). Some of them charge you money for their services.The rest charged it to the companies which take you in. I prefer the second one as it is cheaper for us,job seekers.

Several job agencies here :

1. MichaelPage ( www.michaelpage.com.sg )

One of top job agency here. Mostly managing senior and managerial positions. The wellknown term for them is Executive Search or Head Hunter.

I personally being interviewed by them once and got good and professional impression about them.

2. Adecco (http://www.adecco-asia.com/singapore/home.asp ) Quite big job agency here with the headquarter in Germany.It has several branches in Singapore alone. I personally being interviewed by them once also.

That is some of my knowledges about searching jobs in Singapore based on my own personal experience. Hopefully can be useful.

Cheers,

Herman

The Hype of Internet TV

Watching TV by free to broadcast channels,cable TV or satellite receivers has been a common feature in most countries. We can easily remember there are so many Astro tv receivers installed outside home in Malaysia ( especially in big city like Kuala Lumpur ). People in Indonesia ( mostly middle class ) also enjoy so much the satellite TV receivers ( known as parabola in Indonesia ).Whenever I was in the journey from Sumatera to Java and vice versa during my university years I can see many satellite TV receivers installed in front or top of the house even in remote area. Astro,IndoVision and KabelVision are also trying to penetrate the still wide cable TV market potential in Indonesia.People in Singapore also enjoy heavily the cable TV ( so far only one cable TV provider here,Starhub ), mobtv.sg ( owned by MediaCorp Singapore ) and several others waiting for the realization of their operations.

Watching TV from internet or what usually termed as Internet TV or IPTV can be classified as new thing to do for most of us. Academically it is being termed as disruptive technology as it is not a common and wellknown technology yet and the quality somewhat still less than current existing technology. It is actually still a hype currently but slowly moving toward a better technology / choice in the future.

My first experience with Internet TV is with PPLive. The website is www.pplive.net. Some people said it come from China but I can not confirm about this yet.What we need to do is downloading and installing the software to enjoy it free. The PPLive Internet TV mainly featuring TV channels and movies from China,Hongkong,Taiwan and some from Korea and Japan. The legality of the programmes broadcasted by PPLive still a doubt for me. They do put advertisement at the beginning of the streaming and do not cut the advertisement inside the programmes relayed from the actual TV channels.Somewhat this is the way it generate revenue for its free service to the viewers.

So far watching PPLive can be a good and fun experience provided you have good internet speed ( where it can be an expensive thing to have in developing countries such as Indonesia except then if GOI finally build the Palapa Broadband Internet Infrastructure ).Watching Internet TV is a bandwidth consuming activity so without any good bandwidth the quality can be really bad and nothing to enjoy. In multimedia networking we know about concept so called as buffering. Buffering being done to make sure it have enough bits downloaded first before start playing the movie/TV programmes or creating buffer/stock for the playing process. It actually being done to make sure continuity of the play. If the play simply a combination of stop,play,stop and play it will not be a good and relaxing watching experience.

One of the latest hype for this Internet TV is the innovation from Skype founder ( Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom ). They just sold their Skype to eBay for 2.6 billion USD last year and made them as very rich guy in this planet. But they simply do not stop there. The latest baby from them is Joost,an internet TV.

Currently Joost is still under Beta testing by limited users.From several sources which I can get from the internet and friends basically Joost promises some features like this :

1. No user generated content like Youtube

So the quality of the content is more professional.It focused more on the network-quality programs.

2. It planned for free

They do put ad to generate revenue for them which is the same like current 50 years old TV model.

3. Simplicity

It basically use the up down buttons more often in the software compared to the current 37 buttons TV remote. Soon it can be applied and watched from cell phone and Apple’s iPod due to its simplicity.

4. So many choice of channels

They plan for expansion up to 5000 channels. Something which clearly an abundance choice for people. I have 50 channels from my cable TV subscription and I hardly watch each of it. Only several favourites TV channels often viewed by me.And now 5000 ? It is a really incredible number to enjoy in the future.

From all the writing and example from PPLive and baby Joost above I can predict that the hype of Internet TV if really being planned and executed with full supports from many concerned parties ( especially governments which build the network/Internet infrastructures and big companies which produce the TV content and gadgets ) can be a good technology replacing the current existing technology. Let see it to happen then.

Features of Jajah

I believe everybody heard about Skype before. Skype is one of the biggest internet phone provider for now. For more information on it can access www.skype.com

Now I would review another newcomer which is Jajah. The website for it is www.jajah.com. I started using it sometimes ago and find it is quite nice and easy to use. So that’s why I want to share it here.

I will do it by comparing between Skype,the wellknown one with Jajah,relatively new comer as follow :

1. You do not need to install any software for Jajah. Everything is web based. It is different with Skype which required you to download and install software before you can use it. One of the straight advantage is you can use Jajah from any computer especially the computers which you do not have the privileges to install anything on it ( for example computer in internet stall / Warung Internet in Indonesian term ).

2. You use your own handphone /mobilephone when you really make a call instead of headphone or USB phone like Skype.

The procedure actually quite simple :

• You log in
• You dial the destination number
• Then your phone ring and get connected with your destination number
  

The clarity is quite good and the good thing of it is more on the psychological effect as normally people speak using their handphone/mobilephone instead of headphone/USB phone.

3. SMS feature of it

I tried the SMS feature of it for sometimes with destination to Indonesia,Singapore and Taiwan. It went well so far. Whenever you send sms from it then the sms message will show additional text explaining the use of Jajah for sending the sms. I plan to send sms to more countries to test how good the capability of Jajah system in the future.

Skype also has sms feature but I never really use it so much so can not comment on it.

4. There is business account like what Skype already offer.

Several features of it as follow :

a. Multiple Users with one Invoice

Add and manage multiple users with your account. Set individual limits and retrieve a monthly invoice for all your activities.

b."Call me" Button for your Website

Add a "Call me" button to your homepage - and use the 1-800 option to offer your customers toll free phone calls. Just a few clicks to get the ready to go code snippet!

c.Embed JAJAH call functionality in your Website / Application with the JAJAH API

Use JAJAH call functionality within your Website or Application - our powerful JAJAH API gives you access to individual embedded phone-to-phone services instantly.

5. Phone to phone calls between registered Jajah users are free. Somewhat similar feature of Skype.
6. Jajah is free for a trial call up to 5 minutes to any landline destination.Actually it is a good offer to come and test Jajah by ourselves before deciding to sign in and pay for the service in the future. I used the free trial at that time to send sms messages to Singapore and Indonesia and it finally made me decided to sign in for the future service from them.

Well,that so far several features which I observe as user and think worth comparing with Skype,the biggest internet phone provider so far in the world. Go test and try Jajah today !!!

Cheers,

Herman

Comments On Article About Characteristics of Indonesian

JAKARTA, KOMPAS--Manusia Indonesia dicirikan dengan karakter yang picik, solidaritas rendah, serba instan, dan sulit menerima kekalahan. Kondisi tersebut membuat keadilan dan kesejahteraan sosial di Indonesia sulit diwujudkan.

Penggiat filsafat kebudaayan Tony Doludea di Jakarta, Jumat (16/3) sore mengatakan karakter manusia Indonesia adalah mudah iri hati, picik, dan tidak menyadari solidaritas untuk tujuan bersama. Mereka juga suka memperoleh sesuatu secara instan, mengabaikan proses dan kerja keras, percaya terhadap klenik, dan tidak dapat menerima kekalahan.

English translation for the above article from Kompas online ( www.kompas.com ) as follow :

Indonesian are characterized by narrow mindedness,low solidarity,instant culture and hard to accept losing.This conditions cause justice and social welfare in Indonesia hard to be realized.

Tony Doludea,a Cultural Philosopher activist in Jakarta,Friday ( 16/3) afternoon said that Indonesian characters are easily jealous or envy,narrow minded,low solidarity for common goals.They also like to get something instantly,ignore the process and hard work,believe on the clenics and can not accept losing.

We can find many interesting points made from above article.Let analyze it one by one.

1.Is it true that Indonesian have characters like stated by Tony Doludea ?

I am going to elaborate it from character by character as follow :

Supporting some of the characters :

a. Easily jealous or envy

I would like to tell story when I was doing my KKN ( Kuliah Kerja Nyata ) or equivalent as field work in the village during my university years in Gadjah Mada,Indonesia. I was assigned together with other 7 students in one village in Kebumen,Indonesia.

The field work duration was 2 months so more than enough time to know the culture of the village and villagers. For me and most of my friends the field work was a good chance and fun period for us ( people from town and big cities ) to know and get immerse with life in Indonesia villages.More than 60% of Indonesian population live in village so knowing and understanding the life there is a very important and rewarding thing to do.

I still can remember how some of the villagers tended to be jealous or envy on each other even for simple things.You can easily know it when you spoke with them,during the discussion,body gestures,biased comments and etc.It can be envy on the position of village chief,envy on the material possession,envy on your new clothes and etc.

Although envy in some perspectives is good and needed for motivating competitiveness and hard work but if it is too much it can be counterproductive.
People just spend most of the time on being jealous/envy on other people’s achievements and then just continuing with biased and other negative feeling towards other people. Simply wasting time and no positive effects afterwards from this continuing jealous/envy.

Other popular topic for envy/jealousy in Indonesia is a relative much better economics condition of Indonesian Chinese.Indonesian Chinese is around 3-4% of total Indonesia population so from 240 million it is around 7-8 million people. But relatively most Indonesian Chinese better in economic condition ( better does not always meant rich as many Indonesian can be constituted only as middle class both upper and lower middle class ) as they concentrate more on trading and business ( though you can easily find Indonesian Chinese who simply workers or farmers,for example in Singkawang,Medan,Palembang,Riau and etc. ).This has caused many envy and resentment towards it from other parts of Indonesian population.

This sentiment itself has been rooted back as long as Dutch colonial period.Dutch has divided Indonesian ( people living in East Indies ) as many classes with Dutchman and Westerner the highest class among all followed by Ningrat ( The Old Royal Indonesian family ),Chinese and commoners. Chinese and Ningrat who belonged to higher class then had better privileges and access to wealth during this time.

The situation is not getting any better after Indonesian independence especially during Soeharto’s period when most of the fields can not be easily entered by Indonesian Chinese.You can find handful of Indonesian Chinese as policeman,soldier,civil servants or lecturers in Indonesian State Universities. Then you can see that most of Indonesian Chinese heavily concentrated on trading and business. The rampant corruption,collusion and nepotism during this time which acted as de facto rule of the game also caused and forced many Indonesian Chinese to cooperate in this manner with corrupt officers,soldiers and etc.People can easily pointed out Edi Tanzil,David Nusa Widjaja,Hendra Raharja and etc. as examples of crooks part of Indonesian Chinese or simply known as black tycoons ( konglomerat hitam ). These thing actually caused so much resentment although I can surely say and guarantee that they are just bad /rotten apples from so many apples and consist only small percentage of Indonesian Chinese.

b. Can not accept losing

I think everybody of us has often heard about supporters of soccer clubs going into amoks and rampages after their favourite soccer clubs lose. The target of the rampages can be as diverse as any nearby motor cycle,car,stores and etc which they can target easily. It is just one sign that some parts of Indonesian population not ready yet to accept losing even though it is only a soccer match. What is a big deal of losing a soccer match ??? Sport and any kind of competition always consists of two thing only. It is either you win or you lose it.

We often heard also that after the Governor or Mayor direct elections then the losing candidates filled complaints and made headline news that alleged conspiracy and rigging during the direct election process. While some of the allegations can be true but when almost every time directly after election that losing candidates fill complaints and sue then we can see that losing is not an easy thing to accept in Indonesia.

c. Ignoring the process

One example is how a queue can be easily ruined. I still remembered one day I was queueing for check in at one airport in Indonesia. There were 2 check in counters for the flight so 2 queueing lines formed and existed.Unfortunately 1 counter had temporary computer system problem which caused this line had to wait for sometimes to reboot the system. Instead of waiting the rebooting of computer to finish in 5-10 minutes several people in the queue just simply made ‘brave way’ to cut the line directly in front of me. They gave reasons that they were all in a hurry. Well,give me a break. I simply refused their requests and answered politely that ‘ We will board the same plane and everybody will get into the destination at the same time no matter how hurry you are in the check in process’.Soon they just cancelled their move and went back to their old queue line.

I gave my response not because I was so pricky or trying to stir up the move but I just want to give little lesson of respecting others and follow the rules.If we just let everybody messed up in front of us daily so how we can expect Indonesia can be a much better country any soon.

While Tony Doludea gave some good insights into characteristics of Indonesian but I am not 100% agree on his conclusions as follow :

1. Characteristics of human can not be generalized easily. Indonesian is a very large entity and consists of many subcultures,religions,languages,the perceptions,level of education and etc. Simply generalizing the things that we observed in several places into whole Indonesian population can be a wrong and misleading thing to do.

2. The over emphasize on negative characteristics of Indonesian.

In the article itself only negative characteristics of Indonesian exposed and stated. I believe that Indonesian have still so many positive characteristics such as strong belief on family values, warm treatment towards friends and foreigners and etc.

3. No proofs and surveys provided to support his conclusion and statement.

No matter how abstract any thing but giving several quantitative measures actually can lead more people to understand and accept his conclusion and statement.

4. I never heard of Tony Doludea before so I simply do not know his credibility so far.

5. For me the mention of cultural philosopher activist seems to me as rather vague job or functional description. Why the writer do not simply mention him as cultural philosopher instead of cultural philosopher activist ?

So just to close it all basically the article on Kompas online ( despite several things lack on it ) can be used positively as a good reflection for all of us ( Indonesian especially ) to improve from the bad things around us and sustain the already good things around us. Hopefully can be useful. Thanks.

Cheers,

Herman

Sand Ban As A Political Tool

Recently Indonesia banned sand export.Though it is not targeted on certain countries but Singapore as the main ( I think the only ) sand importer from Indonesia facing quite a problem suddenly. Many opinions surfaced on this ban both from Singapore and Indonesia side.

I am trying to give a neutral view ( though I myself an Indonesian ).I try to elaborate my observation and thinking into several points as follow :

1. What the real motive behind this ban ? Or in other word : Why Indonesia need to ban sand export ?

This question discussed quite a lot especially by Singapore bloggers.

Several theories and explanations surfaced to answer this simple question :

a. Environmental issues

Indonesian Environmental Minister,Rachmad Witoelar explained that the sand export for years has caused severe environmental problem to Indonesia side.The sand mining supposed to be done in inland part of any islands.But as the lack of supervision and high level of corruption then the sand mining has been done mostly in outside part of the islands which caused severe environmental problem.The regulation actually stated also that some percentage of revenue from sand export need to be ploughed back to environment preservation. But so far nobody can really guarantee about the implementation or the actual effect from this ploughing back money. The recorded sand export by Indonesia government was around $ 6 million but the recorded sand import from Indonesia by Singapore government was around $ 260 million. Such as striking difference !!

By simple math the difference was : $ ( 260-6 ) million = $ 254 million or 42 times than the record by Indonesia government.

Then where all this money has gone ?

I only can assume for this ( as no valid proof ) as follow :

- Poor record by Indonesia government ( moderate possibility as sand is not a high tech stuff so the value can be easily determined by simple math )

- Poor record by Singapore government ( low possibility considering the efficient and modern civil service in Singapore )

- Smuggling by sand exporters ( very high possibility )

First to be considered is the vast Indonesia sea which very hard to be controlled fully by Indonesian Navy,Police and Customs.

Second to be considered is rampant corruption by officers.High possibility the sand smuggling detected and known by officers ( navy,police and etc. ) but then bribing the officers can negotiate and solve all the problems.

- Undervalued or overvalued sand price ( low probability )

I believe only low probability for this as the exporters and importers ( businessman type people ) surely will not allow this to happen for long time. Nobody want to lose out from their businesses.Supply and demand law simply control the price of commodity.If sand has been overvalued by Singapore importers then I believe it will be adjusted very soon and if the sand has been undervalued by Indonesian exporters then very soon they will increase the price to get more profit. As simple as that as it is business anyway.

b. Political play/Wayang by Indonesia part to force Singapore signing extradition treaty as soon as possible

This theory of political play/Wayang has been cited and strongly believed by many people both in Singapore and Indonesia. Many Indonesian politicians ( members of DPR including some government officers ) support this idea of political manouvre against Singapore to force them signing the extradition treaty as soon as possible. This then caused uproar and strong reactions from Singapore side ( Minister,MP,Singapore bloggers and etc. ).

Singapore objected to this as :

- It causes problem with construction projects

Later on it will continue with raising property prices,slowing down of the economy growth and less job openings.

- The extradition treaty has been agreed to be discussed and related concurrently with defence treaty

- The finger pointing towards Indonesian counterpart that the lack of progress on extradition treaty partly because Indonesia do not prepare the needed paperworks properly.

Though I believe this thing can happen with the performance of civil servants in Indonesia but I do not buy into this finger pointing as the paperworks surely will be prepared properly by Indonesia if 30 years has passed for this. It is true that Indonesian civil servants tend to work slower than private employees in Indonesia and Singapore civil servants.But they made things happen finally.If you make Identity card in Indonesia you may need 1 week to go but you surely will get it ( except recent system change to computerized system which caused several months just to get an IC ).

Now it is interesting to explore more about extradition treaty. By Indonesia Government’s account the discussion for this has been more than 30 years since Soeharto era. It has been dragged for so long by delays and reasons from Singapore ( perhaps political plays also before ).

There is a theory that suggested after Indonesia negotiating for so long and finally feels diplomatically exhausted then Indonesia resorted to this political play to increase the pressure to Singapore which has bigger share on dragging it for so long.

This theory is quite reasonable.But then there is another question : Why Singapore need to drag it for so long ?

This theory actually trying to explain it more in economical perspective.It is widely discussed that corrupted money from Indonesia somewhat needed to help Singapore economy ( analysis by Andy Xie who worked with Morgan Stanley before and based in Hongkong currently ).Sudden departure of this money meant shock to Singapore economy which can dampen the economy growth and prosperity of Singapore.We need to consider carefully the fact that actually 40% of high end condominium in Singapore owned by Indonesian and 18000 from 55000 ( a third ) of super rich persons in Singapore actually Indonesian holding Singaporean PR ( all the data from recent surveys ). Considering this fact actually we can see easily that the stay and movement of super rich Indonesian holding Singapore PR is important both for Singapore and Indonesia.

My personal point of view for this theory is that harbouring or protecting criminals from neighbours is not an ethically right thing to do although Indonesia which demands for this is not so clean also ( despites efforts for several years after the topple down of Soeharto’s regime ).

2. How to solve this banning issue / problem ?

a. Signing of extradition treaty between Indonesia and Singapore

Surely if the motive behind this sand banning really about extradition treaty then signing of extradition treaty can solve it all. Sand banning soon can be lifted whether there is any price increase after that or not.

b.Environmental preservation

If the motive behind this sand banning purely because environmental issue than do not expect that it will be lifted pretty soon by Indonesia. And I believe that the best way for Singapore to deal with it is by finding other countries to supply this sand ( Cambodia,Myanmar and etc. ) although the transportation price will be much higher as those countries quite far away from Singapore.

That is all the points I observed and thought about after several weeks observing and analyzing the polemics about this sand ban. Hopefully can give a neutral insight and useful.Thanks.

Cheers,

Herman

Indonesian Transportation Accidents

An air crash happened again on Wednesday morning in Yogyakarta,Indonesia. It was a Boeing airplane belongs to Garuda Indonesia en route from Jakarta-Yogyakarta. Most of the passengers could get out and survived but scores of passengers were trapped and died.
I had good memories with Yogya and Adi Sucipto airport as I myself studied for 4 years in Gadjah Mada University,Yogyakarta. I would not discuss more on the casualty but emphasize more on the analytical part of it.
This year only Indonesia already had 2 fatal air accidents ( another one was Adam air’s accident in Makassar straits ) and several other sea and train accidents ( Levina ship,train and etc. ).As an Indonesian myself I used to travel a lot in Indonesia using most all transportations means ( becak,ojek,bus,travel car,train,ship and airplane ) and I surely then can say that my analysis is somewhat greatly affected by my own experience and from other supplementary sources ( media,expert analysis and etc. )
So I will tell it in several bullet points as follow :

1. Whenever a major accident happened then many version of news surfaced and many persons speak their own opinions. If you read Indonesian newspapers and Indonesian televisions then you can hear so many versions of an accident.

What are the the different types of version ?

a. Number of casualty

This one quite acceptable as it need sometimes to get an accurate figure of how many people died,injured,trapped and etc.

b. The cause of accident

Many persons ( experts or non experts ) just spoke out and told their own analysis in the TV and newspaper which then caused more confusion and rumour.These initial assumptions then spread out very fast which then soon more people believe on this and started a whole new debate / polemic everywhere ( coffeeshop,Parliament house and etc. ). We can see this type of cycle in almost every fatal accident in Indonesia throughout this year.

c. Blaming nature

Blaming usually went to Transport minister first and then directed to Indonesian President.

Well in case of major accident we should be more mature to let the evacuation happen first,the case well investigated before then we can take the blaming and action to somebody. Then it is a fair and professional game.

Surely if the Transport minister has a bad performance then the President has the utmost authority to change him straight away and replace him with another more capable person. And President can change the rest officers in transport minister if changing Transport minister is not enough to make Indonesian transportation safer.

2. There is an opinion widely believed in Indonesia that recent major accidents happened because of the low cost nature

Adam air itself is a new low cost carrier and Levina itself is somewhat public oriented transport ship ( surely not a tourist cruise ).

So somewhat this opinion can not be opposed until today Garuda which is not a low cost carrier also has major accident.

The opinion in Indonesia not a full wrong one as :

a. In Indonesia low cost always close to the meaning of low maintenance in order to get some profit from the business.

Soaring fuel cost,personnel salary,red tape and etc partly to be blamed for this.

b. The lack of attention and supervision from Indonesian authority for this type of transportation until recently.

But then it can be cracked down and not valid today as :

a. Garuda plane also crashed

b. Air Asia,Tiger Airways and etc which are prominent low cost carriers from outside Indonesia do not have record of major accidents so far

3. Many of my friends believe that nothing much can be done for the transportation system in Indonesia as our fate is not under our hands but all belongs to God

Well I myself believe on God and this principle thing but then it is not an excuse for us not to demand a safer transportation. A safer transportation is a right for every people in Indonesia and together with government it can be easily reached again.

So moral lessons is do not be so hopeless if something bad happen. Always be positive in thinking and then problem can be solved wisely.

So the above 3 points are the points which I want to highlight and share. Hopefully Indonesian transportation can get better as soon as possible after this. That is a hope from everybody and not only government.

Cheers,

Herman

Beberapa waktu yang lalu saya memenuhi undangan teman untuk menghadiri presentasi sebuah MLM di Singapore.MLM ini baru saja berganti nama. Dulunya MLM ini aktif di bidang koin emas ( sebenarnya medallion sih ). Ada yang tahu ? :)
Karena memang belon sibuk ya akhirnya menyempatkan diri pergi ke Suntec Tower II,kantor mereka di Singapore di sore hari tersebut. Presentasi sendiri dibawakan oleh orang Indonesia yang sudah menetap beberapa tahun di Sgp dan sudah beberapa tahun juga aktif di MLM ini. Presentasi ini sendiri berlangsung selama 2 jam.Awalnya sih menarik.Maklum sampai saat itu saya tidak pernah ke presentasi MLM ini di manapun ( MLM ini cukup besar di Indonesia ).Lama kelamaan sih rasa bosan mulai muncul dan logika saya pun mulai bermain lagi.
1 jam terakhir memang membosankan namun saya pakai waktu ini sebaiknya untuk berpikir rasional dalam hati terhadap MLM ini.
Di ujung presentasi ini sendiri saya langsung disodorin membership ( tentunya gak gratis ya J ). Sodoran ini disertai bujukan ( gak bisa nekan gua soalnya gua paling gak suka dipaksa2x ).Toh gak efektif karena saya ulur waktu dengan minta waktu 2 hari untuk berpikir dulu.Alasannya : Saya mo baca2x brosur dan profil perusahaan dulu.
Sebenarnya selama 1 jam itu dan 2 hari kemudian saya memikirkan dan melakukan sedikit survey sana sini ( sebagian besar dengan browsing di Internet ).
Ada beberapa poin menarik yang berhasil saya ketemukan dan saya anggap poin penting untuk menjadi member MLM ini atau tidak :

1. MLM ini menyangkal melakukan praktik piramida.

Piramida sendiri seperti bentuknya berarti praktik pembesaran struktur ketika semakin ke bawah.Di posisi puncak hanya ada beberapa orang.
Mereka menyangkal dengan jawaban : Anda cari 2 orang di sebelah kanan anda dan cari 2 orang lagi di sebelah kiri anda.
Selanjutnya 4 downline anda juga harus mengikuti rule yang sama.

‘Tapi itu bukan piramida ‘

Mau disangkal seperti apapun praktik ini jelas2x piramida karena terjadi pembesaran di bawah. Emang bentuknya jadi lingkaran apa kalo di MLM ini ? J
Piramida adalah praktik yang merugikan karena pada dasarnya yang diuntungkan adalah orang2x yang berada di posisi puncak ( termasuk presenter di presentasi ini )

2. 1000 SGD adalah modal yang kecil untuk memulai bisnis anda sendiri

Selama presentasi selalu dikatakan bahwa pembayaran 1000 SGD untuk mendapatkan 1 produk dan hak menjadi distributor ( IR= Independent Representative ) adalah murah.

Kesimpulan dari saya : Sebenarnya 1000 SGD itu dapat dipilah sebagai berikut a.400 SGD sebagai nilai real produk yang kita beli b.600 SGD untuk membayar hak menjadi distributor
Bisnis anda sendiri ?
Saya tidak pernah percaya ini bisnis kita sendiri karena kita pada dasarnya tidak punya kendali atas pemasaran,harga dan lain sebagainya.
Kita tidak lain hanya menjadi marketer ( atopun seperti karyawan yang dibayar dengan komisi penjualan saja tanpa gaji pokok ).
Logikanya juga apakah kita rela membayar sesuatu 2.5 kali lipat dari harga aslinya ?
Misal anda membeli HP Nokia N70 seharga 4 juta namun oleh MLM ini dijual seharga 10 juta. Apakah anda akan tetap membelinya ?
Tentunya sebagian besar orang yang masih rasional tidak akan membelinya.

3. Kesempatan di market di Afrika dan Timur Tengah

Awalnya saya tidak mengerti mengapa pasar yang mereka incar di Afrika ( yang notabene penuh dengan kemiskinan ) dan Timur Tengah ( yang relatively penuh dengan konflik ).
Sesudah saya cek ternyata banyak negara yang sudah melarang MLM ini karena memang merugikan dan meresahkan.Negara yang sudah melarangnya antara lain Srilanka,Bhutan,Nepal dan Iran.

Mengapa Afrika dan Timur Tengah ?

1. Mereka belon pernah tersentuh dengan bisnis MLM sebelumnya
2. Penegakan hukum di sana masih kurang ( petugas yang korup dsb ).
3. Tingkat pendidikan yang masih rendah ( kecuali Timur Tengah )
4. Mengeksploitasi keinginan orang untuk menjadi kaya ( greed selalu ada di jiwa setiap orang,tinggal bagaimana kita menghandlenya)

Jadi bukan karena Afrika mempunyai ekonomi dan market yang sangat baik buat produk2x mereka.
Jadi masalahnya lebih pada etika. Bisakah secara etis anda melakukan penipuan terhadap orang2x miskin ini untuk memperkaya diri anda sendiri ?
Kalo saya sendiri tidak bisa. Meskipun ada segelintir orang yang bisa melakukannya.

4. Produk2x yang berkualitas ( Agen tiket,Filter air dsb )

www.bonvo.com sebagai ticketing agent dari MLM ini ternyata mencharge lebih mahal dari perusahaan penerbangan itu sendiri.
Silahkan anda lakukan perbandingan sendiri misalnya dengan menggunakan pesawat Singapore Airlines.

Filter air yang katanya bisa membuat air mengkristal mirip air Zamzam.

Jawaban : a.Tidak ada penjelasan ilmiah selama ini atas klaim di atas.
b.Testimonial dari pengguna yang ada di website mereka.

Saya tidak bisa percaya karena website ini dibuat oleh para IR MLM ini sendiri sehingga kemungkinan biasnya sangat tinggi ( kalopun mereka tidak sampai berbohong )

5. Anda bisa melakukan ini pada saat senggang anda

Dari hasil observasi saya dengan presenter ini dan beberapa teman saya yang ikut MLM ini sebelumnya ternyata hal ini sangat sulit dilakukan.Kalaupun anda memilih untuk melakukan ini maka kemungkinan gagal buat anda sangat besar.
Kebanyakan dari mereka spent a lot of times berkomunikasi,mengecek website,presentasi,kunjungan ke rumah dan lain sebagainya.
Jadi bila anda sudah sibuk dengan pekerjaan anda sebelumnya apakah anda bisa melakukan presentasi sesudah jam 9 malam ?
Saya yakin tidak bisa karena orang akan enggan untuk datang menghadiri presentasi anda J
Berkunjung ke rumah orang pun sulit untuk dilakukan selepas jam 10 malam ( di Negara manapun )

6. MLM adalah inovasi terbaru di dunia pemasaran

Jawaban : MLM sudah dicoba dari sejak tahun 1940an selepas perang dunia II di Amerika Serikat. Bersamaan itu Wal-Mart juga mulai merintis usaha.
Jadi setelah lebih dari 60 tahun ternyata dapat dilihat kalo MLM tidak beranjak jauh dari posisinya di tahun 1940an dibanding Wal-Mart yang sekarang telah menjadi raksasa dunia di retail store.

7. MLM adalah praktik marketing yang efisien dan menjanjikan

Jawaban : Praktik ini sama sekali tidak efisien karena tiap orang dapat menjadi distributor dan penjual. Bisa anda bayangkan kalo 6 milyar penduduk semuanya jadi penjual buat MLM ? Siapa yang akan jadi pembelinya ? Terus tidak ada kontrol pemasaran dan pembagian wilayah pemasaran sama sekali. Persaingan sendiri menjadi begitu keras.
Setiap penjualan produk sendiri melibatkan pembagian komisi hingga 3-4 level ke atasnya.
Praktik ini jelas merugikan konsumen ( extra cost buat mereka ).

8. Kesempatan untuk menjadi orang kaya dan sukses dengan waktu luang yang banyak

Mimpi setiap orang saya rasa begitu. Saya pun berharap demikian.MLM sendiri berusaha menjual produk dan bisnis mereka dengan menjual ‘ mimpi ‘ ini. Banyak orang yang tertarik karena mereka ingin mewujudkan mimpi mereka tersebut ( tapi 90-95% di antaranya akan segera gagal dalam waktu yang singkat ).
Orang gagal bukan karena mereka pemalas atopun klaim lainnya dari MLM ini tapi lebih pada realita hidup bahwa tidak mungkin setiap orang menjadi kaya dan sukses di muka bumi ini.

Kue pendapatan di dunia ini fixed adanya dan harus dibagi2x lagi.
Ketika seseorang mengambil potongan yang lebih besar maka harus ada pihak yang menerima potongan yang semakin kecil.
Kalau potongan tiap orang membesar maka kuenya harus membesar juga donk.
Membesarnya dari mana ? Dari mimpi ? :)
Jadi kesimpulan : Jangan terlena mimpi cepet kaya. Kalo ingin kaya maka bisnis yang normal ( buka pabrik,toko dsb ) ato kerja yang keras ( di MNC dsb ) :)

Jadi dari 8 poin yang saya kemukakan di atas maka saya mengambil kesimpulan :

1.MLM ini tidak layak untuk diikuti

2.1000 SGD bisa dimanfaatkan untuk tujuan lainnya yang lebih berguna

3. Info ini perlu dishare untuk mencegah kerugian teman2x di masa yang akan datang.

Semoga berguna ya.

Cheers,

Herman