Note: this was written shortly before that Adam Air accident in Makassar strait. After the accident I felt it was rather insensitive to post it. Just when I about to post it again, Garuda had an accident in Yogyakarta. So I delayed it and it was forgotten. The recent ban for Indonesian Airliners to fly to Europe reminds me about this article. Plus, the fact that I have to fly Air Asia to Bali 2 days from now somehow jog my memory on this funnily bitter experience flying with an Indonesian Airliner, the one with the slogan: (sic) Fly is Cheap
**
Lion (lagi-lagi) mengalami kecelakaan. Kali ini di bandara Hasanuddin, Makassar. Sedihnya, banyak yang udah ‘mati rasa’ denger kecelakaan Lion. Udah terlalu sering sih. Biarpun tau resikonya, tapi masih banyak juga orang yang memilih terbang pakai Lion. Salah satunya, ya gue ini lah.
Sebagai commuter yang bekerja di Makasar tapi berakhir pekan di Jakarta, keadaan memaksa gue jadi pelanggan Lion Air. Ya gitu deh, satu satunya alasan memilih Lion adalah karena keadaan, yaitu harga tiketnya yang murah. Ini jadi penting karena frekuensi terbang gue yang cukup tinggi.
Masalah keamanan dan layanan nggak usah ditanya deh, tau kok kalau Lion nggak bisa terlalu diharapkan. Tapi di satu titik rasanya kita tetap harus mengambil batas, antara mana layanan yang nggak bagus dan mana layanan yang nggak bisa diterima.
Contoh layanan yang nggak bagus tapi masih bisa diterima adalah pada saat pesawat dari Makasar ke Balikpapan ditunda selama 4 jam. Kenapa masih bisa diterima? Karena pada saat suntuk menunggu, gue liat berita di tv: sejumlah penumpang di Ambon mengamuk karena sudah 4 hari menunggu nggak diberangkatin juga. Apalah artinya 4 jam kalau dibandingkan dengan 4 hari...
Sedangkan rentetan peristiwa berikut adalah contoh layanan yang nggak bisa diterima.
Dari Jakarta gue mau balik ke Makasar menggunakan Lion. Waktu antri di terminal 1 (terminal khusus Lion), gue lihat ada bapak yang ngotot masuk ke tempat check in biarpun nggak punya tiket. Alasannya mau antar saudaranya yang nggak biasa naik pasawat. Sempat bertengkar hebat dengan penjaga, entah gimana akhirnya gue lihat bapak itu berhasil masuk. Sebelnya gue lihat dia dia ketawa puas waktu cerita kejadian itu sama saudaranya. Nggak tau aturan banget.
Okelah, karena sebenernya hal itu nggak langsung terkait sama pelayanan Lion. Selanjutnya gue dipersilahkan menunggu di lounge lion. Bolehlah ini, tapi gue lihat semua minuman dan makanan udah abis. Air dari water dispenser? Ada sih, cuman area mengambilnya kayak comberan karena air yang tumpah nggak cepat dibersihkan. Tapi kepaksa deh, haus sih. Jadi gue ambil gelas bersih yang ada di meja buat ambil air.
Di atas tempat gelas itu ada tulisan “GELAS BERSIH”, bingung juga karena gue nggak ngeliat gelas kotor. Kalau nggak kotor pasti bersih kan? Ah mungkin buat memperjelas aja. Tapi ternyata gue baru ngerti ada maksudnya tulisan tadi, yaitu buat meyakinkan pemakainya. Ini karena ternyata gelas untuk mengambil air tadi ternyata masih menyisakan rasa juice di dalamnya. Coba bayangin kalau nggak ada tulisan tadi, petugas pasti kesulitan:
(Tamu/T): Mas gelasnya bersih nggak sih?
(Petugas/ P): Bersih pak
(T) Kok bisa, masih ada rasa juice-nya nih? Yang bener dong.
(P) Pasti pak, itu kan ada tulisannya “GELAS BERSIH”
(T) Iya juga ya.
Mmm, begitu ya. Gue jadi tau kalau gue udah kehabisan: juice jeruk (dari sisa minuman tadi), lemper (dari bungkus yang ada di tempat sampah) dan kolak (dari panci kosongnya).
Nah karena gue mau merokok gue masuk ke ruangan khusus merokok. Nyaman juga, karena nggak banyak orang di dalamnya. Sembari duduk gue menikmati rokok dan…segelas air putih rasa juice jeruk. Lumayanlah daripada nggak ada. Tiba-tiba gue melihat ada sesuatu yang bergerak cepat di antara kaki kursi. Apakah itu adalah…? Ah masak sih di lounge gini ada yang seperti itu? Sampai akhirnya gue bisa jelas ngeliat apakah itu, dan ternyata benar: ada tikus saudara-saudara!
Sudahlah, gue tunggu di ruang tunggu aja, ngapain urusan sama tikus yang wira-wiri. Pesawat ternyata di-delay 1 jam seperti biasa, tapi seperti gue bilang tadi: ini masih bisa diterima. Begitulah, penumpang kemudian dipanggil naik pesawat. Di dalam semua sibuk mencari dan menaikkan bawaannya ke cabin luggage.
Pas gue mau duduk, lho kok ada orang lain di kursi gue? Lagi asik ngobrol pula dengan teman sebelahnya. Males berususan langsung, gue tunjukin tiket gue ke pramugarinya dan nanya, “Mbak ini gimana ya kursi saya kan di sini”. Biasanya kalau di Garuda, pramugarinya langsung menegur penumpang ‘gelap’ tadi dan mempersilahkannya duduk di kursi yang bener. Makanya gue kaget karena ternyata malah gue yang disuruh berdiri, “tunggu sebentar pak”. Penasaran mau tau kelanjutannya, gue berdiri terus di situ. Karena agak lama nggak ditanggapin, begitu pramugari tadi lewat gue nanya lagi dong. Tau nggak, dengan santainya dia bilang, “udah pak, duduk di situ aja”, sambil nunjuk kursi kosong yang kemungkinan besar kursi aslinya penumpang ‘gelap’ tadi.
Karena udah capek ya sudahlah gue terima aja. Awas aja kalau ada masalah lagi. Begitu duduk gue langsung tidur bahkan sebelum take-off. Lagi enak tidur cukup lama tau-tau gue dibangunin sama pramugari yang sama. Rupanya dia mau ngasih… segelas air mineral kemasan. Arrgh, mbak kalau lagi tidur gini mbok ya taruh aja di meja situ kenapa sih? Demi segelas air sampai tega bangunin orang tidur, sok penting banget. Mending kalau dikasih makan kayak di Garuda.
Untungnya nggak ada kejadian aneh lagi sampai gue turun dari pesawat. Ya gitu deh pengalaman dengan Lion. Mau protes rasanya juga gimana gitu, karena tiketnya memang murah. Kayak lawakan kuno itu: penumpang becak yang nawar ongkos murah banget dan ternyata becaknya kemudian terguling. Waktu dia marah-marah, abang becaknya dengan santai bilang “bayar 5000 kok mau selamat”. Lho, ternyata Lion mirip becak ya?
***
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Where’s Your Nationalism?
It was one of those days, when a lunch break was a much welcomed relief from wearing routine. So we just sat there after finishing our meals, puffing our cigarettes, tooth- picking and talked about anything that crossed our minds. Eventually that dreaded topic surfaced: “I think we were better off when Suharto was still in power”. Oh please, not again.
And then my other friend started to speak up, “you’re joking, I disagree with you completely”. Ah, here’s a more sensible mind, but then: “had Sukarno not been ousted in 1966 we were already a superpower nation by now”. I was like, stabbed from the back…
But then again we still had some time, hence I asked why Sukarno? The reply came, “you see, at that time I think we as a nation had the strongest feeling of nationalism. Today we’re going nowhere; reformasi has failed to improve our condition. This is because we don’t have that kind of nationalism anymore, be them our government or ourselves. That’s the main reason corruption is still rampant, people just don’t care about their own country”.
Yeah right, and I suppose you could exchange that nationalism with a bowl of rice?
That was then. Now, I don’t think we are in short supply of nationalism. Let’s take Tempo, May 13, 2007 edition. There, our VP Jusuf Kalla was accused of favoring his family business over foreign contractors in Jakarta Monorail project, especially since no tender process was present. Kalla denied the allegation; he said since the project was being done by local company, there was a saving of $300 mio. over the original budget of $800 mio. “This is nationalism”, he firmly stated.
On the same page, there’s another article. Here, the then Minister of State-Owned-Companies Sugiharto was under fire because he did not privatize enough SOC. One of his staff counters, “now we rely more from tax and dividend from these companies. It shows nationalism because only limited income comes from privatization”.
Let me add another, this is from Globe Magazine, May 2007. It’s about Rajawali Group’s plan to have a majority stake in Garuda Airlines. Rajawali is pushing for the legislative to rule out any foreign participation in the bidding process (including a more experienced operator: Air Canada), on purely nationalism grounds. The tide of public opinion is on its side, with a groundswell of complaints over the dominant role of Singapore’s Temasek Holding in Telkomsel and Indosat.
See? You are wrong my friend. Nationalism is still abundant if you look in the right place. Of course you won’t find that kind of nationalism that moves people to sacrifice everything, even their own lives for the common cause. That happened once during our war for independence in 1945 – 1950.
But we are still talking about common enemies. Against the Dutch in 1945 – 1950; against America in the 50’s; against British, Malaysian in early 60’s; against the world up until1966. Now we’re fighting fat, ugly, greedy, giant global corporations like Temasek Holding, Cemex, Standard Chartered. They’re bad right? That’s why we don’t want them to have a piece of our property. We prefer big, friendly, benevolent, giant local corporations.
We are also still talking about fighting for something we believe in. Back in those momentous years of 1945 – 1950 we fought for our freedom and independence. Now, from what I read from those articles we are fighting for our… errr….money?
**
To conclude, I think these days the importance of nationalism has been largely exaggerated. Yes we need effective government, yes we long to see leaders who care more about their constituents rather than their own pocket. But to rely on nationalism alone to get there is just a false hope. We’ll be caught in the semantic instead, as we saw above.
What we have, then and always, is simply motives—be them nationalism, altruism, greed, self-interest, you name it. Combine them with opportunities and you get action. Why don’t we have an effective government, for instance? There are motives to maintain status quo, and there are enough opportunities to do so.
Of course, good intentions / motives are always appreciated. The problem is we can’t investigate people motives—and I believe there’s no law prohibited even the most evil intention. At the same time the quest to build nationalism would bear a resemblance to paternalistic propaganda of the old days. With easily available information nowadays, nobody will take that kind of campaign seriously.
Because to some extend we can always control opportunities let’s just ignore people’s motivations. If you want to change the way things are, start to think about how to give more incentive for people with the preferred motives and give more disincentive for the others.
Now, does it matter to you if some government officials provide excellent service because of (a) the ambition to have good mark during job appraisal (b) fear of being reported in newspapers for giving awful service (c) simply good intentions—you can call it nationalism if you will (d) commitment to their responsibilities? It doesn’t for me.
***
And then my other friend started to speak up, “you’re joking, I disagree with you completely”. Ah, here’s a more sensible mind, but then: “had Sukarno not been ousted in 1966 we were already a superpower nation by now”. I was like, stabbed from the back…
But then again we still had some time, hence I asked why Sukarno? The reply came, “you see, at that time I think we as a nation had the strongest feeling of nationalism. Today we’re going nowhere; reformasi has failed to improve our condition. This is because we don’t have that kind of nationalism anymore, be them our government or ourselves. That’s the main reason corruption is still rampant, people just don’t care about their own country”.
Yeah right, and I suppose you could exchange that nationalism with a bowl of rice?
That was then. Now, I don’t think we are in short supply of nationalism. Let’s take Tempo, May 13, 2007 edition. There, our VP Jusuf Kalla was accused of favoring his family business over foreign contractors in Jakarta Monorail project, especially since no tender process was present. Kalla denied the allegation; he said since the project was being done by local company, there was a saving of $300 mio. over the original budget of $800 mio. “This is nationalism”, he firmly stated.
On the same page, there’s another article. Here, the then Minister of State-Owned-Companies Sugiharto was under fire because he did not privatize enough SOC. One of his staff counters, “now we rely more from tax and dividend from these companies. It shows nationalism because only limited income comes from privatization”.
Let me add another, this is from Globe Magazine, May 2007. It’s about Rajawali Group’s plan to have a majority stake in Garuda Airlines. Rajawali is pushing for the legislative to rule out any foreign participation in the bidding process (including a more experienced operator: Air Canada), on purely nationalism grounds. The tide of public opinion is on its side, with a groundswell of complaints over the dominant role of Singapore’s Temasek Holding in Telkomsel and Indosat.
See? You are wrong my friend. Nationalism is still abundant if you look in the right place. Of course you won’t find that kind of nationalism that moves people to sacrifice everything, even their own lives for the common cause. That happened once during our war for independence in 1945 – 1950.
But we are still talking about common enemies. Against the Dutch in 1945 – 1950; against America in the 50’s; against British, Malaysian in early 60’s; against the world up until1966. Now we’re fighting fat, ugly, greedy, giant global corporations like Temasek Holding, Cemex, Standard Chartered. They’re bad right? That’s why we don’t want them to have a piece of our property. We prefer big, friendly, benevolent, giant local corporations.
We are also still talking about fighting for something we believe in. Back in those momentous years of 1945 – 1950 we fought for our freedom and independence. Now, from what I read from those articles we are fighting for our… errr….money?
**
To conclude, I think these days the importance of nationalism has been largely exaggerated. Yes we need effective government, yes we long to see leaders who care more about their constituents rather than their own pocket. But to rely on nationalism alone to get there is just a false hope. We’ll be caught in the semantic instead, as we saw above.
What we have, then and always, is simply motives—be them nationalism, altruism, greed, self-interest, you name it. Combine them with opportunities and you get action. Why don’t we have an effective government, for instance? There are motives to maintain status quo, and there are enough opportunities to do so.
Of course, good intentions / motives are always appreciated. The problem is we can’t investigate people motives—and I believe there’s no law prohibited even the most evil intention. At the same time the quest to build nationalism would bear a resemblance to paternalistic propaganda of the old days. With easily available information nowadays, nobody will take that kind of campaign seriously.
Because to some extend we can always control opportunities let’s just ignore people’s motivations. If you want to change the way things are, start to think about how to give more incentive for people with the preferred motives and give more disincentive for the others.
Now, does it matter to you if some government officials provide excellent service because of (a) the ambition to have good mark during job appraisal (b) fear of being reported in newspapers for giving awful service (c) simply good intentions—you can call it nationalism if you will (d) commitment to their responsibilities? It doesn’t for me.
***
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Art of Being Idle
Feel like a prisoner in gulag? Fight hard to keep your eyes open? Daydream about the next weekend plan? Let me guess where you are: in a boring meeting. No doubts there are some benefits of meetings. For instance, it serves as a signal to the outsiders about your status: the more meetings you have the higher you are in the corporate caste system. It’s also widely believed that “stuck in a meeting” is the number 2 excuse (after “traffic jam”) for missing an appointment—especially with your spouse. A more elegant and difficult to argue, nevertheless.
But still, sometimes you must feel the effort to go through it is not worth it. No worries though, years of being a corporate guy has not gone wasted: I have learned the necessary skills to survive long & boring meetings. Hear me, ye labouring and burdened salarymen, and I will lift the weight off your shoulders.
The trick is how to look as if you’re mind is still with them while actually it’s somewhere else. This way you can save your ass (the objective of being a corporate citizen) and amuse yourself at the same time. Here are several ways to do it.
a. Doodling
This is the most fundamental escapism you can do during a meeting. It’s almost foolproof, since what’s so unusual of taking a note during a meeting? But don’t get too excited otherwise people will suspect you of being inattentive. Nod from time to time to show that you’re still there. I found it useful to shot 1-2 questions before continue with the doodling.
Weakness: it’s okay if you’re no Rembrandt, but those with no aesthetic aspiration hardly find doodling entertaining.
b. Get busy with your laptop
It depends on the corporate culture or meeting etiquette in your company, but some allows you to work with your laptop during a meeting. All you are expected to is “giving a positive contribution to the meeting” while you occupy yourself with e-mails from friends and other stuffs inside that wonderful technology.
Weakness: rather than e-mails from friends you get urgent request from your client or emergency situation from your field guy. Already trapped in the meeting you can’t do nothing, and getting those news just make you feel more helpless and anxious. I prefer dealing with my problems one at a time.
c. Play phone games
Ah technology. It’s similar with playing video games in your laptop but in a less suspicious way, since the medium is smaller. Java games are easy to get depending on your mobile phone type. I don’t suggest playing games that need a lot of control movement such as “Meteor Attack”, “Quadrapop” or “Astro Furry”. Try those that leave you with enough time to think and don’t need so much dexterity, so you can always switch between playing and listening to discussion. I particularly like “Lopan / Mahjong” and “Sim City”.
Weakness: there’s a certain unfavorable stereotype on those who can’t stop texting activities. Not focus, not attentive, not grown up, can’t concentrate and so on. We don’t want to be identified with that sorry bunch of inexperienced juvenile do we? After all, we’re a mature and responsible corporate citizen. So we play games instead…
d. Draw Cartoon
You think you are gifted? Think you can outdo Davies, Schultz, Adams, Trudeau or Watterson? Try drawing cartoon then. Mine as you can see here is describing my thought during one of those ‘killer’ meetings. Just been hacked to pieces by the bosses in a presentation and wished I were somewhere else. If you think I copied an episode of ‘Dilbert’ well my friend you insult me: it’s directly stolen from it…
Weakness: need a spark of inspiration, spiced up with small amount of imagination. As you can see with the long absence of posting here, sometimes you just don’t have them.
Well folks, I hope these small tricks enlighten you, and you can find some joyful moments among your cramped, hectic, diminutive, frantic, deranged, corporate life.
***
But still, sometimes you must feel the effort to go through it is not worth it. No worries though, years of being a corporate guy has not gone wasted: I have learned the necessary skills to survive long & boring meetings. Hear me, ye labouring and burdened salarymen, and I will lift the weight off your shoulders.
The trick is how to look as if you’re mind is still with them while actually it’s somewhere else. This way you can save your ass (the objective of being a corporate citizen) and amuse yourself at the same time. Here are several ways to do it.
a. Doodling
This is the most fundamental escapism you can do during a meeting. It’s almost foolproof, since what’s so unusual of taking a note during a meeting? But don’t get too excited otherwise people will suspect you of being inattentive. Nod from time to time to show that you’re still there. I found it useful to shot 1-2 questions before continue with the doodling.
Weakness: it’s okay if you’re no Rembrandt, but those with no aesthetic aspiration hardly find doodling entertaining.
b. Get busy with your laptop
It depends on the corporate culture or meeting etiquette in your company, but some allows you to work with your laptop during a meeting. All you are expected to is “giving a positive contribution to the meeting” while you occupy yourself with e-mails from friends and other stuffs inside that wonderful technology.
Weakness: rather than e-mails from friends you get urgent request from your client or emergency situation from your field guy. Already trapped in the meeting you can’t do nothing, and getting those news just make you feel more helpless and anxious. I prefer dealing with my problems one at a time.
c. Play phone games
Ah technology. It’s similar with playing video games in your laptop but in a less suspicious way, since the medium is smaller. Java games are easy to get depending on your mobile phone type. I don’t suggest playing games that need a lot of control movement such as “Meteor Attack”, “Quadrapop” or “Astro Furry”. Try those that leave you with enough time to think and don’t need so much dexterity, so you can always switch between playing and listening to discussion. I particularly like “Lopan / Mahjong” and “Sim City”.
Weakness: there’s a certain unfavorable stereotype on those who can’t stop texting activities. Not focus, not attentive, not grown up, can’t concentrate and so on. We don’t want to be identified with that sorry bunch of inexperienced juvenile do we? After all, we’re a mature and responsible corporate citizen. So we play games instead…
d. Draw Cartoon
You think you are gifted? Think you can outdo Davies, Schultz, Adams, Trudeau or Watterson? Try drawing cartoon then. Mine as you can see here is describing my thought during one of those ‘killer’ meetings. Just been hacked to pieces by the bosses in a presentation and wished I were somewhere else. If you think I copied an episode of ‘Dilbert’ well my friend you insult me: it’s directly stolen from it…
Weakness: need a spark of inspiration, spiced up with small amount of imagination. As you can see with the long absence of posting here, sometimes you just don’t have them.
Well folks, I hope these small tricks enlighten you, and you can find some joyful moments among your cramped, hectic, diminutive, frantic, deranged, corporate life.
***
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