Corrupt Bureaucracies Are Everywhere

 

Jakarta Post. People in “developing countries” complain about corrupt, inefficient bureaucracy.

Indonesia has sent many corrupt politicians to jail, but still scores high on the corruption scale.

 My colleagues and I do our share of complaining and compromising. In a “gift exchange culture” the line between tips, gifts and corruption is blurred. The problems are institutionalized from bottom to top.

For example, the national examination and its 99 percent pass rate, even for remote provinces with very low quality education.

 Schools are under great pressure to pass their students; teachers provide students with exam questions beforehand and coach them on the correct answers; students, who can barely add, end up with high scores in mathematics. Government, teachers and parents, all conspire to corrupt their own children, just so they can get good grades.

It can be hard or easy to get a driver’s license in Indonesia.  One of my students, an excellent driver, could not get a new license when he moved to our province.  He took the driving test six times and failed every time.

But everyone knows you don’t have to be able to drive to get a license.

If Indonesian bureaucracy is corrupted by money and poverty, US bureaucracy is corrupted by fear of the “other”.  Some years ago Farsijana and I waited in line as we applied for her visa in the bunker-like US Embassy in Jakarta.  Ten wealthy, well educated, English-speaking Indonesians ahead of us, were all rejected (after paying hefty application fees). The poor do not even get in the door.

American bureaucracies can be mind boggling.  An American friend once asked me:  “Bernie, do you think you are reasonably intelligent?”

Surprised, I answered, “I guess so.”  She then said, “Don’t you find it terribly difficult just to live in the US?  If an intelligent, well educated person finds it difficult, how do poor and less gifted people even survive?”  Good question.

Sometimes Muslim activists for tolerance and peace cannot get visas to the US. The president of Indonesia’s largest national university told me he was rejecting all invitations to the US as long as there was such dehumanizing treatment of Muslims at US airports.

Not only Muslims have problems.  Tirza and Hanna, our nieces, will be traveling with us to study for a year in the US.  They were rejected on their first applications for visas and had to go through the process three times.  Getting their visas cost us over US$1,000.

Farsijana needs an immigrant visa (green card) so that the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) can legally pay her when she is in the States.

After submitting countless documents with certified translations and paying hundreds of dollars, she was finally approved by the Department of Homeland Security last January.

There are good people who work in bad bureaucracies. And miracles still happen. After more absurd delays than you can imagine, we were informed it was impossible for Farsijana to get her visa before our departure date of June 24. But sympathetic staff in the US Embassy worked hard to push along the process.  Thanks to them, Farsijana’s visa was issued on June 24, just hours before our plane took off.

Bernard Adeney-Risakotta
Yogyakarta

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Implementing New Curriculum; Is it A Good Way to Do ?-faruqubaidillah.wordpress.com

Education does become a major concern and attention for government. As in nowadays era, this has also put forward several significance thoughts from professionals in education to implement new systems in Indonesia, which of course leads to a better condition. For instance, implementing new curriculum has become the ministry of education and culture’s straight forward plan over the past three years. In this year, 2013, this should have implemented in all school throughout the country, Indonesia. On another front, some debates on whether this new curriculum will succeed or not appears from teachers, educational experts, politicians and so on. They contend that many teachers are not even ready for the new curriculum, as they have insufficient quality. Even if some people feel that the implementation of this curriculum will not succeed, many still believe that this is a good way to improve quality of education in Indonesia.

People claim that teachers who are not ready are the problem to implement this curriculum. Additionally, the school doesn’t further provide training for the teachers regarding this new curriculum. Certainly, this puts them severely under misperception about the curriculum purposes. However, this statement is no longer acceptable, as in fact, some schools even many schools over Indonesia today are doing such training for teachers about the curriculum. The ministry of education and culture affair, Moh. Nuh, has also cooperated with several Indonesia universities in each province to help training those teachers gradually. I think, this is enough to show how the work and effort of Moh. Nuh comes into account related to this training. On another front, teachers in East Java Province are deemed ready to welcome this new curriculum. Aside form that, Syaifullah Yusuf, simply called as Gus Ipul, has stated that the training conducted really helps teachers to be more skillful about the curriculum.

Another critic comes from politician in House of Representative, Jakarta. Clearly, they claim that reducing subjects (as this what the new curriculum does) in the class will lead to inadequate skills that students might undergo in the future. They further add an example such as English language which in elementary level is abolished. Students will find it hard to master English in their primary and secondary school level as they are not taught English earlier in young age. Yet, such statement and example are invalid. Factually, reducing subjects has no mean to abolish. This means creating an integrity in the class and school time. More importantly, this gesture will lead students to spend their time effectively and efficiently in the class during the teaching and learning process. They have no need to focus on such many subjects which only make them baffled. Isn’t better to have fewer subjects with more focus rather that many but less focus. Furthermore, English can be learned outside the school time. Several English courses are enough to provide the students insight about English, as this allows them to have more time in English. This gesture is done only for the quality of students in our country Indonesia.

Knowing these debates makes us, university students, think deeply how e can position ourselves in a right place whether we agree or oppose this new curriculum. But, as the facts mentioned above such ample training done for all teachers over Indonesia as well as reducing inappropriate subjects for the students suffice to show you all that implementing this new curriculum is highly appreciated. Additional point, the new curriculum does teach students to compete internationally, to focus on their skill of certain subject, and to improve their patriotism and nationalism of their country, Indonesia. Therefore, in my opinion, the government has no need no to implement this new curriculum. Doing so will hamper more the quality of education in our country improves. Thus, through this support, the new curriculum is indeed significant to run in our education of 2013

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Once Again RSBI's Conflicts- faruqubaidillah.wordpress.com

Have you heard the latest news about RSBI ?? I think all people, educational expert in particular, do know what’s going on with RSBI. Not to mention, Indonesian government once again creats a problem in our education journey. They first founded International Standadized School for several reasons. One of them is to ensure the quality of education in Indonesia in international eyes. This is run by supplying English books to all subjects taught at schools as well as require teachers to have English skill both written and spoken. This decision soon created some protests from parents as the cost of RSBI-based school in not reseanable, and that, it seems to serve education for the rich only. To more extent, even parents whose children are not smart enough can still easily pass the test and enroll in this school provided that they can pay huge amount of payment.

More about RSBI now, I would prefer tell you this problem. As quoted from Kompas.com newsletter, Indonesian government paln to change RSBi into “Sekolah Unggulan”. By this new issue, do you think that government really work professionally ?/ meanwhile many protesters against this decision. Government should fundemantally rethink about education for the poor, for parents whose children are smart but have no any fund to attent a school. Clearly, in our law, government is supposed to serve eductaion for the poor, to make it free of charge; not to do something useless like this problem stated. Government should further manage he quality of education effectively; otherwise, indonesia will still rank poorly in international eyes.
This, not to mention, is a quite disruptive problem in our education. We have to think others such questioning the new curriculum, banning students to fight, and thinking how to improve teachers’ quality. Not only do we concern on those problems, this is we who should overcome all problems appeared. If we still wait for the government without doing something useful, we would never put education in Indonesia to rank the best position in International eyes.

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Pembekalan SWAET di A401 ESA UNISMA 2013

Dalam kebersamaa ESA, kegiatan pembekalan BAKSOS yang kita sebut SWAET (Social Work And Extra Teaching) di A401 menyisakan kenangna yang ebgitu mendalam. pengetahuan tentang pendidikan dan peserta didik begitu membuat teman-teman ESA sadar bahwa profesi keguruan sangatlah [enting dalam peran memajukan karakter anak bangsa.

Kegiatan BAKSOS tahun ini dilaksanakan di Desa Kemlagi, Mojokerto (sampingnya museum Majapahit). Kegiatan terjun ke masyarakat dan sekolah-sekolah menjadi inti dari agenda tahunan ini. Semoga agenda tahun depan akan menjadi lebih baik dan dapat kembali menyisakan suatau pengalaman yang tak kan pernah terlupakan.

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Censorship Screen for Sexual Movies on Indonesian Films; Does it really help?- faruqubaidillah.wordpress.com

Recently, in Indonesia myriad debates and criticism on Indonesian movies which expose artists’ sexual attitudes have been rising up over the past three years. This, certainly because such attitudes are extremely hazardous for people’s psychology especially the youths. The debates lead to a question on why this sexual scene is still permitted. On another front, many people arguably state that censorship for this scene is really needed to cope with the problem. Again, this argument is still debatable; Does censorship deal the problem or create another problem that is devalue of artists’ work and creativity? Here, I would like to invite you, readers, to cope with this problem clearly through several defensive arguments and opposite ones as well. Myriad people state that censorship is needed in this case, while others believe that this yields negative values on the artwork of Indonesian movies.

What people focus on is that the movie mostly presents unethical attitudes of the artists. Simply put, young generation watching it will be easily affected, and not to mention, they will happen to actualize what they have watched, if this possibly happens. On the other hand, the argument in favor of this is still questionable. It can be against through these facts. Firstly, TV stations have categorized and specialize Indonesian movies into BO, SU, and R (parents’ guidance, all ages, and teenagers only). Certainly, this is enough to show the effort to decrease the negative values of sexual movies on TV. Another is, of course, I think people are mature enough to decide whether this is a good movie for them or not. And therefore, no need to put censorship on this scene.

What also important is that people argue censorship is the best way to prevent such negative values. Only a part of the sexual action is censored here, while others are not. On this statement, they arguably support it. They claim that the censor will never be a disruptive part on the movie, as it is only a small part on the scene. However, I think it is invalid. Movie is made to appreciate the artists’ work. Therefore, it must present all artists’ action during the movie runs. Doing censor in this case will only devalue of the artists’ work. Additionally, what artists have done is useless when it is censored right?

Afterwards, arguments in favor of banning this censorship on sexual movies are straightforward. Clearly, such as BO, SU and R regulation is enough to prevent the negative values provided by the movies. Also, doing no censor on the movie means to appreciate the artists’ work. This appreciation is s must due to the big effort that artists have done to succeed the movie ant to make it interesting for all people. Furthermore, creativity of the artists will constantly appear during the movie if there is no nay censorship. Thus, in my view, there is no need to have this sexual movie censored. What we need is to appreciate the artists’ creativity whatever it is, as not all people can do what artists do significantly.

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Learning English through an English Student Body or ESA; A Promising Opportunity to a Better English Aptitude- faruqubaidillah.wordpress.com

A vast demand of globalization has led people to prepare themselves in English language mastery. Today’s commerce has also shaped English as an international language which dominates among other languages- Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and so on. In education, English has been a primary need for all students either primary or secondary school level. On another front, curriculum has been designed to deal and to match English as a subject which commonly is used to learn other subjects such as science, technology, economics, etc.

In relation to English as a language, Brown (2002:60) pointed out that using language means to communicate with other people; sharing the ideas and thoughts, for instance. Therefore, involving people in learning English language is a must to do. What Brown revealed has proven us that learning a language need people to communicate with. Involving in an English discussion, small talks, daily conversation, and debate activity are examples of what an English student body commonly covers. These, certainly, can foster students’ English skill- their speaking ability in particular. In American universities, albeit English is their first language, many of the students engage in an English organization after the lecture. They do discussion, debate, sharing each other, and even teaching children. They so much differ from students who don’t actively engage in it, where they don’t improve so much with their English as well as personality. This is a fact that students who involve in an English organization not only can refine their English but also foster more on their personality; because they meet other people who can give them more insights, knowledge and ideas. As always, the interaction here appears. They, then, can build up their personality through this interaction well. As what Jacobs and Farrell (2003) suggest that learning is not an individual, private activity, but a social one that depends upon interaction with others. By this interaction, students gain interpersonal skill as well as learn to respect others.

To more extent, another important thing covered by an English student body is networking. Certainly, students who engage in it will be able to make friends as many as possible. Inter-varsities English activities, for instance, really serve the purpose. They can get to know one another as they meet in the activities. They can also adapt themselves to the environment where new people with different character, personality, and thoughts emerge in one place; that is English organization. This is a quite joyful learning activity, as they will share a lots of  their culture, country, etc. Afterwards, this will enable students to increase their insights that they will probably not gain during the classroom activity. The facts that happen today are about students’ perspectives on it. They themselves claim that involving in this organization will only disturb their time in learning and teaching process. However, this argument then is coped with another reason; managing time for learning and teaching process is a way out to engage actively in an English student body.

Eventually, this analysis does indicate us how perspectives on learning English through an English student body will benefit students. As English is a language of today’s communication, this breakthrough is really needed to apply and to refine the English aptitude. If this happens, the need for English mastery either in secondary or higher school is optimally fulfilled. Furthermore, this will also help the improvement of English learning process in a school, as it becomes the purpose of Indonesian government in the newest curriculum of 2013. All in all, these all have encouraged you to taste myriad advantages which an English organization covers from time to time

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The Powerful Words by Prof. Dra. Hj. Utami Widiati, Ma., Ph.D Guru Besar Universitas Negeri Malang- faruqubaidillah.wordpress.com

Yesterday, on Saturday 22, 2012, ESA Unisma has just concluded their seminar on “Building Up Confidence with English in Global Challenges”. This event was specially hosted on Mother’s Day as well. There are a lot of things I want to convey in this writing. I think, it is not fair to tell the goodness first. Well, this year’s seminar is the most shocking one ever since; and it is the greatest agenda ESA has ever had. Firstly, we, planned to invite Mr. Junaidi Mistar, Ph.D to be our speaker, and he agreed upon our invitation. But later, two days before the due date of the seminar, Mr. Junaidi cancelled it due to his necessity in Jakarta on the same day. Everyone must have felt  how shocking that was !! Even me, working as public relation team, I was puzzled on finding the proper speaker to replace Mr. jun’s position.

Then, I tried hard to contact four of my lecturers such as Dr. Mutmainah, Dr. Alfan Zuhairi, Mr.Asa, and Mr. Yunus, M.Pd. Rather, none of them could replace Mr. jun’s position. I and Betty ( The Project Officer of the seminar) were desperate at that time. We could do nothing on it. Then, having thought several times in front of FKIP building, I then dare myself to phone a great professor from English graduate program of Universitas Negeri Malang, Prof. Utami Widiati, MA., Ph.D. Trying hard to contact her, there was soon positive reply from her. “Yes Faruq, thank you for inviting me, I think I can be the speaker replacing Mr. jun in that seminar. I can come at 10 a.m. so I can be the second speaker” she phoned me. Oh my God, I could say nothing at that time. It was a big pride of ESA to invite a renowned Professor in English seminar this year. Everybody can’t believe it. About  9.55 a.m. I picked her up, then I accompanied her to Oesman Mansoer Hall. Everybody was staring at me while I walked next to her. Haawkwkwkw.

At 10 sharp Prof. Utami staredt her speech. As she is a professor with two overseas educational background, the audience in the hall kept silent and deeply listened towards her speeches. Also me, I never let any second without staring at her. Prof. Utami is a discipline lecturer. It is proven on how she attend the seminar  and wait for me at pascasarjana office of unisma. Also, albeit the invitation is seemingly sudden, she can still prepare it well. No wonder if then the audience are more enthusiastic in her performance. Indeed, this performance which then encourage me to be more avid in reading and writing English matters. She told a lot about her journeys in attaining MA as well as Ph.D degree in Australia and England.

I do realize now that reading plays a very important role for all English language learners. What we have to maintain now is how we force ourselves to love reading and writing so that we can grasp our  bright future. More importantly, Prof. Utami added that “Reading is Nikmat dan Lezat” I do like this sentence ,and I will tell and apply it for my students in the future, especially when I become a prominent professor in English Language Teaching. Amiiinn,,,

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