More Than Just a Stupid Word

(published by The Jakarta Post on 27 Apr 2010. Click here)

The riot that erupted at PT Drydocks World Graha’s shipyard in Batam on April 22 did not need to happen. Of course an improper remark was made calling all Indonesians stupid. We are offended by such a statement, but how our brothers at the shipyard answered the haphazard statement with violation was deplorable. Perhaps the story would be different if the remark came from fellow Indonesians. Some Indonesian superiors also often say “stupid” to their employees, right?

Ah, the “stupid” word is common here. But why did the Indian manager of the Drydock shipyard who upset his team by saying “all Indonesians are stupid” trigger a backlash? Pieces of information collected by some mass media tells us that such a racist remark was not the first time the same Indian manager uttered those words.
He once would have been assaulted by the local workers after harshly slamming his team with the same remark but fortunately was prevented by satpam (security officer). But still, the reason was not too strong to ignite anger because most Indonesian workers usually prefer to ensure their job than fight.

When I previously worked for a prominent private bank in Jakarta, my boss was an Indian national. I dealt with many Indian vendors and my boss even asked me to manage special teams which comprised of outsourced Indian expatriates for some projects. They were fine to work with, their knowledge in some particular areas were even better than Indonesians.

Maybe I was lucky because my Indian boss was very professional, rational and logical. She gave me the authority to make decisions in my job even (if necessary) to terminate Indian experts from the outsourcing company which she was recommended to hire. In this regards, the termination was based on performance. Once when a senior fellow Indian ended its working contract, my boss asked me to decide whether to extend or terminate the contract. As a local worker, I won her trust.

We are living in a global world today where many giant investors create projects in Indonesia and create jobs as well. Indian people spread out across the globe leaving their very dense homeland to seek jobs, too. It will be the same as China and Indonesia as the countries, with huge populations, have respective governments unable to provide sufficient job opportunities. Now our world becomes the world of competition.

Many private companies in Indonesia today hire Indian expatriates to head high level managerial positions. Those who head top position will always want to strengthen their organization by taking their trustworthy fellows into the structure. This phenomenon is normal. Let’s go back to professionalism and please don’t let us to be trapped in race sentiment.

In the Drydock incident, it’s not just about a stupid word, although we deplore the Indian manager’s attitude. Some media notes there was a sentiment accumulation between local workers and expatriates workers because of different treatment. It will be easy to understand if the different treatment was merely based on performance, but it is a fatal error if race or ethnicity became consideration in treating workers differently.

Apart from this, we should also check the education level of 10,000 local workers compare to the 200 foreign workers at Drydock. Learning the proportion, there should be less Indonesians with adequate qualification and education to stand at the same level as the expatriates.

The “stupid” word is everywhere including in the working place. I often hear that word, too. Are we Indonesians stupid? Let’s take a mirror and look at our face.

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Serpong, 24 April 2010
Titus J.