How It Feels to be an Outlier in the Family

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Being the only person who studies a totally different academic field and also has some eccentric hobbies in the family is really not that easy.

As a note, no one in my family has ever formally studied political science (international relations) as I do. The spectrum of my family's academic background is quite easy to draw. If it is not from educational background, it must be from some exact sciences. At that point, you can call me as an outlier.

I did not know that until a couple years ago when I talked to my father about our (big) family. To be honest, I feel kind of excited at some levels, knowing that I will be the first bachelor of politics in the clan.

Studying international relations also gets me exposed to various different things and interests that are not commonly circulating among the family members.

Thus, sometimes it is difficult for me to introduce the things I am interested in to my family, in a sense that I never really get the excitement I have always expected.

This article will tell you some "heartbreaking" moments I have ever experienced on being an outlier in the family.

• The "try asking someone else" moment 

As a student, sometimes there are moments when we have completely no idea whatsoever about things we study at school, and maybe about things we are interested into. On those situations, what we will naturally do is to ask.

Being around the family on those situations can also be a relief for the problem. By asking the family's experiences, questions can mostly be answered. Not only that, besides giving the answer we are looking for, family will also almost certainly give us some moral support for the things we do.

In my case, the first one does not happen. Once (if not everytime) I asked my parents about the problem I encounter at school, specifically about a particular subject, I have never gotten the answer I need. The reason why it is like that, I guess, is self explanatory.

However, as a remedy for that, my parents always give me some moral support. The support that sometimes ends with an eye-opening phrase that makes me realize that nobody in my family has ever stepped on political science, "try asking someone else.."

• The "are you really into it?" moment

As said, studying political science allows me to know many things that are not commonly known in the family. 

For example, my interest on journalism and media industry are apparently seen as two strange things by my family.

The effect from such way of seeing expands as there's skepticism sometimes occurs when I seriously want to develop my interest towards those things.

It is not that they (my family) are unsupportive about it, but it is more that they are unsure whether I can be really consistent in doing things that happen to be my interest.

In my assumption, that also happens because, again, nobody in my family has the experience or record for having the same interests as I do. So, there's a kind of misgiving about me doing the wrong things.

That is all actually fine with me. Sometimes I just do not like the sense of doubt that ripples at the same time with the question of "are you really into it?"

• The "just be focus on your study" moment

It is not a secret that political science students (if not all) would need to gain some experiences outside the class, as in trying out new things and being involved in new activities.

This can get hard if we are in the situation as portrayed above.

In that situation, trying out new things can be equally hard as having "strange" interest.

First, as stated above, the family maybe is already worried about us, having the fact that they do not really know about the world we are in. Second, now we want to add that worry feeling with the "uncertain" experiment which would make them even more worried about us. 

The magical phrase my family would say to softly intercept my attempt on doing that would be presented in "...just be focus on your study now, and do those other things after you're done with it."

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After all, I understand that my family is always supportive towards the things I do and I am interested into. Sometimes it just needs better explanation for them to understand.

For those who have ever experienced the moments above, those are just the reflections that they actually concern about us.

That, in the end of the day, they do not want to see us fail.

Academic Freedom in the “Anxious” Democratic State

Indonesia and communism are probably two things that we rarely find close to each other in the public discussion. Having the so-called "black history" with the communist party back in 1965, it still appears to be a "taboo" to Indonesians to carry out any communist-related topics up until today. There is a severe prejudice within the majority of Indonesian society that to talk about communism in public always means embracing the return of communist party to Indonesian political system. Sadly, this keeps happening even when it comes to the sense of non-political matters.

But let's put that aside for a little while and let's talk about the other thing we can tell about Indonesia.

Long story short, after a long struggle against the dictator regime ended, Indonesia is now often made as a role model for democracy in the region. What's really attracting from Indonesian democracy is that, after the constitution amendment in 2002, the country was finally able to conduct the very first direct presidential election. Of course this was even more dramatic to see, considering the political transitions it had experienced can give a significant contrast to the narrative of journey of Indonesian political system.

However, that is not enough to reflect the exemplary success of a democratic system. To say that the country has showcased a proper example of democracy would be too naive for this time.

The reason behind such argument would be relevant when we see the fact that there's lack of exposure on the violation of democratic freedom in Indonesia, especially on the academic freedom. In 1998, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled "Academic Freedom in Indonesia: Dismantling Soeharto-Era Barriers" in which it mainly describes about how strong the government restrictions and indoctrination towards students in the era of Soeharto's regime.

In a part of the report it tells us about book censorship policy through the presidential decree, PP no.4/1963. This decree was initially used to "filter" the content of publications in order to keep the public order, back in the era of Soekarno. However, amidst the time of what's believed as a coup attempt in 1965, the decree was eventually used to ban all communist-related books and other form of writings.

We may have thought for a second that the era of restriction on academic activities is already over years ago. In fact, we may have been wrong about that. Indonesia's academic freedom is still under oppression for some reasons.

As a matter of fact, up to the date, academicians are only "given" such a limited room by the system in Indonesia to openly study about communism (also most likely other sensitive topics). Having the fear of being violently intimidated by the surrounding organizations, many of the academicians would choose to stop their activities rather than to put their life in jeopardy.

Take these for size, In 10 May 2016, a Marxist school of thought conducted by the student press body (LPM) Daunjati Institut Seni Budaya Indonesia (ISBI) was suppressed and forced to be turned down by a certain organization. Also in 19 May 2016, a seminar entitled "Marxisme Sebagai Ilmu Pengetahuan" (Marxism as a Science) organized by the executive student body of FISIP UNPAD had to be cancelled due to the threat sent by a certain organization. And what becomes the most ironic thing was the book raid incident in Yogyakarta in which several publishers and book sellers were forced to surrender everything that has affiliation with communism to the state officials around the celebration of national book day.  

Seeing from that perspective we can see that there is a serious backwardness in our society which involves not only the freedom of education in Indonesia but the practice of democracy in Indonesia. And of course, it needs such a big attention from all that those kind of interventions and policies which are initially intended to calm down the so-called "anxiety" of certain groups of people do not actually work as wished. Instead, it kills the freedom for the academicians and the whole young generation to explore the knowledge without restriction, suppression, and political control. This is also to emphasize that our democracy system is not yet entirely fulfilled by the proper practice. In most of the case, the way of approach of some organizations towards the academic institutions and activities is considered violent and counterproductive to the conduct of democracy. 

With that being said, if we try take a look into a wider angle, there is a big question whether or not Indonesia is still in the track of democracy, or should we actually sacrifice science to get the signature democracy of Indonesia?

Corruption and Culture: Two intertwined issues

This might sound socially cheesy, but it's getting hurt to realize that the society where I'm living has taken for granted the existence of nation's biggest 'cancer', corruption. 

It's not that we are weak or don't have enough power in terms of creating and spreading the paradigm of anti-corruption. I think we have more than enough power to express and do whatever it is to fight that. And better yet, we have the legal instruments such as Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) and those other NGOs and movements that are constantly working for the same concern. But as far as we go, nothing has really changed. Corruption is still there, it gets even worse. So where is the so-called power to fight the corruption we have had gone? Departing from that question, I have an argument that, as pathetic as it sounds, we (Indonesians) actually love and nurture the culture of corruption. 

Let me explain why I have such argument...

Unlike in a totalitarian country, Indonesia provides its people with so much more freedom to expose the act of corruption that happens all over the country with no regards to fear of being detained or silently assassinated by the cruel leaders whose dirty businesses are afraid from being revealed. (lol, btw, i'm just kidding about that assassination stuff. Some people were actually killed for exposing corruption in this country).

Do all the media coverage help?

That is proven by the fact that we have developed such a strong perspective and a collective spiritual chant among Indonesians to "SAY NO TO CORRUPTION!" Not only are we seeing this kind of spirit showcased in our mainstream media both printed press and television. But we are also developing this into even more viral as we have thousands of anti-corruption related events held all over the country every year. The spirit is so real. But again, the question is...where's the outcome going? Do all the media coverage and those seminars really help us to eradicate corruption from our society? I don't really think so.

I argue that, the more we have our media covering it, the more we see corruption as a common thing that happens in our country, like for example...earthquakes. As I said in the very first paragraph of this article, we do take corruption for granted not because we surrender to it, and not because we have no power and instrument whatsoever to fight it, but it's because the mindset that we have thinks that maybe there's actually no possible way for us to kick it out from our culture. That maybe God has gifted this country with a notorious title to be known by the world, and there's nothing we can do to change it. Or, in the most optimistic way of thinking I can say...maybe we always think that there's somebody else in this country who cares enough to do all the heroic sending corruptors to jail-job for us. With that being said, all the media coverage will be just an advantage and a useful tool for the corruptors to naturalize their act. And those anti-corruption events that seem to tell us how terrible the sin that will be gotten for doing corruption will be just some kind of normative bill that needs to be paid off.

The comforting old culture

The more sad thing is that, in some cases, people do realize that there is an act of corruption happening within a system. But instead of doing things that could possibly stop the act, some will just tend to let it happen because an act of corruption can seem to make things become more simple than how it should be.

Take for example the story that I got from the local people where I stay for the next a couple of weeks ahead for the community service program. These people paid some amount of money just to cut some legal processes with the local corrupt government in order allow them to open tourism business in a particular area. They told me they knew that there's actually another way they could go with, but they chose to bribe. I think this happened not because they intentionally want to embrace the corruption, but it seems to me that they see bribing has effectively simplified all the complicated processes they supposed to go through into one simple principle, "Benefit for all." Hence corruption is loved. Hence corruption is nurtured.

In the other hand, I also think that maybe all of this corruption culture in this country has something to do with the mentality we possess as the citizens of a developing country where economy is a crucial problem for almost everyone in the country. That kind of problem that's found in a developing country like Indonesia usually begins with the idea to get a better life by instant profit, to have a high class lifestyle with low income, to accept mistakes and see it as a common sense, and to think only for short term solutions. 

The other thing that I would try to deliver is that let us not be naive by blaming people up there in the government to stop being corrupt. I say that we should together revolutionize our mentality as Indonesian citizens to fully eradicate this corruption culture out from our system of society. That is why education exists. That is why the instrument exists. And that is also why freedom of press exists. We as the citizens should realize that we actually have that power to fight it as long as we want to leave the old culture in our society. That we should also realize if we will always be part of this nation's backwardness by staying in the same culture.

Let's do whatever we can do to contribute to the effort!

Penipuan Bermodus Peluru Ilegal di NAIA, Calon Penumpang Menjadi Korban

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Bandara Internasional Ninoy Aquino (NAIA) sejak beberapa minggu belakangan ini telah menjadi bahan sorotan baik bagi media lokal maupun internasional. Kasus penipuan bermodus kepemilikan peluru ilegal, yang dalam bahasa setempat dikenal dengan istilah “tanim-bala” atau “laglag-bala”, menimpa semakin banyak calon penumpang yang akan berpergian dari bandara yang teletak di Pasay City, Metro Manila tersebut.

Menurut laporan dari situs media Rappler.com, kasus penipuan terhadap calon penumpang tersebut mulai merebak lagi sejak bulan Januari 2015 setelah sebelumnya diketahui sempat menjadi berita media di beberapa tahun kebelakang. Dalam kurun waktu bulan Oktober sampai awal November 2015 tercatat,  tujuh kasus yang sama terjadi pada calon penumpang di NAIA.

Modus penipuan ini berjalan dengan cara diselundupkannya sebutir peluru kedalam tas milik para calon penumpang oleh oknum sesaat sebelum memasuki proses pemeriksaan barang menggunakan sinar x-ray. Penumpang yang “tertangkap” memiliki peluru dalam tas yang dimilikinya, terpaksa harus membayar sejumlah uang sebagai denda jika tidak ingin menghabiskan waktu untuk pemeriksaan lebih lanjut dan resiko kehilangan penerbangan yang telah dipesan sebelumnya.

Korban yang diketahui tidak hanya merupakan calon penumpang yang berkebangsaan Filipina, tercatat beberapa warga negara asing juga terpaksa harus kehilangan penerbangannya setelah sebuah peluru ditemukan dalam tas yang mereka miliki.

Dugaan hingga saat ini, pelaku penipuan adalah sebuah sindikat yang bekerja melibatkan petugas bandara di NAIA. Dikutip dari sumber media lokal inquirer.net, seorang sumber dari Biro Investigasi Nasional Filipina (NBI) yang namanya tidak disebutkan menyebutkan bahwa sindikat ini melibatkan petugas imigrasi, polisi bandara, petugas bagian x-ray, pemeriksa bagasi, dan pengakut barang di bandara tersebut.

Kasus ini telah mendapat tanggapan dari pemerintah Filipina. Menanggapi kasus tersebut, juru bicara kepresidenan Edwin Lacierda menyampaikan bahwa pemerintah setempat sudah mengupayakan langkah-langkah untuk segera menyelesaikan kasus tersebut sekaligus memastikan agar tidak ada lagi calon penumpang yang harus menjadi korban. (IDH)

Kualitas Informasi dan Kecerdasan Masyarakat

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Di era yang serba cepat, semua hal seolah dituntut pula untuk mengikuti pola perputaran yang serba cepat. Termasuk dalam urusan penyajian berita di media massa, seiring dengan tingginya permintaan dari masyarakat berkaitan dengan ketersediaan informasi, penyajian berita pun kini seolah lebih mementingkan siapa yang mampun muncul lebih awal dibandingkan dengan siapa yang mampu menyediakan berita yang informasinya akurat.

Tercatat bahwa beberapa kasus ketidakakuratan penyampaian berita sempat terjadi baik di dalam maupun luar negeri. Seperti contoh pada kasus ledakan bom di kota Boston, A.S 2 tahun silam, banyak media yang disinyalir terlalu spekulatif dalam menyajikan berita pada masyakarat. Padahal sebenarnya keakuratan data yang disajikan belum bisa dipastikan (baca selengkapnya disini).  

Hal ini bisa disebabkan oleh beberapa hal, selain tingginya permintaan dari masyarakat yang membuat lalu lintas berita menjadi sangat cepat seperti yang sudah disebutkan diatas, hal yang tidak bisa dipungkiri adalah sisi komersial dari pemberitaan itu sendiri yang menyebabkan munculnya tendensi untuk terus menyajikan berita tanpa terlalu mempedulikan kualitas berita tersebut.

Moneter.co, salah satu portal berita ekonomi di Indonesia melaporkan bahwa, berdasarkan data dari Asosiasi Surat Kabar dan Percetakan Dunia (World Association of News Paper and News Publisher) pendapatan secara global dari bisnis surat kabar tahun lalu bisa mencapai angka 200 miliar dollar A.S (baca selengkapnya disini). Hal ini tentunya belum termasuk dengan pendapatan dari perkembangan media online yang semakin hari semakin popular.

Karena tingginya lalu lintas dan besarnya peluang keuntungan yang bisa dihasilkan dari bisnis tersebut, kini bahkan beberapa perusahaan media seperti Los Angeles Times telah menggunakan instrumen robot yang dibuat oleh system alogaritma tertentu. Robot ini mampu secara otomatis menuliskan sebuah berita lengkap beberapa saat setelah suatu kejadian berlangsung (baca selengkapnya disini).

Perubahan tingkat lalu lintas informasi yang menjadi serba cepat tidak seharusnya selalu kita pandang secara negatif. Sebagai masyarakat pada umumnya, seharunya fenomena ini menjadi titik dimana kita terpacu untuk menjadi lebih kritis dan sadar terhadap kualitas informasi yang kita terima. Banyaknya ketersediaan informasi di media massa seperti sekarang secara tidak langsung memberikan kita ruang untuk bisa membandingkan dan menilai keakuratan informasi yang disajiikan. Sistem demokrasi yang mengizinkan kebebasan persebaran ide dan informasi di masyarakat, seharusnya mampu membuat kita untuk menjadi lebih cerdas, tidak sebaliknya.  

Life Starts at 20

As this life goes by, I gradually change some of my life's principles. Now probably it's a good time to say, "I can't certainly put my life on the same standard all over the time." 

This is to say that, I should probably be more opportunist with every opportunities that I have in front of me. I can't deny the taste of regret is absolutely bitter, and maybe somehow I have been being too deterministic with the financial thingy that becomes a major obstacle for me to run all of those opportunities instead of being more optimistic. But then I believe, if it's not me who spins the wheel, I will never know who and when this wheel would probably move.

All I say is about having myself enrolled on the student exchange and other overseas-related program, things which I have been wondering since I first entered the college life. 

I should say that, to me, this life is such an endless roller coaster. Yes of course to some extents you can easily predict what your life is going to be by easily measuring every efforts you have made. But it's rather difficult for us to know where you will be at the next day, and most importantly how you can get there (which in my case is extremely beyond my expectation).

Being recognized as one of the student exchange awardees is such a massive honour for me. I could not have imagined that the intention of enrolling myself to Malaysia was surprisingly sending me into "Persiapan Keberangkatan - 01"   to De La Salle University (DLSU), Manila, Philippines. Awesome, Isn't it ?  

I shall recall, it was a big surprise covered in solid words when I was being offered with this opportunity by the program director. 

What's crossed in mind soon after hearing that was the old dilemma all over again. I prayed to God, this time I had to be sure that there would be a way for me to go there. 

I eventually decided to talk to my parents about what I had achieved. The result of the conversation between me and my parents was simply making me play "It's a Beautiful Day" from Michael Buble for the entire weekend.

Some says that life starts at 30, I don't know if maybe mine would start at 20. I know that taking this decision means I need to hold bigger responsibility, but again if it's not me who spins the wheel, then who?

Good luck for me!

Iqbal Dwiharianto 

Who Would Remind Me If It's Not Myself?

Dear Future Me,

How’s your life going, Bro?

In the present time where you live now, you are currently getting confused with the situation which forces you to choose something in between. Trust me, it was not so easy to pick one of them. Both have certain things which I need to consider very carefully for a better you in the future.

Something that you need to keep in mind after reading this letter, please don’t make anything that might cause trouble for your future again. It was plenty of jobs for me to do your things at the moment. Sometime I get screwed up with all of those things you made in my present time. You should not make any of those anymore, cause I see how potential you are to have a better life along with every seconds you have right now.

Your life now has been fixed at several points. Please, just do this life simply. You had experienced what you were curious about, and surely you would not ever be proud with them. Meaning that you don’t have to taste it again in your future. Though I must admit, It was nice for us to know some of very nice people in life. Keep them in touch as well as how I do it now.

Trust me, if you ever think to get back to one of your Exes, do not ever attempt to do that! Do remember the reason why you did break up with them. You have good enough love life here in the present. And, If up until this letter arrives at you and you are still with her, It means you are not making the wrong decision.

The present you is currently facing the 4th semester of college. It gets heavier day by day, thinking about career, grades, scholarships, and many of your dreams. Fortunately, you are still such a bad ass. You still hold that ‘Cumlaude’ up until the moment I write this letter. Please keep it in the future. We both know how unconsistent we are in choosing the future of us. But as a reminder, the present you is currently on fire with the dream of being a Journalist. You love writing, don’t quit! Just do it frequently and write anything you have in mind, post it on the blog you made here in the present! you still keep it, don’t you?

I really can’t tell everything in one letter only, but I think this time is just enough reminding you again not to do anything that I have already warned. But keep all the awesomeness instead. And yes, I have attached a picture of me within this letter, I hope you can also do some work on this body for the future. Best luck for you, Bro!

All best,

Present you.

82 kg, it feels not so good. Work on it, please!