"Kita harus menyatakan haram untuk penjualan tanah kepada pihak asing! Dapatkah kita melakukan hal itu?" I heard that sentence from grand mosque in Sawah Lunto area when I did Padang-Road trip 2006.
And at that time until now, my brain have been busy arguing on the morale aspect.
Do we truly have nationalism in our heart? When will we kick out the expat from our country?
It seems true tough, that the expats are always treated like king, and our countrymen are always treated as cheap labour.
I am working at not-so-local-company, but "ngaku2-nya konten lokal".
When I saw the BAK(Berita Acara Kesepakatan) between HCPT and land owner(for lease their land in order to build BTS) there is this clause that sounds funny:
"The landowner is obliged to renew the rent period with maximum increment of 10% to HCPT after the current rent period is expired"
Note the obliged word. After I talk to Site Acquisition Dept., it truly means that the landowner is forced to continue the rent with max 10% increment value!
Until when? nobody knows, until the landowner is gone perhaps.
Is it fair? Does it mean that the land is sold in a not-so-direct-way?
But when I see the reality... sometimes the landowner is so poor so they almost "beg" us to use his land. Trully sometimes my surveyor doesn't have the heart to reject the site. But I have the heart to do so since I rarely meet the landowner.
Why i do so? Because it's part of my jobdesk to ensure that the network that will be built will be cost efficient and fulfill the KPI. I do it only for small or even disposable amount of money compares to the overall project budget.
Look how embarrased I am, and I even have to fight for salary increment. And my manager who also an Indonesian can't grant good enumeration, since the management already spent a lot of money on expat.
What the expat is good at? I said nothing, because here, the AM is a burden to local people. I prefer local managers as the consider us as friends instead of boss-officeboy.
I am truly speechless, but we know that expat is invading the job competition in Indonesia, since their job market in Europe and America are decreasing. And unfortunately, they have an advantage(by being an expat!).
Fight harder! but also learn from them to become smart.
