National Exam, Should It Be Removed From Our Schools?

Lately there is a raised anxiety and enthusiasm over the national exam in the Indonesian media. This roots from the verdict returned by the (Indonesian) Supreme Court that the govt cannot impose national exam anymore on Indonesian schools. However, it is still not clear to me whether the national exam will be completely removed or not from our schools in the foreseeable future. People, mainly who failed in the exam and their parents pound away at the national exam and they fully support the removal of the national exam. Experts at education are also still in hot wrangles upon this issue, some oppose the national exam though some others approve it. On this article I would like to babble on this issue based on my own amateurish points of view. I do not want to go into the legal raisons d’être of it since it is not my strong suit.

Do I think that we need to keep the national exam within our schools? I would personally say yes. But of course with some adjustments here and there. National exam is needed because it acts as a meterstick (being a natural metric measurer I steer clear of the word yardstick ) of our education with which students and teachers alike measure their performance. This meterstick of course is necessary to prevent a wider gap between the bests and the worsts countrywide. But considering the unequal development in educational infrastructures across the huge archipelago that meterstick should be temporarily bent a little to adjust to the local metersticks. In addition to that, the national exam must not become the sole element on which a student’s pass will be decided. Other elements such as the processes of the learning themselves are way more urgent to be taken into account.

Of course, there are so many things to do to improve our education. National exam alone is not a passport to an instant improvement. But I believe national exam could help directing our education at every nook and cranny of this country to stride in the same pace. And I firmly believe those who turn down the national exam out of hand are indeed bowing so low to their own past failure!

Bakeri Holan dan Toko Niuselan

Beberapa hari yang lalu, saya melihat salah satu judul berita olahraga di salah satu media surat kabar, di situ dikatakan”Speedy Tour d’Indonesia sudah dimulai”. Setelah membaca judul berita itu saya sempat bingung sendiri, ini “Tour d’Indonesia” ini bahasa apa ya?? Kalau mau Bahasa Perancis seharusnya “Tour d’Indonésie” seperti halnya “Tour de France“, lomba balap sepeda di Perancis yang paling bergengsi di dunia itu.  Kalau Bahasa Inggris seharusnya adalah “Tour of Indonesia“, kalau Bahasa Indonesia seharusnya adalah “Tur Indonesia”. Hmm… benar-benar nggak jelas, seperti biasa orang Indonesia memang paling jago kalau mencampurbaurkan bahasa, masa bodoh deh kalau tata bahasa dan perbendaharaan katanya salah, yang penting kelihatan gaya dulu!

Tetapi ada lagi yang lebih menggelikan lagi! Sekitar satu setengah dasawarsa lalu, ketika itu pemda DKI Jakarta (kalau nggak salah itu peraturan pemda DKI deh…) mengharuskan segala nama toko ataupun usaha-usaha lainnya terutama usaha-usaha kecil,yang kebanyakan tidak menggunakan merk yang terdaftar, dilarang menggunakan nama asing untuk nama bisnisnya. Jadinya, jadilah nama-nama yang menggelikan dan nanggung abis! Holland Bakery dipaksa berubah menjadi Bakeri Holan sementara toko New Zealand yang dulu berada di dekat rumah saya berubah menjadi toko Niuselan. Kenapa nggak sekalian aja diubah menjadi “Toko Kue atau Toko Roti Belanda” atau toko “Selandia Baru” sekalian! Kan lebih Indonesia lagi kan?? Tapi anehnya, ada juga toko  yang menggunakan nama asing tapi selamat dan tidak perlu mengubah nama tokonya, salah satunya adalah Mon Ami Bakery yang dulu kalau nggak salah tokonya ada di sekitar daerah Melawai deh. Mon Ami Bakery hanya berubah sedikit menjadi Bakeri Mon Ami. Padahal, Mon Ami itu juga bahasa asing, yaitu Bahasa Perancis yang artinya (dalam Bahasa Inggris) adalah “My Friend”. “Mon Ami” ini dibacanya adalah “Mong Nami” (catatan: bunyi sengau Perancis pada kata “mon” sebenarnya berbeda dengan “mong”, tetapi kalau di-Indonesia-kan, ya kurang lebih seperti itulah!). Jadi seharusnya Mon Ami Bakery kalau konsisten harus di-Indonesia-kan, maka seharusnya adalah menjadi “Bakeri Mong Nami”. Sungguh tebang pilih yang menyedihkan. Atau para aparat pemda itu tidak mengetahui bahwa “Mon Ami” itu juga bahasa asing?? Atau ada kriteria tersendiri bahasa asing yang bagaimana yang harus di-Indonesia-kan pada waktu itu??

Apapun alasannya, meng-Indonesia-kan semua nama bisnis yang berbau asing dengan dalih untuk lebih mencintai bahasa Indonesia dan juga agar kita lebih dapat berbahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar adalah sesuatu yang menggelikan! Ibaratnya agar kita dapat lebih lancar dan mahir dan lebih mencintai sepakbola kita dilarang atau dibatasi untuk bermain tenis! Apa hubungannya??????? Kalau kita ingin lebih mencintai dan lebih mahir dalam bermain sepakbola ya tentu kita harus terus berlatih sepakbola! Begitu juga untuk agar kita lebih mencintai Bahasa Indonesia dan menggunakannya dengan baik dan benar tentu kita harus lebih melatih menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar, dan bukan dengan membatasi penggunaan bahasa asing!! Nah, jadi kesimpulannya mudah-mudahan aparatur-aparatur pemerintahan kita di masa mendatang, kalau mau membuat aturan pelarangan ini itu, dalam bentuk apapun, sebaiknya buatlah peraturan pelarangan yang benar-benar jitu tapi tetap produktif, jangan seperti MUI sekarang, yang bukannya mengeluarkan fatwa buat para markus pengadilan malah buat fatwa tentang film “2012″ yang halaaah dampaknya pada rakyat kita nggak signifikan itu!! Eh, kalimat terakhir yang dicoret itu nggak ada hubungannya ya??

2012: It Shows Nothing of The End of The World….

Have you watched the 2012 flick? For those who would like to see the visualisation of the Doomsday prophesied by the ancient Mayans you might be eagerly, willingly and ungrudgingly ready for the long ticket line just to be acquainted with the apocalypse. Yes, it also happened to me, I had to join the ticket queue  and got stuck in it for nearly one and a half hour just to get the tickets for me and for the rest of my family (what else could I do? As a good citizen I don’t push in or jump a queue). And that ‘long’ period of queuing time seems a little bit wasted soon after I know the conclusion of the movie.

The movie itself, of course, has near-all of Hollywood clichés, however being full of breathtaking modern digitised effects, for those who are always filled with sci-fi imagination in their heads, this flick can’t be outright boring. But in the end of the movie, I just realised that something is not right with the plot of the movie. It is not like the Doomsday I thought of. It is just merely a visualisation of massive natural catastrophes that occur globally! To me, it is not like the Doomsday at all!

What makes me think that this movie is not about the end of the world? It’s simple. Because in the end of the movie, you still see people being saved in modern Noah’s arks and the arks seem to float happily safely ever after or at least until the global floods recede and they find higher lands where they can go on with their lives. In short, after ‘the Doomsday’ prophesied by the Mayans you still see sunshiny days that spark off hopes for life. This is not what I had in mind. In my mind, the Doomsday is the real end of the Earth, where no more living things can exist on the planet afterwards. To my mind, interplanetary collision, the stoppage of solar nuclear reaction, or maybe a gargantuan meteor that hits planet Earth can depict more horror of doomsday than earthquakes, tectonic plate shifting and tsunamis staged in this movie.

However, it is always up to you to perceive what the Doomsday will look like. To me, Hollywood has failed to visualise the real Doomsday, they obviously still stick to their trite grand scheme (actually it is not just Hollywood movies that do) that the main protagonists have to end up in happiness and joy. For some, who want to have a preview of the ‘real’ doom and gloom of the apocalypse on this movie, they might be discontented….

Losing Cash Is Not Necessarily To Lose Profit…

Have you ever tried to start a small business? If you have, did you record all the transactions occurred whether it was in black-and-white or in bits-and-bytes? Did you keep track of the record? And how did the business operation result after a while? Did it suffer a loss because many a customer preferred to buy your goods (or to get your services) on account (on account means to be paid for later)? Well… don’t lose hope. Declining in cash amount is not always attributable to incurring a loss, at least that’s what accountants and bookkeepers think about it. Let’s take a brief example below which is presented the first seven day operation transaction data of a small business.

Day 1. Suppose, Mr. Hartana Dekry, a dentist, had an intention to open a clinic. And to start with, he invested US$ 30,000 in cash and US$ 40,000 in equipment.
Day 2. Performed a service to Ms. Tutinonka receiving US$ 200  cash.
Day 3. Paid rent for the month US$ 150  cash.
Day 4. Paid for electricity US$ 100 cash.
Day 5. Performed a service to Mr. Al Jupri gaining US$ 300 on account.
Day 6. Performed a service to Mr. Boyindra gaining US$ 250 on account.
Day 7. Paid US$ 100 cash for telephone bill.

Now from the data given above, let’s try to compose a simple income statement (In the United Kingdom, it is called “Profit and Loss account”) of Mr. Hartana Dekry for the first seven day period of operation:

Mr. Hartana Dekry Income Statement For The Period Ended Day 7

Revenue From Services		US$ 750
Expenses:
Rent	US$ 150
Electricity	US$ 100
Telephone	US$ 100
Total Expense		US$ 350
Profit From Operation		US$ 400

From the income statement above we readily see that Mr. Dekry is enjoying US$ 400 profit. Wait a sec! How can Mr. Dekry enjoy a profit whilst his cash account drops in amount? You will calculate that Mr. Dekry’s cash balance now amounts to US$ 29,850, hands down, it is a US$ 150 negative swing from the initial cash balance of US$ 30,000. How can you think that it is a profit??? Aha! That’s the million thousand dollar question. In accounting, you recognise a revenue as it is gained or as it is recorded. You don’t need to wait until your customers settle the bills to claim your revenues. That’s the bread and butter of revenue recognition in accounting. You have to do away with cash-oriented outlook because profits and losses are way beyond the amount of cash in accounting! You can still make a profit even if most of your customers preferred to have the transactions on account. The effective losses emerged only and if only your customers’ debts become irrecoverable bad debts. The mechanism of bad debt emergence is beyond this text but possibly I will come up with this topic down the road. For now, you have to remember two simple things to keep bad debts at bay: First, if you are to allow your customers to pay for your service at a later date make sure that you single them out  who have good records in paying their debts on time otherwise cash transactions are safer to deal with. Second, when the debts are due, don’t hesitate to call them to insist that they must pay up their due debts. With those two simple things above rosily the debts will not turn bad ones…  As ‘simple’ as that.

P.S.

• I would like to thank those whose proper nouns are misused in this text without permission . They are real but of course the transactions are fictitious. Mr. Dekry’s profession is also bogus. He is in fact a likable radio broadcaster, by and large.
• How can the end balance of Mr. Dekry’s cash be US$ 29,850? To arrive at these figures, take the initial balance of US$ 30,000, then add to it the cash revenue transactions (in this case only Ms. Tutinonka that comes with cash transaction of US$ 200), then taking away the amount of all cash expenses from the new balance (US$ 150 + US$ 100 + US$ 100). In the simple arithmetic expression it is as simple as 30,000 + 200 – 150 – 100 – 100 = US$ 29,850.

Seorang Guru Yang “Menolak” US$ 75.000

Siapa bilang nonton TV tidak ada gunanya? Jikalau tidak berlebihan dan menganggu aktivitas-aktivitas lain, menonton televisi banyak manfaatnya, selain dapat menambah wawasan langsung juga dapat banyak memetik moral yang ada pada suatu acara yang baik. Seperti dalam acara “Are You Smarter Than the 5th grader?” yang dibawakan oleh Jeff Foxworthy yang saya tonton hari Rabu malam lalu (11/11) lewat stasiun televisi StarWorld, selayaknya banyak ditonton oleh para pejabat pemirsa di Indonesia.

Yang membuat episode tersebut menarik ada dua yaitu kedatangan murid-murid kelas 5 SD dari “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” tahun lalu yaitu tahun 2007 (episode ini dibuat tahun 2008) dan juga salah seorang pesertanya yang seorang guru TK dari Boston, Massachusetts bernama Chrissy Booras. Bagi mereka yang sering mengikuti acara ini tentu sudah mengetahui tata cara permainan ini. Setiap peserta diberi 10 pertanyaan mulai dari US$1.000 hingga US$500.000, jika berhasil menjawab kesepuluh pertanyaan tersebut maka peserta berhak menjawab pertanyaan bonus senilai US$1.000.000 (hampir sepuluh milyar rupiah..wow!). Nah dalam menjawab kesepuluh pertanyaan tersebut peserta bisa dibantu oleh anak-anak kelas lima yang berada di acara tersebut. Terdapat tiga bantuan yang ada yaitu: Peep (intip), Copy (kopas) dan juga Save (selamat). Dalam Peep, peserta boleh mengintip pekerjaan si anak kelas 5 SD tersebut dan boleh memakai jawaban anak kelas 5 SD tersebut atau boleh memakai jawaban lain. Dalam Copy, peserta harus menggunakan jawaban anak kelas 5 SD yang membantunya tersebut sedangkan Save, jika jawaban peserta salah maka jikalau jawaban si anak kelas 5 SD benar, maka otomatis si peserta terselamatkan dan dapat melanjutkan kuis ini.

Dan di sinilah istimewanya sang guru TK yang bernama Chrissy Booras ini. Ketika ia sampai pada pertanyaan kategori astronomi kelas 4 yang berbunyi (pertanyaan aslinya tentu saja dalam Bahasa Inggris):

Dalam skala Fahrenheit berapa derajadkah panas permukaan matahari?
a) 10.000 derajad
b) 1.000.000 derajad
c) 35.000.000 derajad

Bagi mereka yang menyukai astronomi tentu tidak sulit menjawab pertanyaan ini, namun malangnya si ibu guru ini rupanya tidak menyukai astronomi. Namun yang menarik bukan ketidakbisaan si ibu guru untuk menjawab pertanyaan ini namun karena ia menolak untuk menggunakan fasilitas “Copy” yang ada. Si ibu guru ini sebelumnya sudah menggunakan kedua fasilitas bantu lainnya dan hanya tersisa fasilitas “Copy”. Pertanyaan ini bernilai US$175.000 sementara si ibu guru sudah mengumpulkan US$100.000. Namun si ibu guru “sayangnya” menolak menggunakan fasilitas “Copy” dan memilih keluar dari permainan dan “hanya” membawa pulang US$100.000. Padahal pertanyaan tersebut adalah pertanyaan pilihan berganda dan kemungkinan besar jawaban si anak kelas 5 SD yang menolongnya benar karena mereka adalah anak-anak kelas 5 SD yang terpilih dan pandai, dan memang jawaban si anak kelas 5 SD tersebut ternyata benar. Padahal jikalau si ibu guru menggunakan fasilitas “Copy” ia akan mendapat US$175.000 dan dapat berkemungkinan lanjut hingga mendapatkan US$1.000.000!

Alasan si ibu guru tidak menggunakan fasilitas “Copy” ini sangat mulia karena si ibu guru tidak suka mengkopas mentah-mentah jawaban seseorang di sekolah. Dan prinsip ini ia pertahankan di dalam kuis ini dan ia tidak tergiur dengan perbedaan uang US$75.000 (hampir Rp. 750 juta) yang sebenarnya dengan mudah dapat ia dapatkan. Lagipula si ibu guru mungkin khawatir bahwa ia akan menjadi contoh buruk bagi anak-anak didiknya. Menurut saya, mental bu guru ini sungguh jauh dari mental korup! Walaupun ia seorang guru yang banyak dikatakan sebagai “the underpaid hero” namun sungguh mentalnya dan juga harga dirinya sangat tinggi. Sebuah mental yang patut ditiru oleh para pejabat pemirsa di Indonesia!

Blackout Rotation…

This is a mock picture of my house indoors yesterday night at 9.45pm. The blackout rotation that occurs in the capital city of Jakarta seems to have reached my hometown Bandung. Frankly I don’t know. I hope it was just an isolated case and it has got nothing to do with the power shortage faced by most of the people in the capital city.

I don’t want to see that the power shortage problem would become a nationwide problem. I don’t want to see another blackout. The other “blackout” is over the recent newsmakers that hog the news slots on TV having created enough concerns among the people. Two law enforcer agencies are at each other’s throats. What can be worse than that? The ones who take the advantage from this mutually distrustful atmosphere are the corruptors who are given the new lease of life. We still see no light at the end of the tunnel concerning this case. So let’s hope that this downright dust-up will end up elegantly, we must be sure the MOST REAL truth will out and people will see the light at the end of the day….

Please Don’t Refer Me To A BlackBerry!

Recognise this picture? Of course these are blackberries. Who don’t? This fruit is one of my favourites. Their sourish taste gives a pleasure to my tongue. And it is not too hard to find ones here in my hometown Bandung. I only have to walk about 400 yards away to meet the first blackberry street vendor. The berries are sold on a modified motorbike with a mini-trailer. Though they are sold in purée and in the process sugar and lemon squeeze are added yet the berries would still taste pleasantly strong in your mouth. But don’t get surprised if your fæces turn pitch black the next day, they are obviously the remains of the berries eaten the day before.

But today I am not about to talk on blackberry the fruit. I am gonna talk about the other species of blackberry. Yes this berry is now a popular mobile communication device here in Indonesia. This article kindled when I needed to replace one of my GSM mobile phones since the battery has worn out. Though I realise that the solution to this problem is to buy a new battery of the similar kind, but this critical moment or at least  so it is called has been  manipulated into a good opportunity to buy a new mobile communication gadget. My choice falls between Windows-mobile-operated smart phones and iPhone. Probably I will single out a Windows-mobile-operated one. My colleagues proposed me to buy a BlackBerry. But I am not happy with such proposal. How come? That’s because I dislike BlackBerry. The feeling of dislike towards this Berry is largely based on subjective grounds rather than objective ones. Firstly, I dislike market leaders. I don’t know what is the position of BlackBerry in world market but obviously it begins to pan out in the competition and I get a hunch that in a year or two it will overtake Nokia in Indonesian market, in all likelihood. Secondly, this is even sillier , this communication gadget has become more and more common among the rank and file so you can no longer sport it proudly in public! Based on these shaky grounds I opt not to buy a BlackBerry!

I believe somewhere in the market there is a more powerful mobile communication gadget than BlackBerry since I am mighty sure that BlackBerry is not the crème de la crème of mobile communication gadgets! It does not have to be more expensive but at least it has to be a neck-and-neck competitor to a BlackBerry. So, anyone, do you have any suggestion what a new mobile communication gadget I should buy? But please never suggest me to buy a BlackBerry because I am not gonna have it for all the tea in China unless public has turn its back on the Heath Robinson gadget.

P.S.

This article is not a vilification of a product brand, it is merely a matter of  jocular personal opinion! Discretion is advised!