VOTE FOR ME!

Among all the candidates who run for the Governor position for DKI, how do you judge the one who fit? All the campaigns and all the media coverages provide flashy news on them. Most of them came up with the too good to be true programs to solve the perennial issues of Jakarta, such as the flood, the traffic, transportation and many more. They all come up with promises that they can not keep I might say and worst of all the public will definitely get carried away and vote for the heaviest promises. Later, they will regret their choices and grumble.

The opening for a number of top positions in my institution work with similar process. In my institution the board of governors are the decision maker to every promotion at this level. So everyone are trying to meet the CEO and wear the best attire and mask they could to impress them. Flashy stuff were thrown out in the air. 

The process has finished so far. Behind the scenes stories are all over the organization. How the member of  the HR steering committee cut the list of participants were just one story. All the documents and views of the supervisors are ignored. They use various indicators to cut the list to nominate their favorite candidates. The board's power to nominate is another. It is not less severe than the committee. One of them even expressed his power to nominate a person who claimed as a Phd graduate from one of the most notorious university in the world. It turned out that was the biggest lie ever. Still she managed to get through it. 

As a spectator, I notice the power of bubbling image. People are making any efforts to put themselves in the flashy bubble and make an extremely strong impression on those blind people. The key message is nothing but vote for me. And they manage to get the message through and get voted. Huh... what a reality.

THE END OF SCHOOL YEAR

It's June again! How time flies. This is the end of school year. Fail and success are everywhere. On the street students celebrate their success in may ways. Some ride on their motorcycles, parading around the city. Their school uniform full of scribbles and squiggles of colorful pens. You wont notice those who fail for they also "celebrate" their success in a different way, hiding in their own dungeon. 

My son has to move to a new school. His grades are still at the tolerable level and he can move to the next level. However the effort that we have to spend to make him be at this stage is unbelievable. He has extra teachers everyday, be it mandarin, math, Indonesian and the rest of the subjects that he has to take at school. I definitely can push him all the way, but I believe all those initiatives have to come from his side.  I am aiming at improving his behavior rather than his intelligence. 

Unfortunately there is an issue that I need to deal with. In the new school, he has to stay in the second grade. The new school focus on both his intelligence and his behavior. He can definitely be in the third grade for his intelligence, however he has to stay in the second grade for his behavior. Behavior is more compared to intelligence. 

The truth is always torturing. But then it's the truth. And I have committed myself to provide him with what he actually need instead of what I want him to be. I still havent talked to him so far. I know I have to, sooner or later. If I tell him the truth, he might feel depressed, no matter how hard I'm going to convince him. It wont be easy to make him understand that if he stays in the same grade, he will be better off in the future. What is the meaning of success if it is only for a fleeting moment?