Reflection Journal: Reflection on a Short Trip Back Home
Christopher Lucman

Last Christmas break, I had a chance to take a 3-4 week vacation back to Indonesia. It had been one year since I last came back. Being away from Indonesia that long, I had all these preconceptions about how challenging Indonesia will be, how meticulous and hard to penetrate the corrupt systems are, and especially how stressful the traffic in Jakarta will be. Shortly after arriving, not surprisingly I found all of those preconceptions to be exactly true. It is tough to live in Indonesia, especially compared to living in developed countries such as the U.S. However, I must admit the one thing that really surprised me was the amount of opportunities available there to serve Christ our Lord spiritually and socially. I hope from this short reflection journal I can engage the reader to see what I saw, and be as hopeful and excited about Indonesia as I am.

During my first days back home, I had a chance to meet up with some friends. At this occasion I realized that small talks could take us a long way in understanding what is going on in Indonesia, and in these people’s life. I learned a lot on what day to day life felt like, what kind of challenges they were facing, what they were excited about, and what their life plan was. One common theme that I found during these conversations was they all felt it was tougher to be working in Indonesia, and I personally felt the same way. It does not matter if you own a business or working as a professional, you will have to work long hours, the pay to work ratio often time is significantly less than if you are working in countries such as the U.S., there are lots of office politics, plus the bureaucracy and economic condition is not very helpful either. Despite all that, most (if not all) of these people actually have optimism and hope about Indonesia. They can somehow see that this is where they will build their life and career. And most importantly, this is where they will serve Christ.

As an example, a friend of mine who worked on his family business exporting processed logs. His minimal working hours are from 8 am to 6 pm. He recently moved his business to Sulawesi because the overall bureaucracy and business climates in Java were proven to be unaccommodating to obtain good quality logs without “unforeseen” costs. Situation in Sulawesi was not too helpful either. There were a lot of extortions (pungutan liar) by local government officials or the local thugs (preman) during the transportation route to his factory. Recently there were disputes regarding the allocation of those “wild fees” between the state officials (propinsi) and lower county officials (kotamadya). The dispute was not solved for a period of time, causing a temporary shut down in the log transportation business. When I had the conversation with him, despite all the hardships, he remained cheerful, committed to the Lord, and tried his best to keep his company clean by refusing to pay those “wild fees”. He believed by refusing to pay bribes whenever he can, he was actually restoring the dignity of those who asked for the bribes, because he could now see the person as a human being with morality, instead of just an object of greed. He was still passionate in talking about what can be done in Indonesia’s business climate to reflect the characteristic of Christ.

Another example is a female friend who worked as a professional in an international company in Jakarta. Her typical hour was waking up at 6 am, start driving to work at 7 am, arriving at 8 am, work to around 6 pm, drive back home and arrive at 7 pm. Despite her busy schedule, she was still active in her fellowship and tries to serve Christ wherever she can. She described her working environment as “unique”, where eastern value such as maintaining order and peace were regarded highly, sometimes even at the expense of productivity. This included pointing someone else’s mistake, or admitting one’s own mistake. She saw this condition as an opportunity for her to make an impact on such culture and transform it into a more Christ-like one. She believed deeply that her occupation right now is something what God had prepared her for.

Last example is another female friend. She decided to take a quite radical career to work full time in an NGO. She described her experience working in the NGO as re-learning a lot of things. She had come to some seminars about plurality in Indonesia, and had a chance to interact with other NGOs with various affiliations such as Muslim NGOs, Catholics, and non-religious affiliated ones. She stated that she kept on learning new things every day, and grateful for the opportunity and guidance that Christ has given her. She realized that the small number of Christian voices in Indonesia’s public sphere is an issue that she was called to address. Currently, her main activity includes developing a plan to discuss the issue of Christian influence in public sphere to Indonesian churches.

Economic wise, Indonesia is not all that bad. True that inflation is high, and could go up to 17%. It is also true that an increase in oil price hurts businesses and low income families. Infrastructure like roads, electricity, and clean water is not adequate, to a level of pathetic in some areas. However, it is hard to deny that business opportunities are still available. Airline industry players almost triple compared to 6 years ago from 4 airlines to almost 10. Real estate industry is booming, although mostly contained in big cities like Jakarta or Surabaya. Retail industry is a bit weak, but still stronger than after the monetary crisis. Banks and other financial institutions are getting more and more professional, although government banks are rather slow in picking up the trend. Despite the harshness, Indonesia’s real (not nominal) GDP is still growing by an average of 5%. Of course Indonesia is definitely not all flowers and sunshine. Things were tough, and if the inflation is as high as projected, it will get tougher. Nevertheless, opportunities are there, and it is crucial that those opportunities are seized by people who not only concern about themselves, but also about society’s welfare, and most importantly Christ’s calling.

Last but not least, beside economic stability and opportunities to better ones’ standard of living, Indonesia is also in need of role models that display morality, integrity, and genuine care about social welfare. Ever since the Asian economic crisis, Indonesian people had felt a lot of disappointment. Indonesian leadership, both businesses and government, failed them. Economic prosperity often time eluded them. Education opportunity was not enough. Indonesian people were desperately in need for something to hold on to. Some find it in religion, some in material possession, and some others in entertainment. In this quest to provide the meaning of life, our Moslem friends did a good job in promoting Islamic worldview using all aspects from entertainment, legislation, daily lifestyle or preaching. Unfortunately Christian voices in these circumstances are often small or kept in private, some part due to the “persecution”. In this condition of hunger, it is very important to have Christian leaders and workers to show what Christ is all about. It is important to have Christian business people that not only go to church and thank God for making them richer, but really have a passion about workers welfare and social responsibility. Finally, it is also important to have Christian politicians that do not fight for Christian symbol and pride into public policy but for Christian principles and morality. In this time when the public desperately need moral figures to assure them that things are going to be better, what candidate fits this position more than Christ disciples?

I guess in conclusion, we as Christians ought to see Indonesia as a doctor sees his patient. A doctor will most definitely be sad when there is a sick patient, but will be excited for the opportunity to cure that patient. We are sad and disturbed with what is going on in Indonesia, yet at the same time should also be excited for the opportunity to serve Christ. May the Lord help us in our journey, and may we be faithful in His calling.

Christopher Lucman graduated from University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is currently pursuing his M.S. in Applied Economics at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.