Dialogue with Indayani Moeljo
By Anna Saputera

Please tell me about yourself.

I was born in Surabaya but grew up in Jakarta. I got my bachelor degree in International Business from the University of Texas at Austin, and my Masters degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I spent almost 7 years working in Houston, Texas, and went back home for good in 2005. I love traveling, eating good food, and learning foreign languages.

You are currently working in Jakarta. What is your opinion on work or general ethics there?

In short, it is different than in corporate America. But let’s first agree on what we understand as work ethics. Essentially, it breaks down to what one does or would do in a particular situation. The question in a situation is: what is right and wrong? I think at the core of it, work ethics is all about humility and how you treat others, and I don’t think we see it often here (Jakarta workplace). I have seen and also heard from other people that many people like to talk behind one’s back. I wonder, is it ethical to talk behind someone’s back? And what makes many people like to do that at workplace? And I am not talking about a once in a while case, this talking behind someone’s back happens a lot, like a habit, or like something that has been deeply rooted inside. Also, the pace is slower or more lay back here than in America. Now, is it ethical to be lay back at work? Hard to say, isn’t it? You see, many things that we consider as not ethical in corporate America can be considered as cultural issues here where everybody talks behind one’s back, and everybody takes time to have their breakfast and morning conversation (while smoking) at office pantry. What one does or would do at workplace could depend on how fit one is with the job. For example, would an ethical HR personnel disclose employees’ salary to his best friends at work? It is thus important that everyone is a good fit at his workplace. If not, then you do not know what is right and wrong that you must perform at work.

So do you imply that people have better ethics in America than those in Jakarta? Does ethics = morality? Because if we speak about morality people are equally depraved everywhere.

Yes, people everywhere are equally depraved, yet everyone has the ability to distinguish what is good or bad, right? But, allow me to go back a bit since you mentioned about morality. Both words, ethics and morality, deal with customs or the manner in which people do things . Ethics is a collection of one’s morals, or ethics is a set of moral principles. For example, a doctor has his personal view of values regarding life (moral value), and ethics is concerned with how a moral doctor should behave. If the doctor conducts abortion regardless what the reason of abortion is, what do we say about his moral values and ethical conduct?

We know that ethical values transcend cultural, religious, or ethnic differences. That means, there are reasons why certain ethics exist in one culture and not in another. That also means that even though ethics and moral may have different meanings for different cultures, the same standard of life should be used.

Back to your question, I think it is not possible to conclude which country has better work ethics than other countries, simply because the factors that I have mentioned before, such as cultures, company regulations, human resources, etc. I hope we all can agree that actually we can deliberately choose to do the right thing, or even fight for a good cause in every situation we face. I found that people in America are more consistent in doing what they believe in. They believe that keeping your environment tidy is good, so they will voluntarily pick up a ketchup sachet from the fast food restaurant floor, even though he is not the one who dropped it. They believe that waiting in line is the right way to stay in order, so they will stand and wait in the line without pushing the person in front of you or cutting off the line. They believe that everyone has the right to express their opinion, and so they have freedom of speech, and everyone respects that freedom. This freedom of speech gets into the workplace as well, where you can speak up for things that you disagree to your coworkers or your boss in a polite and respectful manner.

Why is it important for a company to have better ethics?

First of all, the question is how to define a good or better ethics. What is being used as the benchmark? As I mentioned earlier, the same standard of life should be used regardless different meanings of ethics for different cultures. I believe that there are many teachings in the Bible about standard of life. For example, the last six commandments in Exodus 20 clearly lists what is ethical in relations to human beings. It is also summed up in Matthew 22, to love your neighbor as yourself. Also, Philippians 2:3 teaches us about humility. We need to be wise and creative enough to translate these values into our daily work values. And since ethics deals a lot with how one should conduct, then by having better ethics, things will get better in many aspects, such as better relationships among coworkers, higher efficiency in performance, higher responsibility of management, it also promotes honesty, discipline, and fair treatment among employees and supervisors. Imagine a boss who does not give a fair evaluation to his employees. Obviously this would affect employees’ morale and conduct.

What does it take for a company to have a better ethics?

There is a certain condition that makes someone be whatever he is, whether he is happy, sad, lazy, angry, crazy, and so on. Now in a context of a society, if the condition in the society is where anyone is allowed to do whatever he feels like doing with no control system or punishment, while at the same time we know that human is equally depraved, then we can imagine a society that is very barbaric will exist. There should be a guard or corridor that functions as a guide for people who walk through. In other words, good ethics can be learned. You can educate people on what is good work ethics at your workplace. It does not have to be in a formal settings. The most important thing during the process is that a good discussion among the participants, or between the speaker and participant, should take place. It can be done during a year end gathering, informal presentation from management, etc.

We must keep in mind that we shall not judge the person too quickly, because when we do that, we are being unethical ourselves. We also know that we cannot please everyone. The person who seems to not do his work but rather, delegate his tasks to other employees may do so because he does not know that he cannot do that, or he may not understand what is being expected from him, or he may just do what is being told by his supervisor. I believe that a good work ethics has a lot to do with the management. The management is responsible to do their part, by creating a good system where rules are to be obeyed, every procedure is made clear to all employees, and that reward and punishment is in place.

How can we participate and start in promoting good ethics in Indonesia?

Well, if you know what is right, then you just do it properly. The question is when you know what is right, but you are not willing to do it, what happens there? I think you need to base your willingness to God’s Words, which will give you the courage to initiate some actions. We need to be warriors. We need warriors who own a battle and are not afraid to fight the enemies. Imagine if we have warriors who are running away when they see the enemies are approaching! No body is left to defend their territory and as a result, the enemies take over, and the enemies will be in control with their rules.

What if we have tried, yet our efforts are not yielding anything positive perhaps? Well, can warriors lose a battle after they fight? Yes, of course. Is it useless then to fight at the first place? No, it is not. The warriors are still considered heroes, because they have tried and put their best effort to fight. They have done what they are called to do.

Do warriors have strategy? By all means, they do! And so do we when we want to promote good ethics.

So, wherever we are, whatever your calling is, there will be a battle you must own and enemies you must fight. (Do not be afraid of enemies, because having enemies is like having a great opportunity to apply God’s Words; to be as shrewd as snakes, as innocent as doves).

If you get a chance to redo your life while you were in US, what would you do?

I have always been excited in encouraging students or anybody who wants to pursue a degree, to study field(s), which are both according to their interest and talent (they could be good at). You can have many interests in this life obviously, yet, you must be wise enough to know, what among those things that interest you that you also have the talents on. It’s really a combination of both. For example, I am interested in traveling, but I do not have the talent for being a tour guide. I guess having said that, if I could get a chance to redo my life while in the US, I would have changed my major of studies; that is for sure. I believe once you figure what the perfect combination is for you, and you pursue your degree or perhaps build your career on that, you also fulfill what God has planned for you because that is how God designs you to be. Your reward may be in the form of the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, besides other things, which is a blessing that God let you experience by doing His will.

Any advices for students and workers who plan to go back to Indonesia? Any advices for those who have hearts to serve Indonesian people yet plan to stay in US?

Well, I may not be able to provide a perfect recipe for this, and nobody can, I think. But I do assume they want to influence the public space in Indonesia with Christian values. Anybody who wants to go back to Indonesia for good generally knows what he will be doing. This is his driving force, motivation or sometimes urgent call. So the question is back to the person, why he wants to go back or why he wants to do what he says he wants to do in Indonesia? Naturally, the answers will vary, yet they are not for anybody to judge. But regardless of their answer, they need to have a good support system in Indonesia for accountability on many aspects such as work, relationships, faith, etc. When you are back home, you should be able to set good standard or benchmark in many aspects that you have learned while in the US. Simple things like treating other people with respect, do not litter, work efficiently, be on time, and respect other people privacy are some examples of things that are not commonly found in Jakarta.

For your second question, let’s think of it this way; our God is a creative God, I am sure there are many different creative ways on how to do that. As long as that is a burden God has laid on your heart, He will provide the way for you if you ask. Those who know me quite well, they know I like to ask “why?”.  So, again, the question is, why do you want to serve Indonesian people? How do you get to the point that you now have hearts to serve? But two things for sure are that people who stay in US are able to contribute intellectually (ideas), and financially. You can contribute ideas by writing an article for newspapers, or join a discussion group via mailing list, and so on. Everyone appreciates fresh ideas or out-of-the box ideas, and I think our fellow friends or students who are still in America are very capable of generating one.

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