Me was in Jakarta last Tuesday on a day trip to meet with a potential agent for our products in Indonesia. Me still remember, the last time that me visited the city was about 20 years ago to attend a conference in one of the posh hotels in the city center. In between the years, me had the chance to visit Medan in the Sumatra island and the island of Bali and most recently Bandung to attend the graduation ceremony of me Along but never back to Jakarta until now.
Well to say the least, me impression of Jakarta then was about a modern metropolis in the making. Unfortunately, during this short trip me did not see much new development going on in Jakarta – maybe me meeting place and the route taken by our taxi driver were not on the “developed” side of the city. Nevertheless, during the journey to the agent’s office in Jakarta Pusat, the imagery of the city was that of a rundown city, with overcast sky where everything seemed to be so dilapidated and unkempt...and the streets, as it was known to be famous for, were clogged with cars and people...on top of that, it was kind of nerve wrecking experience to be sitting next to a semi “kamikaze” taxi driver!!
But what makes Jakarta, a city of about 24 million people during the day (and me was told,17 million during the night!), captivating and interesting, is that it is the capital city of Indonesia, an archipelago, spread across innumerable islands rich in natural resources and abundance source of human capital. Since the downfall of the old regime and the return of democracy more than a decade ago, the reviews on Indonesia had been mostly positive and encouraging and this sure is good news for businesses. And this has been one of the reasons why me company is looking towards Indonesia as a potential springboard to our overseas markets.
The meeting with the potential agent went on very smoothly. We ended up discussing on the present investment climate and the changes happening after a decade of democracy. Surprisingly, me was told, if outsiders see things being “rosy” for the Indonesians, majority of the still poor and “oppressed population” were actually longing for the good old days with the old regime back in business!
This came as a surprise, maybe the people was so used to being fully controlled by the state or the old regime (as the demarcation line was very blur then), that they could not figure out how to survive when left to the “elements” by themselves. As opposed to the old regime, the present government is more pro business but the business climate was said to still favor those with the right connections. This has apparently become a major stumbling block for foreigners as well the new breed of enterprising Indonesians to adapt as they are mostly professionals who still lack the key component of "know who” in doing business.
Business in Indonesia, as me prospective agent pointed out is still based on being able to “bond” with the end users or more like the “middlemen”. It is still very much based on forging a strong relationship with the well connected comprising of the rich and the powerful in the society. Even the government agencies are said to be helpless in preventing the multitude of "leakages" as they still could not muster the intricacies of the deals being worked out. In a nut shell, for outsiders to be successful in Indonesia, they have no choice but to adapt and create that special bonding through their trusted local agents.
Group Photo after the Meeting
So much for creating “bonding” in Indonesia, me was pleasantly surprised to have bumped into a business colleague while in the airport waiting for our respective flights out of Jakarta. He was a Dato’ and the chairman of our small business Club in Kuala Lumpur. We then got to talking about the little incident during our previous Club’s meeting in Kuala Lumpur where we got “ambushed” by a representative of a radical local NGO who based their worldview solely on racial factor.
True enough as me had suspected all along, the Dato’ was also caught off guard when the meeting he was chairing was rudely interrupted by the “intruder” who had apparently been “smuggled” into the room by none other than some of the dissatisfied Club’s members themselves!
We both agreed at that point, being in business and living in a borderless world nowadays, we should not confined ourselves to looking at solving problems from a very narrow perspective of one's own race....
Sayonara Jakarta, me know me will be seeing you again very soon...insyaAllah.
