ALSA UI 2008

Some surprises, some unprecedented loss, and many others.

1. Those High School Brats, Part 1
So a few weeks back, the Indonesian School Debating Championship was held to choose 4 Indonesian delegates to the World School Debating Championship in Washington D.C. Nine best performers of ISDC went into ALSA 2008 as three different ‘swing’ teams. Two were competing in the High School Level, and one in the varsities level.

Guess what, the varsity level’s best speaker is one of them! Apparently someone named Idan (that looks pretty much like Cristiano Ronaldo with that oily hair of his) from Denpasar managed to outmatch every speaker in varsities level, with even a significant margin from the 2nd best speaker. Furthermore, team WSDC was ranked 2nd in the varsities level, with 4 VP out of 5 matches, and all three of their speakers got into the top ten, which means that statistically they outperformed both ITB teams.

So these kids were trained by Chei and Taufik, and Rivan too. No wonder they’re good. Persuade them to sign up to ITB ya coach!

2. Those High School Brats, Part 2
Apparently SMU-3 Bandung, under the tutor of Uphie, was pretty much very successful in ALSA. SMA-3B got into the quarter final round (which eventually they got beaten by SMA-3A), and 3A got into the semi-finals. Plus, Marsha Faradina from SMA-3A got the Best Overall Speaker Awards too. So despite our loss in the varsity level, the pepol that we trained and sparred with are getting good results.

3. HERCULES IS DEAD!!
Fahri Ahmad, our newest member, Math 2004, that shy guy that often got nervous even when doing a speech in practices, WON THE STORYTELLING CONTEST!!

Fahri performed last in the closing ceremony of ALSA. The title of his story was “Death of Hercules” or something like that. It’s about the death of Hercules (yes, the son of Zeus) in the hands of Rahwana. In his last words, Hercules asked his best friend Iolaus to find a hero named Gatotkaca. Then Iolaus departed in a journey to find Gatotkaca. Gatotkaca was found, and agreed to hunt down Rahwana to avenge Hercules. Turns out that Rahwana is actually dying from his wounds after fighting against Hercules, and asked for Gatotkaca’s mercy because he wanted to die in peace. In the end, Gatotkaca forgave Rahwana.

The performance involved singing, angered screaming, weeping, and many other effects. I personally thought it was a solid and eye-catching performance. Keep it up, Fahri! Turns out we could excel in fields other than debating.

4. The Unprecedented Loss
This is what you’ve been waiting for. Some SEF members has asked me to post this story here quick so pepol could read it.

ITB-B was one of the main favorites to win ALSA 2008 (according to more than 5 pepol and more who patted us and shook our hands and said “Hawa-hawanya ITB juara nih”), especially when we performed quite good in the prelim, ranked 2nd and with 4 VP and a pretty high team score and total margin.

But we lost to FH-UNSOED in the octo-finals (THBT the gov’t should never rescue failing private industries – we were affirmative). Now I really don’t have any intention to undermine UNSOED, but I personally think that our team deserved to win at that round. Our proposal wasn’t that solid, but we managed to bring good arguments, GREAT rebuttals, and we dominated the dynamics of the debate. Apparently the panel of adjudicators (Nando UGM, Titis ALSA-UI, and Tya EDS-UI) didn’t think so. It was a split decision of 2-1, and in the announcement turned out that it was for UNSOED.

WHAT HAPPENED?

We don’t know! Nando gave us the assessment. He dismissed one of our major argument by saying “It cannot be accepted by a normal reasonable person” and justified that one of the minor lines of UNSOED stood until the end of the debate (despite the fact that they only explained it for one or two sentences in the 7th minute of the 2nd speaker). Moreover, the assessment sounded like a rebuttal contest in some of our arguments, because Nando explained to us reasons why our arguments didn’t stand, although UNSOED never brought these reasons in the debate.

THE WITNESSES

We were extremely upset. Thank God I didn’t cry like in IVED. Few hours later our L.O told me that at first, there were two adjudicators siding for us to win the debate, so it was 2-1 for us in the first place (with Nando being the only one siding for UNSOED). Our L.O knew this because she heard Nando asking both of the panelists on who they chose to be the winner, and both answered ‘affirmative’. Then there was some conversation between them, and suddenly Tya changed her mind, and then it was 2-1 for UNSOED.

We think a conversation among adjs to determine the victor wasn’t supposed to happen, so we reported this to the A-Team. In the following day, we gathered up with all of the A-Team to discuss about this matter. Tya confirmed that the reason of her changing her mind was because there were some facts that she wanted to confirm first. At the end of the discussion, we received an informal apology from the A-Team for a violation of the adjudication process because of a conversation happened which led to an agreement.

THE CONSPIRACY THEORY

If we broke through the Octo-Finals, we were going to go up against either UGM-A or UNPAR-A. Because Nando is a member of EDS-UGM, it led to some pepol suspecting that Nando might’ve been wanting UNSOED to go through to the quarter finals because statistically they seem weaker than ITB-B.

But this is just gossip and some malicious thinking in some of our brains. Lots of L.Os said to us that they suspected this conspiracy to really happen. I personally think that THIS IS NOT TRUE. And I have the feeling some ITB pepol are going to kill me if I keep on suspecting these conspiracy theories, so I’ll just stop right here.

5. The founder of SEF
We actually met with a man that introduced himself as the founder of SEF. Mr. Marpaung, Elektro’67. He claimed that he’s one of the 4 people that founded the English Forum. He told us that it wasn’t called SEF when it was first built (I forgot the initial name, it was ECC, or EEC, or something like that).

This talkative old man turned out to be Jonathan (EDS-UI B)’s father. He told us many things about the first generations of SEF, the activites, which are dominated with inviting native speakers and practicing English by chatting with them.

He spoke a lot. But bottom line was that we could do great and important things with SEF even with a small number of members, because back then he only had 4 members total but he managed to convene some programs like ‘Malam Keakraban’s or something.


So those were all of the interesting events we had in ALSA. Remind me if there’s something you feel like worthy enough to be written here.

My Disagreement on UAN

UAN

So what'll I write ya.

Personally I dont really like UAN-type problem sets. And I dont like bimbels also. I didnt take any bimbels when I was in HS, altho Ive registered to some.

I believe in science appreciation. And all these bimbels and problem sets thingy just make our young generation oblivious to what science is. I want to appreciate and enjoy cosmology, geometry, microbiology, or chemical bonds. But the teaching system of our teachers just doesnt suit us to appreciate science, coz the orientation is problem-sets. And then in the end, you'll just go to bimbels coz u see no reason to appreciate science.

Dont ask me how bimbels arent appreciating science. They wont have any 'cara cepat' if they're appreciative.

In the first place, I am one of the people that disagree to the existence of UAN or those kind of national tests.

2008 Resolutions

 

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."

-Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

I have a tendency to set up logical targets, even when it makes them look too easy. Most people (at least those around me) believe that 'target' is something a bit higher than what you are able to achieve, while sometimes forgetting the feasibility itself. I believe a 'target' is something that you are able and want to achieve, but needs a certain extent of effort in reaching it. What’s often so difficult about reaching targets isn’t the magnitude of the effort, but the will. And that will is what I want to attain through writing down these new year resolutions.

So here they are. By the name of Allah, most gracious and merciful.

• 4th and 5th Semester GPA each > 2.3
  
• To Allocate at least 3 hours of regular studying every week
• To Attend at least one Debating Championship outside Java Island
• To Do at least 20 push-ups every two-days
• To Allocate at least 1 hour for room cleanup every week
• To Acquire a new motherboard, processor, and VGA-Card. Each at least one generation above my current ones
• To Have at least 2 sugar-free days every week
• To Never spend more than Rp. 200.000 per week, except for emergencies

Resolved: Exams With All-Difficult Questions Are Harmful

"Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer."
-Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832)


From my high-school days, I tend to believe that teachers are actually doing harm to their students by giving out tests with all-difficult problems. I experience these a lot in ITB. Today I just had a Basic Electronics final-exam, and it was a huge failure. The subject sucks, and the exam sucks even harder (and yes I am fueling negative thoughts into my sub-conscious right now).

What I believe teachers, and lecturers, should give out, if they want to make a test difficult, is modify the composition of the problems. Giving out a test with a 100% Olympiad-level difficulty could demotivate some students. What I meant when I said "composition of problems" is that lecturers should give out an exam which has questions with various difficulty levels in it. For example: a 5-problems exam could consist of 1 easy question, 1 medium question, and 3 difficult questions. The first easy question would reward those with short study hours, and the medium-question would reward those with medium study hours. The point is that this kind of exam rewards EVERYONE who has studied.

One or two problems being correct is hardly enough to even get a C, not to mention if the lecturers are killer ones. But they're significant because at least the students feel motivated and rewarded. It could make them study harder next time because they feel that the time they spent studying is proportional to the marks they get. On the other hand, an all-difficult questions makes students confused because they don't know whether if they increase their study-hours they would even get a higher mark. Some would even feel that studying is useless because the questions would be out of the world anyway.

And a lot of students, and I mean almost everyone, will then choose an easier solution when they do feel that the time they've spent for studying is useless; cheating. Cheating is a plague (or a saviour, if I may say) in ITB. I would predict that 80% of the students often do cheating. And I don't think that the lecturers realize this spreading trend.

But cheating is a logical solution when you feel that studying is already useless, or when you have to spend (or waste) 40+ ridiculous hours to stare at 1959284 kinds of Electric Circuits.

Basically I hate cheating. Although the Jedi ways told me not to hate, I still hate it. But alas, I have to do it in EVERY exams if I want to survive in ITB. Because I know that the 40 hours I have to spend memorizing the various formulas of Electric Circuits isn't worth the outcome.

The Cognitive Perspective of A Narcissist

Sama halnya dengan penyimpangan kepribadian lainnya, gaya kognitif dan keperluan defensif seorang narsisis bersatu bagaikan tidak berbatas, dan selalu bekerja untuk mendukung kecintaan mereka terhadap dirinya sendiri. Narsisis bermain erat dan lepas dengan kenyataan, mengubah dan membentuk kembali fakta-fakta untuk disesuaikan dengan apa yang mereka percayai, sebuah metode yang menurut Millon (1990) dapat disebut ekspansif. Beberapa pemimpin negara dunia ketiga atau pemimpin pergerakan organisasi politik ekstremis, misalnya, dapat mencampur adukkan antara mimpi-mimpi potensi tanpa batas (dreams of omnipotence) dengan tren-tren paranoid (paranoid trends) (Milliora, 1995). Sama halnya dengan apa yang terjadi di skala yang lebih kecil, yaitu hubungan narsisisme dengan beberapa tipe organisasi yang sengaja menyesuaikan fakta-fakta berdasarkan kebutuhan untuk medapatkan pengikut dan mempertahankan status tertentu (Sankowsky, 1995).

Sementara orang biasa memiliki target realistis yang menyeimbangkan kebutuhan pribadi mereka dengan kebutuhan orang lain, para narsisis memproyeksikan diri mereka dalam sebuah masa depan dengan fantasi yang berisi kesuksesan dan kekaguman orang lain terhadap pencapaian mereka. Fantasi ini kadang memiliki intensitas yang begitu tinggi hingga menandingi kenyataan, seperti Leonardo yang “mengetahui” bahwa takdirnya menyimpan sukses yang tidak terukur. Kekuatan, kekuasaan, kemampuan, dan kejayaan akan diri sendiri menjadi sebuah tontonan yang dimainkan secara berulang-ulang di dalam imajinasi. Dan karena sang narsisis menjadi pemain dan penonton dalam tontonan tersebut, tepukan tangan dari sang penonton selalu merupakan standing applause, membuat tontonan tersebut tidak pernah membosankan atau melelahkan untuk terus diulang. Tokoh-tokoh yang mengagumi sang narsisis juga seringkali memberikan kontribusi dalam imajinasi tersebut, seperti ibu dari Gerald yang selalu mengatakan pada anaknya bahwa suatu saat nanti ia ditakdirkan untuk “melakukan sesuatu yang penting”, seperti halnya juga orang tua dari Chase, yang selalu menekankan agar ia menjadi anak idaman. Hal menarik yang bisa ditemukan dari narsisis yang kreatif dan cerdas, seperti Chase, adalah bahwa fantasinya terbentuk untuk tujuan tertentu, yaitu mendukung kemampuan menulisnya.

Dengan mensubstitusikan kenyataan dengan fantasi, para narsisis memperkuat pemikiran mereka tentang kemampuan tanpa batas (omnipotence) dan menentukan tingkat arogansi mereka di dunia nyata. Orang biasa menjadi raja, sedangkan raja menjadi dewa. Untuk narsisis lainnya, imajinasi menjadi pelindung mereka dari rasa malu dan kelemahan. Sebagai akibatnya, tanpa imajinasi tersebut mereka akan menjadi pemalu karena mereka menganggap diri mereka lemah dan tidak berarti.

Penggunaan imajinasi tidak terbatas kepada masa depan, tetapi juga kepada masa lalu. Narsisis yang pencapaiannya rendah akan menganggap orang di sekitarnya berpikiran sempit dan kurang memperhatikan potensi yang sebenarnya tersimpan di dalam dirinya. Gerald merupakan sebuah contoh yang bagus dalam konteks ini, karena ia percaya bahwa bekerja dengan “cretins” sepanjang hidupnya telah menghambat potensi dan ide-ide briliannya. Sementara itu, narsisis yang telah mengalami kesuksesan pribadi akan melebih-lebihkan kesuksesan mereka sebagai suatu hal yang hanya dapat diraih oleh seseorang yang memiliki kemampuan dan pengetahuan tanpa batas (omnipotence and omniscience) seperti mereka.

Penggunaan berlebihan dari fantasi juga berkontribusi dalam berkurangnya empati terhadap orang lain. Kebanyakan narsisis terlena dalam mimpi dan imajinasi mereka yang berisi kesuksesan mereka di masa depan tanpa memikirkan kapan kesuksesan tersebut akan terjadi dan bagaimana caranya ia akan merealisasikannya. Hal ini terjadi karena berpikir tentang bagaimana cara merealisasikan imajinasi mereka akan mengurangi kenikmatan berimajinasi tersebut. Gerald juga merupakan contoh bagus disini, karena ia selalu menanamkan garis besar kesuksesan dalam imajinasinya tanpa berpikir detil tentang bagaimana mencapainya.

Kebanyakan narsisis dianggap bertanggung jawab atas sebuah kegagalan. Karena mereka tidak memiliki kemampuan untuk berempati terhadap kemampuan yang dimiliki orang lain, misalnya bawahan mereka. Saat bawahan mereka gagal melaksanakan perintah yang tidak masuk akal, sang narsisis tidak menganggap bahwa dirinya telah memberikan perintah yang terlalu berat tetapi menganggap bahwa bawahannyalah yang tidak memiliki kemampuan cukup untuk melaksanakan perintah. Untuk seorang narsisis, apa yang telah diperintahkan dalam kata lain telah diselesaikan, sebuah perilaku yang mengontrol dan memberikan tekanan kepada orang yang bekerja dengan mereka. Hal inilah yang menyebabkan rekan kerja Gerald tidak menyukainya.

Perilaku seorang narsisis bertentangan dengan mereka yang kompulsif. Sementara para narsisis tidak bisa melihat pepohonan dalam sebuah hutan, mereka yang kompulsif tidak mampu melihat bahwa pepohonan membentuk sebuah hutan. Dalam kata lain, narsisis tidak mampu melihat detil dari suatu hal, yang seringkali menyebabkan mereka gagal memprediksi setiap hasil yang mungkin muncul dari setiap aksi yang mungkin dilakukan. Smentara itu mereka yang kompulsif memenuhi imajinasi mereka dengan ketakutan tentang apa yang mungkin terjadi karena kesalahan pribadi mereka. Para narsisis terlalu proaktif dan ambisius, sedangkan mereka yang kompulsif terlalu takut untuk beraksi dan terlalu berhati-hati. Kontradiksi ini dapat dilihat di pertentangan Kasus 7.2 dan 7.3 dengan Kasus 10.1 dan 10.2.

Denise Davis menulis di Beck et al. (1990) bahwa keinginan para narsisis untuk menjadi unik menciptakan beberapa distorsi kognitif. Yang pertama, narsisis rapuh terhadap penilaian ganda (dichotomous appraisal) akan diri mereka dan orang lain. Di saat stres karena ketidakmampuan melakukan sesuatu, kenyataan akan meruntuhkan anggapan para narsisis bahwa mereka memiliki kemampuan luar biasa. Sebaliknya mereka akan berpikir bahwa diri mereka tidak berharga dan tidak berarti. Seorang narsisis bisa menganggap teman dan keluarga mereka sangat loyal di satu waktu dan berkhianat untuk bekerja sama dengan musuh di waktu lainnya.

Kedua, narsisis selalu menyadari perbedaan sekecil apapun yang mereka miliki dibandingkan orang lain. Untuk mendukung perasaan bahwa diri mereka adalah superior dan unik, mereka selalu mencari perbedaan yang mereka butuhkan untuk menjadi unik dan yang mereka butuhkan untuk mempertahankan status mereka sebagai seseorang yang spesial. Perbedaan sekecil apapun akan dijadikan bukti bahwa mereka adalah orang yang exceptional. Hal ini berhubungan dengan keterangan sebelumnya, bahwa para narsisis mengakui setiap sifat baik dari orang di sekitarnya tetapi juga siap untuk menemukan kesalahan dan kekurangan mereka.

Karena para narsisis bertindak arogan, kita dapat berasumsi bahwa mereka memiliki kepercayaan terhadap superioritas mereka sendiri. Beck et al. (1990, pp. 50-51) menuliskan kepercayaan ini seperti, “Karena saya spesial, saya berhak mendapatkan dispensasi spesial, kehormatan, dan hak prerogatif,” “Saya lebih superior dari orang lain dan mereka patut menyadarinya,” dan “Saya tidak mau dibatasi peraturan.”

Beberapa narsisis bahkan percaya terhadap beberapa hal seperti “Jika orang lain tidak menyadari kemampuan lebih yang saya miliki, mereka harus dihukum”. Kepercayaan-kepercayaan tersebut dapat menerjemahkan apa yang ada dalam pikiran seorang narsisis tentang dunia sekitar. Banyak anggapan lain yang tidak ditulis oleh Beck yang juga dapat dimasukkan ke dalam daftar dimensi lainnya dari perilaku seorang narsisis, seperti halnya “Jika saya tidak sempurna, saya bukan apa-apa” atau untuk beberapa narsisis lainnya “Jika saya terlibat terlalu jauh dalam detil dari rencana saya, saya akan gagal.”

Foreign Aid’s Failure in Healing Indonesia’s Economical Crisis

This is an essay about why Indonesia should stop receiving foreign aids and loans from its bilateral and multilateral relationships to other countries in the world. The essay will cover up the reasons of why foreign loans will not work in Indonesia. In addition, this essay will also propose a counter-model which should be preferred by economists in rejuvenating Indonesia’s economy.

Indonesia has been facing a chronic economical crisis since 1998, when a drastic political change shook the nation violently, thus demanding a thorough reformation in every aspect of Indonesia’s governmental system. Foreign investors have become reluctant in coming to Indonesia because of instability, insecurity, and unconvincing future, rendering Indonesia’s economy wheel to roll much slower than before. Since then, Indonesia has been receiving many kinds of foreign aids from its bilateral and multilateral partners in the world, namely the IMF, the USAID, and the AusAID. These foreign developmental aids mostly come in the form of financial long-term loans with some relatively low interest-rates.

The main purpose of these aids is simple: to stimulate the growth of Indonesia’s economy so that Indonesia can return its economical state to normal again like it was before the crisis. It is hoped that these development aid can create a long-term and sustainable economic growth so that Indonesia can repay the loans plus its interests without damaging its economy, and then continue to prosper without further foreign aid. But in reality, foreign development aid has not been successful in restoring Indonesia’s economical state. In contrary, foreign loan has only damaged Indonesia’s economy even more because the economy isn’t growing like it was supposed to be. When it was due time to repay the loans, the government wasn’t able to replay even the loan’s interests, let alone the loan itself. Indonesia once borrowed US$ 43 billion from IMF, but wasn’t unable to replay the loan so that the government has to stop the loan in 2003. Moreover, the US$ 43 billion itself has been unable to improve the economical conditions of more than a half of Indonesia’s 220 million people to live below the poverty line, or to stimulate growth in Indonesia’s economical state. This failure has showed that foreign loan obviously does not work and might never work in a country such as Indonesia.

From this statement, people should ask the ultimate question: why won’t foreign aid work in Indonesia? There are two main reasons of why foreign loans will not, or will never, succeed in healing Indonesia from the economical crisis that has been inflicting the country since 1998.

The first reason is very simple, if not very common; corruption. Corruption is a common plague that occurs in Indonesia. According to Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Indonesia has never been excluded from the world’s ten most corrupt countries since 1998. In a large and multicultural country such as Indonesia, there are many chances for anyone to do corruption, especially in the government. This is caused by the long and exhausting line of bureaucracy that is required to send aid from the central government to remote areas all over Indonesia. In other words, the aid must go through a lot of government levels from the highest to the lower ones. In that line of bureaucracy, in those multi government levels, corruption could happen anywhere, and could be done by anyone that is involved.

Some might argue that corruption rate could be decreased, that it can be pressed to its lowest rate by many kinds of efforts such as morality training for government members and the forming of anti-corruption organizations. Some even proposed that anti-corruption organizations such as the Indonesia Corruption Watch should be run by members of the opposition parties. All of these methods have a chance to succeed, and with proper profoundness in doing them, the chance is big. But these methods need time, and from what really happened everyone knows that the progress is very slow. That is why Indonesia cannot risk the chance of receiving any foreign aids while corruption rate is still very high.

The second reason, and probably the most important one, of why Indonesia shouldn’t be relying its economy to foreign aids, is because Indonesia’s own economical system is still too weak to support sustainable growth. This problem can be elaborated as follows: when foreign aid comes, Indonesia does get better. But this better state does not stay for too long because Indonesia doesn’t have an economical system which supports sustainable growth. According to the World Bank, Indonesia’s economy growth is only above 4 percent in 2005, which is scarcely enough to save most Indonesian people from poverty. What the government must do is create a better system that can sustain growth and does not degrade as time goes by.

Until now, Indonesia’s economy is still affected heavily by the presence of foreign investors in the stock market. This has made Indonesia’s economical state to be very fragile because these foreign investors can pull out their money out of Indonesia anytime they like.

The solution of this fragility is the development of poor entrepreneurs (mostly called UMKM or Usaha Mikro Kecil Menengah in Indonesia) which have a great potential in becoming Indonesia’s economy backbone. UMKMs absorb many people into going to work, plus it can be run without a relatively low operational cost. In other words reduce the level of unemployment greatly, especially among the poor people. If Indonesian people and its government can give enough time and enough chance for UMKMs to develop, they could even grow to companies that are able to create products which quality matches those of the big franchise companies. Lastly, the UMKMs aren’t too much affected by the economical crisis or economical instability that can occur anytime in Indonesia because they are used to thrive on their own money without too much help from the government.

The UMKM is a perfect solution for Indonesia’s economical crisis because even when great instability struck Indonesia and causes many foreign investors to pull out their money from this country, many people still won’t lose their job because the UMKM sectors aren’t too much affected. In other words, Indonesia’s economy wheel will keep on rolling even in bleak times.

In closing, it should be realized that the steps in healing Indonesia’s economy is as follows (none of these includes the need of foreign aid):

• First, Indonesia should create and develop a system which has the ability to support sustainable growth in its economy. The UMKM, as stated above, is the perfect way of fulfilling this;
• Then, corruption should be pressed to its lowest level by any means possible. This is to be sure that the economical sustainability will not be damaged again;
• Last, Indonesia should put its energy in the effort of inviting foreign investors in investing their money in Indonesia to make Indonesia’s economy grow even more powerful.

The conclusion of this essay is that Indonesia should stop depending on external aid and start realizing that even with its own strength Indonesia could rejuvenate its economy and restore stability like it was before the crisis, and probably even better.

My Hometown - Bekasi

My hometown - Bekasi

Basically there is nothing too special about my hometown, Bekasi. It has no tall skyscrapers or giant walls of concrete like seen in big cities. Nor does it have any famous places of interests to give people some reasons to stop by in Bekasi. But despite the lack of attractive sites in the town, many people still consider Bekasi as a cozy and peaceful town to live in. This is proven by the large number of 2 million people living within the town.

Let me give you some analysis of why most people see Bekasi as a perfect place to live in:

The first, and the main, reason is because of Bekasi's strategic location. The town is less than a forty-five minutes trip from Jakarta, and approximately one and a half hours from Bandung, when given the fact that the freeway isn't hit by a traffic jam. Thus, the Bekasi residents that works in Jakarta, or those that need to go to Bandung often, could reach their destinations in short durations of time.

The second reason, is because Bekasi has its own industrial sites and commercial zones which could provide enough work for its residents. Unemployment rate is low in Bekasi. According to www.kotabekasi.go.id, only 7.12 percent of the total populations in Bekasi are unemployed. The wide commercial areas in Bekasi also provide some amount of satisfaction for most of the consumers in the town, although people from the higher economical classes prefer to travel to Jakarta to shop.

The third reason, is Bekasi’s suburban atmosphere. The town’s population is not too dense, and pollution level is slightly lower than those in big cities. Some people might ask why this third reason is such a positive thing for the residents of Bekasi. But when this reason is combined with the first reason, then Bekasi could be the perfect place to live for people who work in Jakarta but do not want to be caught in a big-city’s troubles such as constant traffic jams and heavy pollution.

Those are my analysis of why Bekasi is preferred by many people as the perfect home. It suits almost any kinds of people, from hard workers that need to be anywhere fast, to simple families that want nothing more that peace. It is also suitable to ITB students, like me, that need to be home anytime he misses it