Expats in Indonesia

Around 15 years ago, I started a career in a multinational company in Indonesia, and I was just a fresh graduated with less than 1-year of professional experience. I was very excited and proud of myself that I could be a part of this cool company located in one of the well-known business districts in Jakarta. The company has a casual working atmosphere with a piece of very modern design furniture. It also has a big playroom for their employees to relax and take a break from the routines. Apart from that, the company also hired few expatriates as the CEO, CFO, and managers. In my simple way of thinking, I had pictured my new office as a cool international company.

During my time working in this company, I was never involved or having any conversations with the expatriates. Not only because my English was also limited because I always feel nervous when talking to foreigners. I guess I wasn’t the only one, but many of my Indonesian colleagues felt the same way too. Besides that, the expats communicate or connect only with colleagues who can speak English or do activities together with other expats during lunchtime or office break. I have never seen they are trying to get along with Indonesian or at least try to speak with us in Bahasa Indonesia. We are the Indonesians who usually need to adapt by speak in English with them. 

Five years ago, in 2016, I decided to take a break from my career life, I was a manager at that time, and my English was already at a professional level. I started to do my hobby more often. I went scuba diving in Bali, and it turned out that I love scuba diving very much. Then, I decided to become a scuba diving teacher. I took an Instructor Training Course (ITC) in the best diving school in Indonesia, according to Scuba School International (SSI), with an American course director on a tiny Island in Lombok (Gili Air). The course was held in 14 days with 7 participants; the 3 of us were from Indonesia. 

After two weeks of training, I succeeded and started my career as a professional dive Instructor since then. I must work for 2-3 different dive schools to gain experience at the beginning until I end up going back to my old school, which has created me to become a dive instructor. I worked there for more than two years, and I enjoyed it very much. 

One day the manager started to discriminate some of the instructors. We were 15 dive instructors from all over the world, and I’m the only one local dive Instructor. He said the instructors who can speak languages, especially “German,” will prioritize taking students than those who speak only English. What a shock! Especially because the manager was an English man who could only speak English and a little bit of Bahasa Indonesia. It doesn’t matter how long you have experience as a dive instructor, and if you speak German, you’re becoming the priority Instructor.

Why German? Because many German tourists come for diving with us, but German people understand English. Logically, those tourists who come to Indonesia need to speak at least English. Anyway, when German people travel that far to Indonesia, they do not want to meet other German people. At least my opinion is right. If I want to see the Eiffel tower in France, I don’t expect to see other Indonesian people in France; of course, I want to meet French people. 

I was disappointed because the manager put me in a very difficult situation. There was a new dive Instructor who just finished ITC a couple of months ago and speaks German just became one of the priority instructors. At the same time, I was already working as an instructor for more than a year. I speak English fluently and Bahasa Indonesia, I don’t need a working permit in Indonesia, and I always became the translator of a few other expatriates when they are talking with local employees. I must stay behind, step back and wait until one of the priority instructors resign from their job. Very unlucky, that means I will have fewer students. Fewer students mean less money.

What Happened in Indonesia

Why do we like to give exclusivity to the foreigner in our own country? They aren’t any different from us except they speak more English than us.  The fact that they are living and working in Indonesia is the same as we are. They don’t really need to speak English.

I remembered the expats who worked in my first company, and they were less experienced than other local employees. They just graduated from their university abroad without experience working in Indonesia but have a position as managers in an Indonesian company. The company even gives them exclusivity by paying their working permit or KITAS and their apartment rent. Some people also said that the company gives them a driver and a car to drive them anywhere. I wish they treat the local employee the same as they treat the expats.

According to Gadjian.com It is important that the expats have exceptional skills and qualifications to ensure that they do not “steal” the available jobs for the locals. In Indonesia, there are certain jobs that foreign workers are not allowed to work in, such as personnel manager, human resource manager, chief executive officer (CEO), career advisor, job interviewer, and many more. 

New Style of Colonization

It’s a public secret that a lot of expatriates come to Indonesia to invest or doing business. Some of them own a business in the tourism industry. They build fancy resorts, villas, and restaurants in several tourism places in Indonesia like Bali, Lombok, Flores, etc. The fact that they hired local people to work for them as the helper or waitress is helping the economic development in the area. But we need to realize that they hired other expats to become our “boss”.  They are the managers, and we are the helpers.

When I did scuba diving before I became a diving teacher, I realized the owner of the diving schools are mostly expats, and the dive instructors are also expats. The local people are the helpers who prepare the tanks and the equipment for diving, prepare the boat, and cleaning everything when the customer is finished. That’s why I decided to become a dive instructor in my beautiful country. I don’t want the expats to threaten me like the helper. I am the owner of the house, and they are just guests in my country.

What about in other countries? 

To be continued in part II.