Here’s one for the connoisseurs of the discussion on Bule behavior in Indonesia:
“I have met a lot of bule businessmen in Jakarta and Balikpapan who get a great salary simply because they are Caucasian. I start chatting with them and they just go on and on bitching about the locals. I find this straight out offensive and I can’t believe they have the audacity to even say such things when they should be in actual fact thankful for getting paid so much money compared to their Indonesian counterpart. “
Says Dorte, one of the latest recruit to Maverick in the company’s blog, where Unspun pretends to work. Spot the Betawi Albino among Maverick’s newest batch of recruits.
Unspun 
expats are the same where ever they go. i lived in germany, and expats often bitched about the germans. and the expats i know here bitch about the irish in exactly the same way they did in germany.
expats are a pompous breed.
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I think you need to define your terms here.
You’ve hoisted the “expat” pinata, – must be a slow Monday- loosed some some cheap shots, but dodged a balanced, thoughtful discussion.
It’s as unhelpful to complain about “expats” as it is for “non-Indonesian residents” to criticize “Indonesians” – such mass generalizations are the currency of the ignorrant and this blog should aspire to be a cut above, no?
The sterotypical fat, white overpaid/underskilled dispatched-from-home-office for a two-year stint “in the field” as part of a corporate ladder climb has mostly gone the way of the passenger pigeon.
They were pretty thin-on-the-round by the end of the nineties and the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis pretty well put-aid to the concept.
And not before time, either.
The stereotypical expat was nothing less than a corporate spin on the colonial admistrators who made out like bandits while the locals got crumbs.
Certainly you can find “non-Indonesian residents” who still reap the high salaries and massive perks of the stereotypical expat – car & driver, sumptous company-paid apartment/villa, long vacations etc.
But those individuals are now a miniscule minority and strictly confined to the petroleum/mining sector (your source with the wide-angle “expat” slur cites Balikpapan – oil money, dearie) and the handful of Fortune 500 firms here in Jakarta that employ “non-Indonesian residents”.
And frankly, the stereotypical expats’ living conditions are a template for the Indonesian elite, though with a less palpable contempt for the common people than that exhibited by the local upper strata.
The rest of the “non-Indonesian residents” you’ll meet in Jakarta couldn’t be more different from the perjorative expat trotted out in your post.
They tend to speak at least one Asian language, live much closer to the ground in terms of accomodations – think Puri Casablance, Taman Rasuna – and are making salaries that are a fraction of the sterotypical expat as companies have tightened budgets, slashed benefits and prioritized local hiring.
Those “non-Indonesian residents” are still needed by their companies for reasons of skill sets, institutional knowledge and a range of other factors that gives them value-added in any Asian environment, including Indonesia. Believe me, if companies can employ 100% staff, they do.
Higher salaries than locals? Yes, still.
The reason?
Well, an afternoon spent with one of the multititude of “rental agents” will give you a helpful hint. Non-Indonesian residents are automatically subject to arbitrary tariffs and higher living costs starting with accomodation, taxes (the majority of Indonesians pay zero) and the bewildering array of fees for visas, visa extensions, import of personal goods, you name it.
Life quality limitations also dictate a salary premium – non-residents have zero civil rights in terms of legitimate redress for life quality issues. They can’t run for office or campaign for a new government to make the country a better place. They’re stuck with it. In return – a salary premium. Not unreasonable.
Now, people – any people – sitting around “bitching about the locals” is as distasteful as it is boring. But it’s people’s right to do so – I just tune them out and don’t frequent the places where they congregate.
But I’m more than willing to listen to people and contribute to balanced discussions about some of the serious problems that are so rife and obvious living here in Indonesia – horrific pollution, lack of rule of law, rampant corrutption, etc etc.
I don’t check my critical thinking and right-of-expression at Customs when I arrive in a foreign country nor would I expect Indonesians to do so either when they visit my home in the U.K or anywhere else.
Sounds like your sources have had a couple of bruising encounters in Balikpapan, Berlin and – who knows? — the check-out counter at Kem Chiks in Kemang. Shame.
I only hope in future they’ll be a little more discriminating about wide-angle perjorative slurs like the one you so nicely packaged above.
kay
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does this only apply to the “white” expats who are in a small minority, or are the majority of expats in Indonesia – many of whom are Asians from Korea, Malaysia, Singapore etc – “overpaid” too?
And why does everyone think expats are only “white” anyway?
And why would a company want to overpay anyone? Goes against all the economic theory ever written.
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Bravo,
Someone finally brave enough to speak out.
Before going further, let me say, I’m not interested in making personal comments or offending people. I respect all nations and racial groups.
But the white expat community over here is the most parasitic group of do-nothing colonial wannabes that ever stepped off the boat. The main attraction for the men are philandering opportunities; a steady supply of financially desperate village girls willing to offer themselves . For the rest, it’s an easy life with a minimum of effort.
The only thing they contribute is the hard currency they spend and the $1,200 training tax.
Fixing the situation’s gotta be high up on the agenda for any right-thinking nationalist. The ’45 revolution was about taking back what is ours. Obviously its a work-in-progress, but rest assured white boys, we’re working on it !
Indcoup: next time get a basic education before you put fingers to keyboard ! Companies waste money all the time. Someone must have hired you at some point.
Increase da Peace,
Achmad
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Just while I’m at it, a few more things to get off my chest:
Kay: you’re either living in dreamland, have an agenda, or what I think is ‘thou doth protest too much.’
Sure there’s a destitute class of Blue that amount to international flotsam and jetsam. They’re only here because they don’t make the grade teaching English in Seoul or Tokyo.
Here are some subcategories of Blue:
1) Bottom Feeders, aka Bule Kere, Bule Gembel, Bule Miskin.
Lives: Jalan Jaksa, Taman Rasuna, Kos.
Professions: Bums (mostly), not clear, Bloggers.
This group of people are what can politely be called ‘white trash.’ And like their counterparts in the American South, they compensate for their place on the social scale by looking down on natives.
Some masquerade as English teachers (otherwise a noble profession), and they ran the gamut from geriatric and ancient tragedies at Jl. Jaksa to 20-something druggies at Stadium.
Often heard saying: ‘just trying to save enough to get to the next full moon party in Thailand – actually stuff it – I’ll just go to Stadium.’
2) Pseudo Intellectual Whiners.
Lives: Taman Rasuna, Puri Casablanca, Menteng, Kos.
Works: foreign media, NGOs.
This parasitic group make their living off other people’s problems. They disguise their contempt for Indonesia by pretending to care, write, or fix its problems. Scratch the surface, though, and you’ll get a litany of complaints about the corruption, laziness and incompetence of the natives. In the NGOs, locals do most of the work, the foreign media plagiarise most of it from the local press, once again translated by locals.
Often heard saying: ‘Indonesia’s getting passe’
3) Meneer, Wannabe Memsahibs, Colonial Administrators.
Lives: Kemang, Kebayoran, Menteng, Apt. Sahid.
Works: foreign multinational, local companies.
Long-term (10 years or more) managers, often hired by shady local companies who want to appear more ‘international’ – so they give one of these guys a back room and a token salary on the understanding they’ll stay out of people’s way.
Often heard saying: ‘hey it’s 3:50 pm time to hit B.A.T.S.’
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Flamebait, lemme bite.
> I respect all nations and racial groups.
Oh right, that’s the usual proviso for all racists.
> The main attraction for the men are philandering opportunities; […] it’s an easy life with a minimum of effort.
And? Jesus, what more could any Buleh or Indonesian want??? Sounds like paradise!
> The ‘45 revolution was about taking back what is ours.
You are mistaken, Indonesians never took it back, freedom was given to you by the USA. It was they who took out the Japs, and called off the Dutch. (Also – Indonesian sultans basically /gave/ away freedom to the Dutch while squabling amongst themselves.)
> get a basic education before you put fingers to keyboard !
ditto.
> Meneer, Wannabe Memsahibs, Colonial Administrators.
Ah yes, and what about the Javanese who have done such a great job with your freedom all over the Empire of Java? I am sure Papua, E Timor and Aceh would have much prefered Meneer to the sadistic TNI.
———–
Buleh are often blindingly hypocritical and some have (absurd) victim complexes – but most of their Indonesian peers aren’t /any/ better.
Bitch and moan all you like, the R in RI means that Indonesians can only blame themselves for the abject failure that RI has become over the last 60 Years.
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Friends,
A quick note, with more on my Blog later.
Firstly, it’s important, when you’re posting blog comments, to keep things impartial, fair, and above-the-belt, sticking to the ‘Queensbury Rules’ of debate.
That’s why we should remember where John comes from, Ireland. This country was forced onto a low-carb diet when they ran out of potatoes circa 1845-49. Aftwards, the best DNA strands (the smartest Irish), migrated, (Morrisey, the Kennedys, etc), leaving the remaining pool a bit wanting in diversity. Cousins married cousins, and the regressive strain got stronger until you’ve got the likes of John.
So we should cut him some slack.
On his Blog, he talks about how much Indonesians adore ‘Bulehs’ (just what is that, anyway, Creme Buleh, a desert eaten by White Men who can’t spell?), and how Indonesia is a failure as a society. I won’t take up too much space on the good Mr. Unpun’s blog, just on the failure note, leaving you with the following:
* Relatively (not entirely) violence-free transition from authoritarian to democratic rule, something it took Europe about 800-1,000 years, depending how you measure it.
* One of the most-free presses in Asia (along with the ‘Pines and India – we sure kick the conglomerate-controlled U.S. and Australian press’ asses.)
* Resolution of 29-year conflict in Aceh
Sure we’ve got our challenges – Papua for example. But there’s nothing that a cross-eyed Drunkard from a country where Catholics and Protestants have been blowing each other up over nothing in particular, can tell us.
Increase Da Peace
Achmad
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Achmad, you’ve proven what I’ve said about you being racist better than any of my “bellow the belt” remarks.
I never said the Irish or any other folk were any better (in fact my point was that Buleh in RI were /just/ as bad as Indonesians, and I’ve been pretty hard on them in the past). In any case, progress only came when we stopped bitching about other races and took responsibility for ourselves – something which you, Achmad, haven’t obviously managed.
Go slap yourself on the back for Aceh and E Timor dude, job well done (I wonder would the Acehnese and Timorese agree?).
> a country where Catholics and Protestants have been blowing each other up over nothing in particular
well, as the conflict grew from 17th century transmigrasi i suspect you guys could learn from it…
[Achmad, I take the same line on the Irish sparking off about blacks, Muslims, Asians, Eastern Europeans etc. here; maybe foreigners in RI are overpaid and oversexed, but it’s still the same disgusting bullshit]
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John,
Have yourself a nice Creme Buleh (it’s spelt bule), and a bit of a sit down. You certainly didn’t say the Irish were any better because any attempt to do so would draw loud guffaws at any bar in the civilized world.
All will be explained on my Blog. But please find a taster below.
‘Failed States’ are places like Somalia and Afghanistan. Not Indonesia.
There’s a certain breed of white folk who are looking for failure in ex-colonies like Indonesia. Successes are ignored, failures are amplified.
Increase da Peace.
Achmad
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Dear Achmad, after first reading your blog and admiring an Indonesian with a superior command of the English language as well as being amused by your (somewhat obvious) comments on Western media and its glorification of bad news, I was utterly disappointed to learn of your attitude towards what you refer to as ‘bule’. You have shown yourself to be a small minded individual and one who has perhaps been tainted by what I may propose is the effect of a Malaysian education. While your education has perhaps had a positive impact on your grammar and control of tense in English, it has failed to enlighten you on the basic rules of economics and resource allocation (human and otherwise) as well as the ability to accept the importance of a global labor force and international specialization. I fear you are stuck in a bitter state; learning now that your country has had a history of taking money from Western countries and investment from multinationals at the expense of developing its own intellectual resources. It, in fact, continues to promote underdevelopment with backward policies that permit capital flight for fear of such things as local surgeons and foreign investment is critical infrastructure. You, Achmad, are a prime example of an individual in the midst of a bitter awakening that the ‘bule’ has advanced far ahead of a Javanese empire that was so quickly taken by a host of Dutch boatmen and now, with a mere 6 years of Democracy, is in a delicate state of autonomous resurgence. I think it is far more important for you to figure out your value and place at this stage of Indonesia’s nationhood rather than take on the battle of ‘putting in their place’ the handful of dim witted, and by-and-large Australian, bloggers that seem to so easily irk you.
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Dear Achmad, after first reading your blog and admiring an Indonesian with a superior command of the English language as well as being amused by your (somewhat obvious) comments on Western media and its glorification of bad news, I was utterly disappointed to learn of your attitude towards what you refer to as ‘bule’.
You have shown yourself to be a small minded individual and one who has perhaps been tainted by what I may propose is the effect of a Malaysian education.
While your education has perhaps had a positive impact on your grammar and control of tense in English, it has failed to enlighten you on the basic rules of economics and resource allocation (human and otherwise) as well as the ability to accept the importance of a global labor force and international specialization.
I fear you are stuck in a bitter state; learning now that your country has had a history of taking money from Western countries and investment from multinationals at the expense of developing its own intellectual resources. It, in fact, continues to promote underdevelopment with backward policies that permit capital flight for fear of such things as local surgeons and foreign investment in critical infrastructure.
You, Achmad, are a prime example of an individual in the midst of a bitter awakening that the ‘bule’ has advanced far ahead of a Javanese empire that was so quickly taken by a host of Dutch boatmen and now, with a mere 6 years of Democracy, is in a delicate state of autonomous resurgence.
I think it is far more important for you to figure out your value and place at this stage of Indonesia’s nationhood rather than take on the battle of ‘putting in their place’ the handful of dim witted, and by-and-large Australian, bloggers that seem to so easily irk you.
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Dear Avi,
Mate, as Bob Dylan said, it ain’t (just) me Babe, check out Bank Indonesia’s new banking policy package, which limits foreign expats. (Although I now hear that was aimed at limiting the amount of middle managers Citibank ships in from India).
I think it’s a case of what paradigm you subscribe to. Hard to say from your post, but it sounds like when you’re talking about ‘basic economics and resource allocation,’ you’re buying into Western neo-classical economics, maybe with a bit of Keynesian tinkering.
I just think the West should pay for what it’s done to the great nations of Asia that should rightfully be ruling the world, not some hick ex-coke-snorting born again Christian who says things like “my enemies misunderestimate him.
My main mandate is to speak The Truth. Sometimes people don’t like it. I welcome those who want to add to the picture.
Increase Da Peace,
Achmad
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