Sabil Ardie

Ha! I honestly forgot that I have a blog for months!

All these times I simply used twitter whenever I have anything to say or comment about my life. But now I think I want to write something here for a change.

So, I’m apparently been doing so many things at once lately. I’m working full time at the Ministry for Development of Disadvantaged Areas, as the minister’s special staff on international affairs. I’m also in the Newfield Asia coaching foundation program. Not to mention my Mandarin class. And lately I’ve started something, applying to universities for my master degree.

I’ve applied to Harvard Kennedy School. I just sent the application two days ago. I applied for their Master in Public Policy program. I’ve told everyone I know about this, and most of them are happy for me (but exactly how many of them actually believe I’m going to be accepted is a different story).

Now, if you know me even for a little bit, you’d know I’m a full-time IT geek. I taught computer class to my classmates when I was in high school, I went for an IT degree, I was a part-time programmer, I started my own IT company, I’m an Apple User Group moderator, and I have bunch of computers in my home. I know IT, I speak IT, and basically I breathe IT. So why public policy?

Well,  it started in 2007. That is when I started to get involved in the government business. That year I took an offer to be an expert staff in the house of representatives of Indonesia. I was introduced to the system that basically allows all of our activities to be in motion. For the first time, I was in touch with the process of planning of a document. It was a 9-months-long process. For me, it was a grand orchestra of people, proposals, meetings, negotiations, and much more. Local governments, central governments, private businesses, organizations, and many more are the working either together or separately but still in sync. You may not realize it, but that document we call APBN (national budget), also affects your life.

Our national budget is a tool to build this country. Our life is affected by it. A simple example would the very medium you are using now, the internet. How much you are paying now for this internet access, is affected by our national budget. You see, the national budget specifies how much taxes are to be collected in a given year, including taxes to be collected from your internet provider. That cost is definitely going to be passed on to you.

All this work attracted me. I like to be inside the system that keeps our nation running. So in November 2009, I took the jump from the legislative branch of the government, to the executive branch of the government. I took the offer to work for the Ministry, and now I’m totally hooked.

Working for the house of the representatives was all about planning and monitoring. Working for the ministry, the spirit is executing the plan. So in the ministry, I get the chance to actually do something.

I handle the international affairs in the ministry. I represent the ministry in international forum, build and maintain relationships with different countries, and oversees projects funded by international donors. It’s exciting to work with people from different background. I work with local governments, private companies, world bank, Indonesians, Americans, Spanish, Austrians, Chinese, and more. Everything is done to reduce poverty in Indonesia, and I like that.

However, I realize I have yet to master the domain of public service. Being in the position of a decision maker is not to be taken lightly. Whatever decision I make in Jakarta, affects the lives of the Indonesian people. With great power, comes great responsibility, said Peter Parker’s uncle. Now, I’m not a public servant. Furthermore, everything I know about governance is gained through experience. Not that it’s wrong, but if I want to be able to be more effective in doing this work, I would have to learn more about governance and public policy. I think I might as well learn from the best, so that’s why I applied to Harvard.

Will I be accepted? I don’t know. I’ve done my best to show my passion in the application. Whether the admission board see that I’m fit to be accepted or not, it’s up to them. Whatever the outcome, I will still continue on this path. It’s a different course in my life, and I like it.

Starting a blog a big decision to make, you know.

Sure, you may think I’m being silly — like I usually do. But I honestly believe that it is a big decision. You have to make a series of decision, and then you have to commit to it.

Let’s see… Where do we start? Let’s start from the time when you decided to make a blog and make our way down the list. First of all, after you decided you want to have a blog, you have to decide where are you going to have it hosted. I remember the days when there were only few options to choose. There were wordpress.com and blogger.com and few other ones. Nowdays, we have xanga, livejournal, typepad, and I don’t know what else. Plus, your networking sites also offer blogs. Look at myspace, multiply, friendster, yahoo360 (Is it still exist?).

Okay, so you’ve decided on one. The next step is to decide what your blog is going to be about. Is it going to be a diary, or is it going to be an review blog, or is it going to be a promotional blog. I haven’t even decided so far!

After you’ve got an idea of what kind of blog yours will be, then you have to keep writing. Well, as you may already figure out, not everyone writes well (Including me!) or enjoy writing. In previous blogs, I found writing a post felt like a chore. I know I’m not alone, because I realized that when someone mentioned it to me.

But writing is not the biggest decision of all. Many bloggers are forgetting the privacy issue. The biggest decision to make is to decide what to write, and what not to write. It is obvious that what you write on a blog gets into the internet. The INTER-NET. Inter connected network, network consists of millions of computers, phones, PDAs, etc. — And all those things are operated by people. So, after doing the math, what you write gets to be read by a lot of people. Think before you write.

By starting a blog, you are letting people know what you think and do. Those who forget this are bound to regret. Let me set an example: Let’s say you’re looking to work in a big multinational company. You are a good candidate, and the HR guy picks your cv to be selected by the decision makers. But before the HR guy give your name to the higher management, your name is being typed into google. Your blog shows up. The HR guy opens it up. The HR guy reads some of your posts and find some not-so-good side of you — let’s say about how you get cheated in a required exam. Few minutes later, your cv goes to the trash. But wait, may be you didn’t write about you cheated that said exam (You’re not that stupid). But the problem is, your friend wrote that in a comment or on his blog that was linked by your blog.

Another example: A girl wrote a lot in her blog, a creepy guy read the blog, the creepy guy know how she looks like from the pictures, the creepy guy knows her daily routine.

So wait, I just started a blog. OMG… What have I done?

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