#LEADSTAND 3: Leaders are servants
The basic skill of leadership is to lead yourself properly before you lead others.
At the end of 2018, my editors at Bisnis Indonesia Newspapers assigned me to become a regional journalist in East Kalimantan. Editors said it was a part of the development program for journalists. I was chosen to create a new branch office in Kalimantan because they saw me as a strong individual with great potential in leadership.
For me, leaders are servants. I felt guilty since I had to leave my born town (Jakarta), and I had to leave behind all tasks of my organization and the writer’s community programs. Without being too narcissistic, I was responsible as coordinator of the Catholic Writers Club named Agenda 18. I joined the community in 2012 when I was in college. When our seniors trusted me to become the coordinator, I knew this was the chance to upgrade my skill. So, without hesitation, I took the challenge.
Sometimes, I remembered my father said that I waste my time by moving to East Kalimantan. He thought I had done many things in literacy and writing, especially in Agenda 18. I successfully rebuilt the community, and created the book discussions program, writers’ gatherings, and book launch. I sacrifice my time and my energy, especially during the weekend to handle writing training and gathering. To be precise, I had to doit by myself, with a lack of support system and resources. I have a big faith in my passion, and my principle is being a leader means being a servant to others.
Moving to Balikpapan obviously impacted my daily activities. To sum up, I couldn’t sacrifice my time (as I usually did in Jakarta), because I have to create networking.
I felt bad since can’t arrange a program for my community and I lived abroad. The communication among our group got lesser than before. On the other hand, I got enthusiastic about knowing more about East Kalimantan. There is no day without reporting issues, finding news, and meeting new people. I enjoyed every little time even though I felt homesick sometimes.
As time goes by, I found that city of the mining and oil industry, which is Balikpapan, has many problems, especially in environmental development.
I remembered, in less than a week I lived there, my editor requested in-depth news for our Special Report edition. I know, I am good at managing tasks and working under pressure, then without hesitation, I made the report specifically about floods in Balikpapan.
The idea came based on my own experience. For two months lived in Balikpapan, I knew several places in this city were marginalized and vulnerable to the flood.
Based on my observation, I had confidence applied the issues for the sustainability reporting fellowship. And, YES! I got a fellowship from Alliances of Independent Journalist Indonesia for Sustainability Reporting.
My fellowship proposal was chosen to report on the new oil refinery of Pertamina and its impact on the water quality in Balikpapan.
Since I only had 6 months, I spent three months in Samarinda, the capital city of East Kalimantan. I lived alone on this cite, while my office exists in Balikpapan. So, sometimes, when my boss calls me back to Balikpapan, I have to go by travel car and it took 3 hours on the road.
My journey in Samarinda, brought me to learn more about the coal mining business as the core business in East Kalimantan that has been making this region of the top three biggest contributors to Indonesian GDP.
In Samarinda, I reported a coal mining area, 37 cases of deaths caused of left mine pits. Once again, without any confirmation, my editor wanted me to make a Special Report full of one page in less than 2 hours.
As I said, I am a manageable and responsible person, I can finish the report about mine pit cases of deaths, and the gap between coal mining revenue compared to East Kalimantan tax revenue and social impact.
According to my experiences, I found most East Kalimantan region is still under develop compared to Java. My journey has opened my eyes to the gap because of the lack of social development literacy. It taught me more curiosity about reported and watched government plans to move the Indonesian national capital city from Jakarta to East Kalimantan.
As a writer, I never forget to announce my experiences and inventions, especially my journey in Kalimantan. I am trying to influence people with my report and my opinion writing.
My motto as a leader is ‘ethics of care’. Caring is also responsible and aware of the service action to others. To reflect on my journey as a coordinator I knew, sometimes I need to restart myself and rethinking of my priority, especially to be more responsible.
I never regret my leaving Jakarta for East Kalimantan for several months. This decision taught me an important lesson, that ethics of care doesn’t enough to fix society.
In the future due to the problem of climate change, we need more leaders who will be able to become servants of others. Most importantly, in East Kalimantan’s perspective or any rural are in Indonesia, leaders are those who have ecological thoughts as a based paradigm for public policy.
This reflection has been put in my heart as my motivation to study abroad in development studies.
