The above table shows the list of TBI franchise schools. There is a chance that some of our opening dates may be off by a year in some cases, and we are happy to fix that if someone cares to correct us, but the point of this table is about the transfer of ‘power’ away from expats in the company. All of the 10 schools listed above now have Indonesian managers. We do not aim to criticize or defend this policy. The defense had best come from Ashley Platts, who convinced Ning and Mariam of the wisdom of the policy.

Our point is a very simple and factual one, but it makes Ashley Platts and Luke Preece very edgy. In the 6 group schools we listed yesterday and the 10 schools in the above table, we have a total of 16 TBI schools. Not one of them now has an expat manager. If you went back as little as 2 years ago every group school in Jakarta and Bandung had an expat manager. The incredible thing is not just that Platts and Preece have driven out every other expat by colluding together but that they have the nerve to deny clear facts and claim that a ‘no expats’ (except Preece and Platts ) policy doesn’t even exist. This ludicrous claim is an insult to everyone’s intelligence, but Luke Preece seems to believe everyone else is stupid just because honest folk usually believe his lies. TBI is now a no-expats-as-school-managers company.

Well-informed TBI followers will know that there is one school missing from our tables: TBI Pasar Kaliki. This is the only of 17 TBI schools which is still run by an expat. So why the sole exception for TBI Paskal? Well, you won’t be surprised to learn that this school is managed by…..Scott Martin, who has been Luke’s best friend since kindergarten.

Luke Preece and his minions have assured everyone (through their hate speech blog) that we are psychotics for believing there has been a plot to get rid of expat managers except Preece and Platts. We say you would have to be crazy to believe that TBI has gone from 100% expat school managers 5 years ago to 94% Indonesian managers today without a policy being behind it. It is a complete and very obvious change. Clear as daylight.

And of course Preece would have everyone believe we are also crazy for suspecting something is wrong when the one exception in the whole of TBI has been made for Luke’s best bud- a rotten manager whose employees wrote scathing commentaries about his performance at TBI Riau (before his demotion in April 2012).

Do you really have to be a crazy conspiracy theorist to believe that there’s something fishy about the fact that out of 7 billion humans on the planet, Luke Preece has made an exception to the ‘no expats’ rule only in the case of his own best friend? It’s common sense to realize that Luke Preece is prone to cronyism and nepotism. It’s very, very clear.

The thing about Scott- by all reports a terrible, incompetent manager- is that he is so servile to Preece that he poses no threat.  He is quite literally Luke Preece’s puppet and even lives in a house across the road from Preece so that he can be at as his master’s beck and call night and day.

The tables speak the truth, people. TBI has been hijacked by a corrupt troika- Ashley Platts, Mariam Kartikatresni and Luke Preece. They have removed all other rivals by underhanded and duplicitous means and backed each other up no matter how vile or even illegal their conduct. We will examine tomorrow what this hijacking means for TBI teachers.