Before we move on to Anita, Nunu’s dubious replacement, allow me to share a lovely little story which neatly sums up the vast uselessness of the TBI authorities. Nunu the alleged School Manager, Firlana the, ahem, “Office Supervisor”, Pauwsan Sutanto the owner, Lilies Agustin- Luke’s giddy goombah- they all look like complete fools in this one.

There used to be a function on the TBI website where you could post comments and questions on each school’s individual webpage. For example you would find comments like, “Berapa biaya belajar di TBI nih?” or, “When do the next IELTS course open TBI Bekasi?” At the end of 2012 I started randomly posting my own comments on there, adding to the TBI Dago page, “Apa kalian tahu TBI tidak taat pajak?” meaning, loosely, “Did you know TBI was a tax cheat?” At a school like TBI Dago it would sometimes last a few hours and sometimes last a couple of days, but at TBI Kelapa Gading and TBI Bekasi, I found that the negative comments would stay there much, much longer.

In January 6th 2013 (the comments were dated) I wrote on the TBI Bekasi webpage, “Hati hati. Banyak orang bilang manajer sekolah ini adalah PENJAHAT KELAMIN.” (“Be careful. Many people say that the school manager is a sex offender”). As you all know, this is entirely true. On the TBI Kelapa Gading website I wrote in capital letters, “TBI KELAPA GADING TIDAK TAAT PAJAK DAN MEMPERKERJAKAN BANYA GURU TANPA KITAS.” (TBI Kelapa Gading doesn’t pay taxes and employs many teachers without a work permit.) It didn’t end there. I posted several other highly uncomplimentary things which remained on the main page in capital letters and sat back and waited how long they would take to take the comments down.

January passed, and then February and then March and then April and then it was May. The TBI Bekasi webpage had had the words, “The school manager is a sex offender”, for over 4 months! At this point I emailed Pauwsan Sutanto and told him to look at his school’s webpage. I pointed out that neither Nunu or Firlana (Ashley’s “brilliant” picks to run a school) had even bothered to look at their own webpage for 4 months. For that matter, Luke’s trashy bit on the side, Lilies Agustin, the supposed TBI Marketing Manager, hadn’t even checked out TBI’s own website for months either. What exactly does this dizzy goombah do?  I pointed out that I had been telling him they were all chronically lazy for over a year and here was his proof. At that point I strongly suspected that he still read my emails but it was now to be proven. Within 24 hours not only were the offending comments gone (after being there since January) but the entire comments function for every single TBI school had been removed from their webpage. 

                                                                        Analysis

This story can tell you a lot about TBI. It shows that Ashley Platts had recommended a chronically lazy teacher (Nugraha Pratama) to run a school without even interviewing him and Nunu had then sat around doing nothing except collect his salary. Let me assure TBI of the bleedin’ obvious: an Indonesian manager who does nothing is not cheap. They are getting money for nothing, which means that Nunu was actually overpaid.

The story also reveals that the culture of laziness spreads across multiple branches. Not one person at TBI Bekasi checked their own webpage for 4 and a half months. Why bother having a webpage or comments function if no one even checks them? Furthermore, ultimate responsibility stretches to Lilies Agustin, Luke’s self-professed former lover, who he appointed in a scandalous piece of cronyism.Cameron used to endlessly tell Lilies that she had to administer the website more effectively. But in this sick company, trying to improve professionalism would only earn you a reputation as a “trouble maker with bad people skills.” Calling them on their laziness and lack of professionalism was always a big sin with these lazy sods. They are experts at shooting the messenger.

In a professional company, a premium company, pointing out that the website is not being properly monitored (to say the least) would be viewed as a service. Not at TBI. If Cam ever pointed out mistakes on the webpage, Lilies would run around screaming to Mariam that Cameron had “bad people skills” and needed to go easy! In retrospect, it is easy to see that the TBI Mafia were always terrified that people would realize how lazy and unprofessional they were. Pointing out their flaws was always likely to get an hysterical over-reaction. To paraphrase an over-used movie line: “They can’t handle the truth.”

Finally, let’s look at the comical figure of Pauwsan Sutanto, the school owner. Despite the angry tone of this blog, I usually call actions or words stupid, not people. But in the case of Pauwsan, the situation demands candour. The guy is an idiot. In 2006 Head Office recommended him BF, who he eventually fired for bad performance. In 2009 they sent him Helmy- who they failed to disclose was a known thief and sexual harasser of women at TBI Semarang. After Helmy stole from him, Pauwsan gave up on Head Office for a while and replaced him with me. Then after I left, he ran back to them again and accepted their idea to use Nunu as manager! Then Nunu failed, after not even checking his own school’s webpage from January to May 2013 and losing most of the students. So what does Pauwsan do? He goes back to… yep, Head Office… and asks for their suggestion for a new school manager! Can you imagine the email where he went to these proven nincompoops for help? Would it have looked something like this perhaps?

Dear Luke, Ashley, Lilies and the Rest of the Crazy Gang,

I know BF and Helmy and Nunu all turned out really, really badly and you recommended all of them, but can you send me another one please? I highly value your judgment, despite everything. I would prefer he wasn’t as lazy as Nunu, as light-fingered as Helmy or as pointlessly aggressive as Brian, but I know you won’t let me down this time.

PS. “Thanks to Head Office for not once monitoring their own website for the first 5 months of 2013. It would have taken 10 seconds to check the page and see those comments. But I understand. You guys work hard and are so busy, so I appreciate it anyway.”

All the best, Pauwsan Sutanto