The person at the centre of the controversy around Rumah Bahasa is a Chinese-Indonesian name of Frendy Horas. In recent days he has sent us a number of very long comments responding to allegations made on this blog by former teachers, staff and customers. We will be featuring a number of these in the coming days, but today we want to focus on a key issue: the character of Frendy Horas himself. Therefore, we have named his post “Frendy Horas: Syaitan atau Bidadari?” This translates as, Frendy Horas: Demon or Angel? For their is a huge discrepancy between the way his former employees have represented him and the way he represents himself. In this post, we will review the two positions and ask which appears more likely at this point.

Frendy Horas, Si Syaitan

A large number of former customers, teachers and staff have contacted us with very concerning reports about Rumah Bahasa. One former staff member said that Frendy Horas “deserved to go to prison” for all the lies that he has told. Others have had said that Pak Horas has broken promises about salaries, employed expats on tourist visas as teachers, lied to customers abut starting dates for classes and refused to refund payments for classes that never started. There have also been threats to sue people, punch people and have them thrown in jail. Based on these reports, we have gained the impression that Frendy is just a confidence trickster (penipu) who is running a scam (tipuan) on the people of Jakarta. In summary, these people feel that Frendy Horas is a criminal who has been abusing the trust of many people. The customer below offers a good enough summary of this view.

What a pity that I have just found this article as my sister (a prospective student) has got into the trap of this bullshit school. We are very disappointed as this school promised to start the class in January, but they keep on extending with bunches of bullshit reasons. When we spoke with a guy who admit him self as a person who sits in a managerial position, he said that Frendy no longer operates this school, but has transferred this to his sister. We aim to get our money back in amount of 6 million by tonight or we will report them to Lotte Bintaro’s management as a liar institution.

         Frendy Horas, Si Bidadari

Over the last few days, Frendy Horas has contacted us directly and tried to “set the record straight” in a long series of comments defending his name and honour. We will be featuring these over the coming days, as they reveal a great deal of information about the school and its travails. But the general import of the posts is to tell us that Frendy is very “misunderstood”. Really, he is an honest and honorable man. Yes, it’s true some of the schools haven’t opened yet, but in this, Frendy is just a victim of circumstance. He didn’t mean to defraud anyone. (More on this soon.) Moreover, Frendy Horas is actually a paragon of virtue (seorang suci dan bermoral) who is uploading  the laws and customs of Indonesia. Frendy, according to Frendy, is a leading light of the Jakarta community who is an example of morality and decency for all of us. Here is what he has to say about the “morality” of Rumah Bahasa:

1. Kami melarang semua pegawai kami untuk merokok di arena Rumah Bahasa
2. Kami melarang semua pegawai kami untuk memiliki tato di sekujur tubuhnya
3. Kami melarang semua pegawai kami untuk mengonsumsi narkoba dan obat – obatan yang dilarang sesuai dengan Undang – Undang anti narkotik.
4. Kami melarang semua pegawai kami untuk mengonsumsi minuman beralkohol dan minuman yang diharamkan dalam Agama Islam.
5. Kami melarang semua pegawai kami untuk memiliki hubungan spesial antara pegawai dan karyawan juga pegawai dan pegawai lainnya.

Wow, Frendy Horas is so moral that he is even enforcing Islamic prohibitions against drinking for Christian Indonesians. There is nothing haram at all at RB. This man is a staunch defender of the faith.

Bidadari atau Syaitan?

So is Frendy Horas the angel he says he is? Or is Frendy Horas a confidence trickster who has conned many innocent victims?

We can’t know the full truth, but we know that more than 10 people have complained that Frendy Horas is a dishonest, scheming, manipulative “sweet-tongued liar” (pembohong lidah manis). For example, one customer was told that Frendy Horas did not manage RB again, but now he is back writing to us. This raises serious implications of dishonesty and deceit. Here are some more questions we have.

                Why did he lie that his sister was now in charge?

                Why did he lie that Season City would open?

                 Why did he lie that Green Bay would open?

                 Why, if he is honest, did he employ multiple teachers on tourist visas?

                 Why does RB keep threatening to sue and punch people?

In summary, we don’t trust Frendy Horas at all. We believe he is a confidence trickster (penipu dan pembohong). Maybe he doesn’t employ teachers with tattoos or alcoholics, but what does that prove? That is just an attempt to put lipstick on a pig. Until we receive news of refunds to multiple customers, we have no reason to trust the word of a suspected liar.