A few days ago we announced the pleasing news that The British Council, already in Medan, will be opening schools in Jakarta and Surabaya too, opening around March 2015. This will provide another respected, reliable alternative to unscrupulous local operators such as TBI (PT. Titian Buama Ilmu) or (even worse), Rumah Bahasa, a rogue school…
As we have long suggested. the TEFL industry is evolving very rapidly in Jakarta and laggards like TBI who are stuck in the 1990s are going to be left rapidly behind. TBI’s ‘no frills’ approach to TEFL worked well enough when Indonesia was an immature market but it is now looking incredibly dated and low-end.…
A rule change in the way international schools in Indonesia operate has generated confusion and frustration among education stakeholders, who say it is characteristic of the government’s lack of a global vision for the country’s education system. Under the Education Ministry regulation issued in May this year, and taking effect as of last Monday, Indonesian-owned…
The fact has been little commented on in the local media, but the Jokowi administration has just divided the old DIKNAS department in two. In place of the old DIKNAS (Education Department), there are now two new entities. The first is Dikti, which is about higher education; its full title is Direktorat Pendidikan Tinggi (Directorate…
Have you ever complained online about the service you received from a business? Have you ever liked a comment on Facebook which was critical of a politician or other public figure? Have you ever signed an online petition that might have offended the ‘dignity’ of a powerful person or their business interests? If you said yes to…
Free speech in Indonesia is seriously threatened by the Electronic Information and Transmissions Law (2008), often known simply as the ITE Law, which makes it a criminal offense to “defame” people. Inevitably, this law has become a tool of oppression of the ruling elite. Cases brought under this law typically involve a powerful and wealthy…
One of the most salient features of TBI’s legal letter to WordPress was the way that they fell into their favorite role when dealing with 3rd parties. As always, they start playing the victim and alleging that the person telling the truth about them is a vicious bully. Look at the legal document they sent…
You probably haven’t heard of Ronny Maryanto, but he is a symbol of how criminal defamation laws are being abused in Indonesia to silence critics of corruption and graft. His case is a worrying example of a trend in Indonesia whereby idealistic people who expose corruption are charged as criminals for “besmirching” the name of…
We have said that the TBI legal letter is very interesting in a number of ways. Yesterday we argued that it shows the authoritarian side of TBI, where anyone who disagrees with them must be silenced or even crushed. This is how they have always dealt with dissenting views inside the company at a senior…
TBI has once again shown its true authoritarian colours by making fresh legal claims against this blog. In a nutshell, they have contacted WordPress and claimed that this blog should be shut down because it somehow infringes the trademark or copyright of the TBI name. These claims were made in a ‘legally binding’ letter to…
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