Time for the Young to Take Over

THE YEAR OF THE PRODIGY. Last year of 2009 saw prolific young men rising to the next level and taking over the lead from the older generations. (From top left, clockwise) Anies Baswedan, Gumilar Somantri, Firmanzah, Barack Obama, Jonathan Favreau, and Josep Guardiola.

Persons who are in charge of top-level management positions are usually on the age of 50s or 60s. But few months ago my university friends and I were covered in disbelief as we found out that our newly-elected dean, impressively, did not follow suit. Still at the age of only 33, Pak Firmanzah rose against the seemingly impossible odds to beat other more experienced candidates to become the youngest-ever dean in the history of University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Economics (FEUI).

Because of his young age, at first many consider him as green and lacking on experience to lead the faculty –but so far he has proven the critics wrong. It has only been eight months since Pak Fiz –that’s how we usually call him– took charge as our new dean, but his hard-working attitude and attentive leadership style have made him a popular figure among us FEUI students.

My respected dean is not alone in this case. Recently such occurrence can no longer be considered as unlikely; up to this day we have seen a significant increase in number of younger people who have been given huge responsibility to hold an important role in high level –and so far they have proven to us that they can perform the given task as well as the older and more experienced generation does.

Before Firmanzah, In Indonesia the predecessor includes the person to whom he has to report now, Gumilar Rusliwa Soemantri, who became University of Indonesia’s rector at the age of only 44. UI sees a significant increase of its THES QS universities rank from 287^th to 201^st this year among 4000 universities which were evaluated, thanks to various internal reforms in UI that were encouraged by Gumilar himself.

Even more impressive is the achievement of Anies Baswedan, the rector of Paramadina University whose intellect earned him a place as one of the members of the so-called “Team 8”. Anies Baswedan was merely 38 years old when he was appointed as the head of the University and despite his relatively young age today he is highly regarded as one of the brightest political analysts in Indonesia.

Young people are rising and we can see that this phenomenon does happen in almost every sector in the world. In sports, this year many football pundits heaped praises on Josep Guardiola’s managerial ability as he rose to become the youngest UEFA Champions League winning manager ever. Only in his first season at the club, Guardiola, the former Spanish international who just turned 38 this year, successfully lead his star-studded FC Barcelona team to win the competition, having beaten the veteran 67-year old Sir Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United team in the final.

In world politics, perhaps this year will be best remembered because of the historic victory of Barack Obama, who, despite the robust challenge by far older and more experienced persons like John McCain and Hillary Clinton during the election, has been able to win the US presidential election and become the fifth-youngest man in the US history to occupy the oval office.

Barack Obama seems to read the wind as he also trusted several of his key posts to be given to the younger colleague of his. More experienced economist like the 66-year-old Joseph Stiglitz was left out in the cold and Obama decided to choose younger faces like 48-year-old Timothy Geithner as his Treasury Secretary or 40-year-old Peter Orzag as his Director of the Office of Management and Budget instead. Obama also appointed a young writing-prodigy named Jonathan Favreau, 28, as his Director of Speechwriting –and a brilliant speech deliverer and best-seller book author like Barack Obama definitely doesn’t trust ordinary man in doing that task, which allows the person to have a massive authority in controlling his words.

But unfortunately we did not have much choice during the last presidential election. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono certainly represented the older generation when he took oath as our president in the age of 60, and the same can also be said to his vice-president Boediono who was 67. Other candidates are very much the same and the youngest among them all is vice-president candidate Prabowo Subianto who, despite all of his youthful spirit and stirring speeches which he brought to us, was actually 57 and surely he will be a bit long in the tooth if he is to represent younger generation in the 2014 election.

Indonesia is lagging behind on the regeneration and this becomes a millstone around our neck today; you can just look to the last presidential election’s candidates or SBY’s ministerial cabinet formation and you will realize that both are still dominated by stale and old-timer politicians. We may have just finished our presidential election this year, but as we usher to the year of 2010 and are gearing up to the next 2014 election we might well start considering about rejuvenation.

Yes, the bitter fact is that Indonesia still highly depends to the older generation up to present –public are fed up staring at the same old faces and are ravenous for having younger generations to replace them.

In this year of 2009, people like Firmanzah, Gumilar Rusliwa Soemantri, Anies Baswedan, Barack Obama, and Josep Guardiola have proven to us that young people are up against the challenge. In the next year of 2010, will there be more number of young people who emerge at various top levels just like last year? Or will this be the year of revelation for someone waiting in the wings to bring about the rejuvenation in Indonesia’s 2014 election?

This article was part of the limited edition copy of The Jakarta Post special report; Review 2009 and Outlook 2010

The Man Behind the Magical Words

WHIZ-KID. The 27-year-old Jon Favreau (right) is the person behind Obama's imposing speech -and he has proven to us that if you are truly eager to reach your career's pinnacle; your age doesn't really play a part in accomplishing that dream.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy; tonight is your answer.

...it's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment; change has come to America."

(Barack Obama, acceptance speech, November 4 2008)

In this world, there are two types of profession. The first is the ones who work right underneath the highlight and savor recognition and popularity through his job –people like news announcer, actors, or sport athletes are within this category.

And there are people who work in background; the ones who actually play the role as important as the first type’s yet do not receive much recognition or popularity due to their behind-the-scene job.

As a president of the United States, Barack Obama can be considered very much the first type. Those moving speeches of his, like the lines that were written at the beginning, inspires many people not only Americans but also all the citizens of world.

But he wasn't really the one who made it –it’s the second-type person who actually wrote those imposing words to him.

Of all the shivering Americans who were awed by Barack Obama's inspirational speech, few realized that Jonathan Favreau, 27, was the man who played the most essential role behind the assembly of all those imposing words. Favreau, who was dubbed as the youngest-person speechwriter ever for US presidential inauguration few months ago, has achieved something that can be considered atypical for a person who is still on his relatively young age.

From college to White House, from jeans and polo-shirt to a formal suit with tie; now the merely 27-year old guy has an almost unlimited access to the oval office -Barack Obama’s prestigious workplace- as he is appointed as the director of speechwriting for the new president.

“Barack trusts him,” said David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist. “And Barack doesn’t trust too many folks with that — the notion of surrendering that much authority over his own words.”

"I call him Mozart because he's just this young creative genius." He added. (quoted from The New York Times)

True, this guy has humbly been working in the background and received less recognition than the one who enunciated his words, yet TIME Magazine still acknowledged him as his powerful words earned him a place in the magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2009.

And that’s a hell of achievement for a young person who, unlike his allies in the 100 list, spent his working time in Starbucks writing and researching with a coffee and a bottle of Red Bull as his companies (what a cool way to work indeed). You know, surely most of the person who are listed in TIME Magazine’s 100 list do not have time to hang out in the café like Starbucks.

But it wasn’t the café that matters; he went there as part of his job anyway –besides, the only peculiar thing about his habit of going to Starbucks is the place is considered an uncommon place to be your office. Talking about his work, it is said that when Obama’s campaign intensified he stayed late until 3am to finish his writing and woke up as early as 5am, and even worked 16 hours a day during that time.

The upshot was worth the sweat however; now the girls can only go crazy after him as this Adam Levine look-alike White House executive, still on his mid 20s, has been able to stamp his name in the US history as one of the youngest US President’s speechwriter directors ever.

Questioned why he's still single, the cool answer that Favreau uttered may break many young girls’ hearts, “The rigors of this campaign have prevented any sort of serious relationship.”(quoted from The New York Times)

Yes, Jon Favreau is an eager beaver; and the success that he titled should be an example to follow for every young man who aims high for his future. The lesson he taught us is straightforward, do more than just dream and put every bit of your expressions into action. Do not just dream and stand still –you have to make headway in your attempt to bring a successful career into reality.