Day 3 - Write about something you once misunderstood.

I once hated politics. It's something that I would avoid as best as I can. 

It's rotten. It's full of lies and fake personalities.
"I would never touch or go near politics," I said. 

That's at least what I believed until I reached 25 years old. 
My only exposure to politics were the political news I read or watch, involving the legislative, executive, and judicial branches that made the overall government of Indonesia. And it's all bad news. 

"Politics are just dirty. I would never bear to stand next to it."

Well. Little did I know that it holds a supreme power that control all aspect of our lives. 
I only just recently realized that politics can't be seperated from our lives. 

The environment where we grow up - it's all shaped by politics and poltical decision. 
My educational background, my economic conditions, and my daily habits, as well as my health conditions are all shaped by politics. 

You see, I have a huge value that I believe. It's justice and equality for all. But looking at current unsatisfying state of our nation, I feel like it's all shaped by politics! 

Even when you work at a company, most have it's own company politics as well. How you treat your boss, the transactional interaction between your colleagues, how you influence others for your own goal, and how you get influenced to believe or do particular thing that someone or something actually want you to do - it's all politics. 

It seems such a distasteful thing, at least for me who have a strong value of honesty. But, what can I do? If I work there, I become the part of the company politics, like it or not. It's either I am in power, or I am powerless. 

That's also the case with being a citizen. As much as I hate to say this, I am a citizen of my own country. This means that all political decisions affect my life.

 
If we zoom in the lens, how we interact and negotiate with our acquaintances for our own benefit is also politics. We decide who we want to keep our relationships with - it's politics. 

The way I couldn't afford a lavish lifestyle because I started my first job getting paid below official minimum wage amount is because of politics. The way I didn't know about the floor of UMP is because the crap public information by the government which was done because of a series of political decisions. The way I couldn't find a better job that time because the job market is tough is because of a series of political decisions. 

Fast forward to a few years later, I'd been working with government to achieve my KPI. It's incredibly hard to influence them. As they are in power. They would consider something if they can only see their own potential benefit. Well, it's no different than private companies, though. 

I'd been working to advocate policy. Policy adoption. It's big and it's not easy. Also, to be able to understand the overall picture, I needed to understand the historical political decisions and what's happening with other relevant key stakeholders. It's super complex situation, regulation, and condition that are shaped by political decisions. 

So what I'm trying to say is, now I know how strong political influence existance in our everyday life. I used to want to ignore them but I couldn't. Now, I am even required to understand the whole picture. 
And I need to understand to survive my work. It's hard, but, let's learn. 

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Distraction: 0.