Kafi, laughing marketing guru

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, tabita@cbn.net.id

Kafi Kurnia was talking about corruption during a radio program last week when he suddenly burst into laughter. One of the listeners, became upset and immediately called the radio station to warn him to be more serious in addressing such problems.

Kafi apologized, explaining that he had no intention to laugh at anyone.

Indeed, Kafi laughs a lot. He attributes his ability to laugh, even during the hard times, to John Irving. "He talked about tragedy in his books, but still he could make us laugh at his dark humor."

But Kafi's own story is far from tragic. At 43, he is known as a successful consultant in the fields of communication and marketing. A managing director of Interbrand, and a consultant for a Singapore-based company, he is often invited to speak at universities around the country. Every Wednesday he talks on the radio and he writes regularly. A collection of his writing was published in 2001, and his second book will hit the shelves next month.

He used to work for the Hero Group and moved to another company -- which holds the license for Levi's, Nike and other international brands -- before he established his own consulting firm.

Among his clients are government offices, including the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. He was asked for his advice on humanitarian programs in Aceh. And the Ministry of Maritime Affairs asked him to devise promotional strategies for the launching of the year of the sea.

The government, he said, lacks the skills needed to promote their own program.

"It's not that we are a low profile nation. Actually that is just a myth. Many of us are actually very high profile," he said.

One of the reasons why government officials lack in promotional skills, according to Kafi, is because of the centralized bureaucracy. Civil servants are accustomed to asking for petunjuk, or direction, from their supervisor and will not act on their own initiative.

He said that some programs promoted by the central government were very successful -- such as the family planning program -- as Indonesia was able to sharply curb its population growth. The claim of some activists, who said that coercion was used in the implementation of the program, was just a reflection of the era.

"Well, if the officials got results at any cost, was that so unusual? At that time it happened."

Kafi has a great interest in politics and the economy. He could happily spend hours discussing potential next-presidents. And he enthusiastically argues that Indonesia needs the leadership of an entrepreneur, in order to establish the welfare of the people.

"We have so many excellent commodities we could sell internationally, unfortunately, we cannot sell them," he lamented.

His first lesson in politics was from William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army -- which opened many schools across the country. Booth believed that it was impossible to teach the people about salvation if they were hungry.

"This dependency is also the case with politics and the economy. They are one. Politics can not work without money," Kafi said on Friday, while having his lunch - spaghetti bolognaise, mango juice and an espresso - at a five-star hotel cafe in the heart of Jakarta.

Wasn't he afraid of a bomb attack?

"I was thinking of boycotting such places, not because of the bomb threat, but because of the excessive yet inappropriate security measures. There were times when I was checked not by a bomb detector, but by a metal detector," he grumbled.

Kafi, who was born in Jakarta, was educated in a Protestant elementary school run by the Salvation Army here, and later went to a Catholic high school. He then studied for an MBA degree in marketing at the liberal campus of the New South Wales Institute of Technology in Australia, where he also shaped his spiritual life. The young Kafi was at that time questioning his faith.

"Religion is one of the biggest mysteries," he said. His professor approached the restless young man -- who was looking for all the answers in his spiritual quest -- and said, "Why don't you return to your roots?" And Kafi began to contemplate what it was to be an Indonesian Chinese and started to learn about Eastern philosophy, including the teaching of Tao, Confucius, Gandhi and Buddha.

"Finally, I decided to become a Buddhist," said Kafi.

His parents are Confucians. His late father was a journalist with Harian Indonesia, a Chinese newspaper, and his mother an entrepreneur. He has two younger brothers and is not married. Like other men who remain single, Kafi is experiencing social pressure, especially from his mother. He says he is single because he has not found the right woman.

"A woman should complement me. I believe that a man and a woman are created to complete each other," said Kafi, who loves reading - he always reads in the toilet and in his car.

But without a woman, Kafi does not find his life empty or flawed.

"Its just like a bicycle. A bicycle has two wheels. But there are also monocycles (one-wheeled cycles)," he said.