Those who were around when TVRI was the only television station in the country, would remember Mien R. Uno as the expert of etiquette; the host of the program Dunia Wanita (Woman’s World) who taught good manners.
JP
The author of the best-selling book Etiket (Etiquette) is also a successful businesswoman having founded the Duta Bangsa School that teaches etiquette and personal grooming. With the help of her husband, Razif H. Uno, she has groomed one of Indonesia’s top young businessmen Sandiaga R. Uno and his brother Indra C. Uno, a scientist.
Recently, Mien, born in Rachmini Rachman, added another success to her long list of achievements as she was chosen to be the first Indonesian as one of seven judges for the prestigious Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Award, held in early June in Monte Carlo.
The 2010 award ceremony marks the 10th consecutive year in which Michael Spencer, the British CEO of ICAP Plc., has won the award. There were initially 50 finalists, each of whom had won national awards in their respective home countries. From Indonesia was Kris Taenar Wiluan, director of the logistics provider PT Citra Turbindo in Batam.
“The judging process was very tight and professional. You don’t have any bribes or messages for sponsors that would meddle with the choosing of the winner,” she said recently.
Based on five categories, the award is given to those who show a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
“Entrepreneurial spirit is when one has an idea that can help others.”
But Mien also commented that the award was designed to inspire people. “Winning is an achievement, but it will be more beneficial if one utilizes it for unity and to trigger new desires to be better,” she said.
Mien, accompanied by her husband, was sitting in her leafy South Jakarta house where she has lived since 1954. Her husband is a neighborhood leader for the area. She talked about her concern for the younger generation’s lack of fighting spirit, her daily household chores, and how she juggles between family and the various professional roles that she takes on.
Having been married to Uno for a long time, a retired executive of the oil company Caltex, their chatter was lively and warm with the familiarity that comes from such a deep connection.
“Pak Uno has retired,” Mien said. “But he continues to be productive because I badger him all the time. I can’t do every thing on my own so I always trouble him,” — using the Indonesian word beliau, a word to address a respected third person.
Upon hearing this, Uno immediately commented, “Oh, I get to be addressed beliau that’s not bad,” he said laughing. “This is the first time I’ve heard her say that!”
“That’s true. This is the first time I called you that. It’s the Gorontalo in him speaking, he’s cynical,” she laughed.
Amidst the warm jokes, Mien and her husband share the same values on entrepreneurship. They try to nurture an entrepreneurial spirit as part of their children and students’ education.
“We have to be able to share this with other people, and to do that we have to be independent. That’s why my motto is ‘empower yourself’. It’s about how to make yourself independent and be happier for that.”
Mien turned to Uno to ask his opinion.
“For me it’s simple. If one has a good business, one can feed people. But one can also give dignity to others. Just look around and see someone who doesn’t have a job. Even if someone has a doctorate degree, he/she will have a low self-esteem if unemployed. It’s very clear,” he said.
Mien thinks that the younger generation now lacks the willingness to struggle to get what they want.
“The mistake of the current generation is that they do not want to go through a process. They want things instantly. The truth is that everything is a learning process. Like a plant — the stronger the roots, the stronger it will be,” she said.
Mien believes that parents contribute to children being spoiled. She said that parents who grew up in poverty or a modest household and have become successful in their careers, tend to spoil their children and give them what was once unavailable to them.
“When parents spoil their children with things, they are actually spoiling themselves. ‘I didn’t have this before, but now I do I’ll make sure my children get it too’. The children suffer from that because they grow up without having a fighting spirit. Everything is too easy for them,” she said.
She thought that to build individuals with a fighting spirit, good role models from the family should be present.
Mien’s father was a strict disciplinarian. He taught her to always fulfill commitments. “There should always be unity between what you say and what you do,” she said.
Both her husband and herself try not to spoil their children. Although they have sent them to the United States to study, she commented that “we do not give them any money unless they give us a full report.
It’s not a report on whether they do good in school or not, but about their activities there.”
Being a wife, mother, and a businesswoman, she manages to juggle her activities and succeed in them by committing to her priorities.
She thinks that one of the problems in marriages and family is that people tend to enter them halfheartedly.
“Sometimes when a woman decides to stay at home, she still has her heart outside. Sometimes she will say ‘I’ve been reduced to a servant’. Those words are very hurtful for herself and her family. It’s better that she works than stay at home.”
Mien became a stay-at-home mother, when her children were very young. “That was my commitment and I stayed with that.”
When her children were around 9 and 7 years old, she returned to her career.
However, she understands about the levels of harsh competition in the job market, and that a married woman with children would have difficulties to enter the workforce and compete with fresh graduates.
“That’s why I always say, empower yourself. Make your own job.”
Uno was proud to have a strong and successful woman as a wife. “It’s one for all and all for one. If a wife is successful, the husband and children benefit from that and vice-versa. What’s important is that one does not forget to act as part of a team,” he said.
Thinking that, a lot of partners get carried away with their individual achievements, she said that remembers her place, “I know whatever I become, I am his partner. In Indonesia, the men always want to feel that they are cool. If he feels cool, then I’m cool,” she said laughing.
“Our main purpose is how to make our home strong.”
