I'll Tag It!!

***This is a copy of my FB note***

Alarmed this news from one of my best colleague, I think students n peers also ought to know about the recent state of what currently happen to EY. Hey, guess it’s nice to post this note bundled in series of “Popped Up Research Question” note :). Students may use them for their future references in developing their research works for their final thesis.

Just come across this intriguing questions. You may extend into more broader or narrower extent for your own interests. But remember it shall be connected to current practice of auditing and accounting accepted principles.

1. How does current standard of audit scope determination REALLY pay off for developing auditor independence position in disclosing the proper and mandated financial information?

2. Are current norms pulling the auditor’s weight in doing their obligation to independently expose clients activities ?

Well, that’s it for this moment.

I sincerely wish you the best for the upcoming and most wanted moment for all of us, the Ramadhan. The fasting, better worship and tilawah, more training on physical fitness, the joyful of doing good deeds, and many more we expect to do in the Ramadhan. May we all be purified and successfully go through the whole month with divinity without any flaws.

To my family, please apologize that I can not be with you all this year. But above of all, we have God that unites us within our hearts. I wish you Bunda, the best for the whole month, getting better and always in healthiness. To teteh Runi, you’ll make it this year girl, I know you can. To ceu2 Naila, I hope this would be your first time practicing the fasting. And to the little one Sarah, happy all the time. I miss you like crazy here. I love you all so much. (BIGG HUGGSSS AND KISSESS)

Mohon maaf semua kesalahan kami sekeluarga. Atas nama Ritchi, Ocke, Runi, Naila dan Sarah kami mengucapkan selamat datang Ramadhan!

The following verse I find very interesting as it mentions man and women repetitively so much so that it looks appealing to me to reveal more what the tafsir/interpretation could be. This verse explains what sort characteristics of human are real worth in the sight of AIlah. Guess will be better to share it, just make it my first. I also add the Indonesian version. (Sourced from quranenglish.com).

Surah Al-Ahzab verse 35:

Most surely *53 the men and the women who have surrendered themselves to Allah; *54 who are believing, *55 obedient, *56 truthful, *57 and patient; *58 who bow down before Allah, *59 practise charity, *60 observe the fasts, *61 guard their private parts *62 and remember Allah much: *63 Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward. *64

Tafseer:
*53 Presentation of this theme immediately after the foregoing paragraph contains a subtle allusion to the fa[c]t that the -instructions given above to the Holy Prophet’s wives are not exclusively meant for them but the Muslim society as a whole should reform itself in accordance with them.
*54 “Who have surrendered themselves to Allah : Who have accepted Islam as a code of life for themselves, and have decided to follow it in their lives, and who have no wish to resist the Islamic way of life and thought, but have adopted the way of obedience and submission to it.
*55 “Who are believing”: Whose obedience is not merely outward nor unwilling but who sincerely regard the guidance given by Islam as based on the truth whose faith is that the way shown by the Qur’an and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be Allah’s peace and blessings) is the only right and straight way in following which alone lies their true success. That which has been declared as wrong by Allah and His Prophet is certainly wrong even according to their judgement and that which has been declared as right by AIlah and His Prophet is certainly right even according to their thinking and sense. Psychologically and intellectually also they do not regard as improper any injunction that has been enjoined by the Qur’an and Sunnah, and do not remain on the lookout to change it somehow to suit their own desire or mould it according to the current trends of the world, avoiding at the same time the blame that they have effected a change in the Command given by AIlah and His Prophet. The Holy Prophet has described the true state of faith in a Hadith in these words: “He who reconciled himself to Allah as his Lord and to Islam as his Way of Life and to Muhammad as his Messenger, has the true taste of Faith.” (Muslim) In another Hadith, he has explained it thus: “None of you becomes a believer until the desires of his self become subordinate to what I have brought.” (Sharh as-Sunnah)
*56 That is, “They do not rest content with mere belief but are obedient practically also. They are not the sort of the people who would honestly believe that what Allah and His Messenger have commanded was true but would violate it in practice: that they would sincerely regard what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden as bad but would go on following the same in practical life.”
*57 That is, “They are truthful in their speech and honest in thou dealings. They do not deal in lies, deceptions, frauds and forgeries. They utter with their tongues only what their conscience approves as true. They practise and perfom only what they honestly find to be in accordance with righteousness and truth, and they arc honest in all their dealings with others.”
*58 That is, “They patiently and steadfastly bear and face all the obstacles, dangers, difficulties and losses that they might have to encounter in following the right way taught by Allah and His Messenger and in establishing Allah’s Religion in the world; no fear and no temptation and no lust of the self can succeed in diverting them from the right way.”
*59 That is, “They arc free from pride, vanity and haughtiness: they havc full understanding of the reality that they arc servants and they havc no other position than that of servitude. Therefore, their hearts as well as their bodies remain bowed before Allah, dominated by fear of Him. They never display the attitude which is the hall-mark of the lives of those who are fearless of God and arc involved in arrogance. ” From the sequence it appears that the mention of Khushu’ (expression of humility) in particular along with the general attitude of the fear of God implies the Prayer, for the mention of the practice of charity and fast has been made just after it.
*60 This does not only imply payment of the obligatory Zakat, but it also includes general charity. It means to say that they spend their wealth freely in the way of Allah and they are not at aII niggardly in the matter of helping the servants of Allah as much as they can. No orphan and no sick or afflicted person, no weak or disabled person, no poor and needy one remains deprived of their support in their dwelling; and if there arises the need for monetary help for promoting the cause of Allah’s Religion, they arc never miserly in expending their wealth for that purpose.
*61 This includes both the obligarory and the voluntary fasts.
*62 This has two meanings: (1) They refrain from adultery; and (2) they avoid nudity. One should also note that nudity dces not only mean being naked but it is also nudity to put on a thin dress which shows the body, or is so tight-fitting that it reveals aII the outlines of the body.
*63 “Remember Allah much” means that one should mention Allah’s name in one way or other at aII times in every business of life. Man cannot develop such a state of the mind unless the thought of God becomes deeply embedded in his heart. When this idea has passed beyond his conscious mind and settled deep in his subconscious and unconscious mind, then only he will remember and mention God’s name in whatever he does and in whatever he says. He will begin with bismillah when he eats and say al-hamdu lillah when he finishes; he will remember Allah when he goes to bed, and mention Allah’s name when he gets up. In his conversation also he will again and again pronounce bismillah, al-hamdu-lillalh, insha-Allah, ma sha Allah, etc. and ask for Allah’s help in every matter, and thank Him for every blessing. He will seek His mercy in every affliction, and turn to Him in every trouble. He will fear Him on encountering every evil, and ask for His forgiveness when he happens to havc committed an error and will pray to Him for fulfilment of every need. In short, in every state and in every business of life his function will be to remember Allah.
This. In fact, is the essence of the Islamic life. For all other acts of worship there is a prescribed time when they are performed, and one is free when one has performed them. But this is the worship which has no special time; it has to be performed constantly so that it links up the man’s life with Allah and His service permanently. The other worships and religious acts themselves also become meaningful only when the heart of man remains inclined to Allah not only at the time when the act is actually being carried out but at aII times when the tongue is uttering Allah’s name constantly. In such a state as this worship and religious acts develop and flourish in a man’s life precisely in the same manner as a plant grows in a congenial climate and environment. Contrary to this, the example of the religious services and worships which are carried out only on special times and occasions in the life which is devoid of this constant remembrance of Allah is of the plant which has been planted in an un-congenial climate, and which is growing only due to the special attention and care of the gardener. This very thing has been explained by the Holy Prophet in a Hadith, thus:
“Mu’adh bin Anas Juhani relates that a person asked the Holy Prophet of Allah. who among those who fight in the way of AIlah will get the highest reward? He replied: The one who remembers Allah the most. The man asked: Who among the observers of the fast will get the highest reward? He replied: The one who remembers Allah the most. The man then asked the same question about the offerer of the Prayer, the payer of the Zakat and charities and the performer of Hajj and the Holy Prophet in every case gave the same answer, saying: He who remembers Allah the most.” (Musnad Ahmad)
*64 This verse plainly tells what qualities and characteristics are of real worth in the sight of AIlah. These are the basic values of Islam which have been compressed into one sentence. As regards these, there is no difference between the man and woman. However, as for their life-activity, the two sexes have separate spheres to function. The males have to function in some particular spheres and the females in some others. But if they possess these qualities and characteristics equally, Allah will raise them to equal ranks and bless them with equal rewards. It will in no way affect their rank and reward if one carried out household chores and the other performed the duties of caliphate and enforced the Shari’ah injunctions; one reared children in the house and the other went to the battlefield and fought for the sake of Allah and His religion.

Indonesian version (wikisource.org)
“Sesungguhnya laki-laki dan perempuan yang muslim, laki-laki dan perempuan yang mukmin, laki-laki dan perempuan yang tetap dalam ketaatannya, laki-laki dan perempuan yang benar, laki-laki dan perempuan yang sabar, laki-laki dan perempuan yang khusyuk, laki-laki dan perempuan yang bersedekah, laki-laki dan perempuan yang berpuasa, laki-laki dan perempuan yang memelihara kehormatannya, laki-laki dan perempuan yang banyak menyebut (nama) Allah, Allah telah menyediakan untuk mereka ampunan dan pahala yang besar.”

So, I got this idea to embed google search widget onto my blog (hooray…I have it now). After spending hours of searching such widget (I know I was supposed to get my PhD done, haha, but hey, it’s for the sake of knowledge), I learned that google is deprecating their Google Web Search API and replacing it with another application programming interface offer named Google Custom Search. I did not really know the difference (and a bit do not care too), but in the subscription process, I guessed the tool can only provide search within the website. I ignored the search tool and continue with hope to get much proper tool as expected.

I ended up with a suggestion to use Google Search with AdSense. As I thought this AdSense would be able to accept global search, I then applied for the memberships. But hey, the process returned to Google Custom Search! By applying Google AdSense, you would be using Google Custom Search too. But, how about the internal only search capacity of Google Custom I firstly thought? It turned out that it does having global search capability in its search preferences on its control panel. Only I did not find such options when I first tried to apply Google Custom in separate way ( not through Google AdSense).

With a help of my admin, I manage to insert this java script-based code by using special plugin (Google Custom Search uses java script which is not provided by local admin before). Type your words snippet in my google search and hopefully, you get what you’re looking for.

PS: My subscription with Google AdSense did not work out. I’ll tell you the story in the forthcoming posting.

Hilarious but possible.
That’s what I see when our data are all there, everywhere, not always on the cloud. Not only a heavenly new order for big bucks commercials, but what we are all doing is simply detected by the Big Boss. You want that? I won’t. This comical clip is reflecting my point. Enjoy!

I somehow just hope the emergence of yet-another conceptual models would slow down and eventually vanish. No kidding, this whole variety of diagramming techniques (or grammars, languages, scripts) sometime gets me into my nerves. Just stick with standardized model and dig knowledge would have been better I suppose.

Anyway, quoting from the resource directly, please read this fine reference (at least for me as newbie). There will be more to feed.

Join this group if you want to discuss with BPMN lovers, haters, users and experts about how to use BPMN for (business) process modeling. Do you have any best practices or experience reports about BPMN? Is something in the BPMN specification unclear? Do you have a BPMN model you want to discuss? Here is the perfect BPMN Community place to post all those questions and ideas!

BPMN Community.

Hi Guys,

I’ve been quite a while searching for some popular websites or communities where I can learn process model for my study. Learning of something is a lot faster when you have people in the same interests together sharing our stuff. Coping with widely accepted standardized process models such bpmn, it would be best to get skilled by joining such communities in complement of self learning.

So finally I manage to find some useful websites where I can learn better and instantly without having the software downloaded and run in your local laptop. Yes, they are on web and for free (everyone’s need I guess) with some registration to sign up. But they are woth trying. Some of them are hosted by bpmn community for academical and training purpose, and some are run by commercial providers but giving the software for free. There, have fun play around making models and gain more skill in process models with an easy drag and drop feature right in your web browser.

The list obviously does not cover the whole resources though, in fact it’s only a few. But, as world wide web is a place with unlimited resources, I would be more than happy if you would also share for all of us. To me as beginner, these sites give me enough basics, and more importantly facilitate my need for upgrading my process modeling skill. It is neither on alphabetically order nor of importance consideration. I just write them down as per my own intuitive feeling. Oh yeah, another thing, as I use my computing needs with mac, there might be some resources which can only run in Mac OS, but maybe can also run in Windows.

1. BPMN Community. Run by researchers at Business Process Technology Group of Hasso Plattner Institut, University of Potsdam, the BPMN-Community is an open and free platform for the exchange around the Business Process Modeling Notation. Registration is required. There, you will meet another member, and if I we’re lucky, we can contact and make correspondence with expert about some particular modeling issue. You can also create tutorial and some reference for other member. The latest version of BPMN (2.0), is provided.

2. Oryx Project. I am not sure, but it appears that this site is also managed by HPI. So when you select edit model menu in BPMN-Community environment, you will be directed to here. But by knowing the URI, you can immediately go to the editor. Doesn’t matter which way is better. The important stuff about it is, that you can access and modify huge collection of bpmn models stored there. You can, of course, create your own model. Like BPMN Community, you need to have id. Besides BPMN version which spans 1.0 to 2.0, it also give you many collection of other diagrams.

3. Oryx Project for BPMN 2.0. It is the specialized version for bpmn 2.0. The whole environment is the same.

4. Iyopro. This is actually a compony with freeware. It is great for those who want to feel a more “Window” atmosphere, because the software is design to be deployed as if you operate in Window. The artifacts provided are the latest version of BPMN 2.0. Membership is required.

5. yED Graph Editor. It actually a software with download approach. But in the website, they provide option to launch the software. As I’m not really aware of Java, the launch edition is actually operating with java web start technology. So you are not really working in a website look. Beside that, the graph editor is not exclusively for bpmn. And another disadvantage (relative to the other previous tools above) is that it uses bpmn 1.0, not the latest. But, for novice like me, I feel sufficed with yED. The only thing you have to manage is a little bit patience, as java web start will operate at your machine before it launch the editor.

That is all what I got. Feel free to broadcast further, and of course I would also be happy if you would share with me.

Much of the disparity between people who decide to stay abroad after their study done and those who choose to go back to their heimatland falls into reality and nationalism polarization. The former choose for building up their academics (or maybe commercial) career, be it in their former university or another institutions, see more on much more “realistic” sense, while the latter stand on the ground of nationalism. In one hand, “Well, what can I say, I do not know what I would become if I choose staying in Indonesia. I got no lab facilities, at least equivalent with my time when I studied. The government just don’t care with us scientist. The keep scientific budget low. We just have to live the fact and protect my family future.and so on so forth”. In the other extreme, ” Better or worse is my country. I shall return no matter how hard it is. Those who think of staying away from what happened in our country simply people with no more nationalism in their heart. And there you go, the debate becomes an endless discussion as both sides defends their own reason.

Is it true that nationalism is a function of where you live? Putting to other words, so these people who choose to make an academic career abroad are not nationalists and do not care with Indonesia. Using a lens form a more holistic stand perhaps gives us better view. To some degree, we must admit that for some, or most researchers, especially who deal with lab and much more sophisticated tools, they can not really rely on government spendings. I learn that, managing education for 250 billion people is not a trivial task, not to count the challenge of corruption and government’ unreliable fund management. The latest 2010 audit report published was granted disclaimer opinion by State Auditor (BPK) revealed that the ministry of education is having plenty of housework to get done (the opinion is even worse from 2009’s qualified opinion. Beside that, we still have problem for unresolved high unemployment rate.

These scientists perhaps have been trying to find some ways to self fund themselves. However, after all, their nature is not a fund seeker, which means that the building of scientific work is not only placed upon their shoulder, but also to other part who bears responsibility for the ability to maintain conducive and secure working atmosphere. Go back to the question..are these people anti nationalists? We have two kind of people (1) Those who have this potentials and have no time to wait for government until they can finally do their job as expected, and (2) Those who are simply smart people but also jerks and they internally gnaw and hold back the progress of the nation. People in category 1 do not have time to think of pointing their finger on everybody to blame for the condition. They just need place to work seriously and give extraordinary output. And those is category 2, I guess no one benefits from them.

I believe the answer should be looked from the perspective what they actually and potentially do for Indonesia, not from where they work, the locus. From an actual viewpoint, at least, here, I am blessed to get a chance to know some Indonesians who happened to be star in their own field. They work in a quite diverse areas ranging from solar technology, mechanical engineering, computer science, biotechnology. One of them is even the only Asian working in Germanny’s Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung). From a potential viewpoint, Indonesian education and technology development may gain positive impact through a greater research and development network worldwide. Researchers working in overseas institution may create a mutual beneficial link between them and future studendts from Indonesia. Once they step up and trusted as decision maker, like professorship, they can recruit more Indonesian students to be their students or their peer’s students. We can imagine how strong and the merits of such a network chain if we mirror China and India. Their local students are scattered all over the world recruited by their national counterparts who work as faculty member in a highly recognized universities and research institutions.

So, this two perspective, actual and potential contribution can not be simply neglected. True, they are not working in Indonesia geographically, but what they do is obviously big. With a little bit seasoning of better G-to-G and U-to-U management, we will grow more seeds for Indonesia new order. As our Minister of Education once spoke, nationalism is not a function of locus…. valued global and valued local.

Our Minister of National Education, Mr.Muhammad Nuh, visited us with his team as part of his European visit work. Initially, the gathering was intended as private session between a number of Dikti scholarship holders with the Ministry of National Education team. But, it turned out to be an open gathering, as more people outside the scholarships grantees were showing interest to join the event.

Limited with time before next flying to Geneve, not much time was given to all audiences to have everyone spoke for their concern and question. But, I this 2 hours discussion was enough to make sure that most issues are addressed. The talk started with Mr.Minister giving the introduction. He gave some brief updates about what the Ministry are doing with regards to national education sector.

The session continued with question/answer session with Mr. Minister first having the whole questions answered from general side, and in the last part of the discussion, the Director General of Higher Education elaborated some detailed answers. Most of the questions ranges from some scholarship management challenges dikti needed to tackle and the opportunity for extending the grant.

My hunger because of skipping lunch were compensated with the discussion which I found pretty clear, engaging and giving my self more beliefs with Indonesia’s future. He mentioned that Indonesia are now focusing the higher education sector to three development priorities in the future. Those are engineering, science and agriculture. Of total university people, engineering, science and agriculture only account for around 11%, 3.3% and 3.6% respectively (correct me the number if I’m wrong). While not intending to underrate other sector – business, politic, law and other social science – our national education budget will be mainly used to foster the three sectors.

He also proudly said on Indonesia geographical and demographical’s education complexity as something more developed economies regarded as of potential value. As gross participation number (angka partisipasi kasar – APK) gradually increases, so does the spending of national education budget. Increasingly, they target to boost the budget spending to Rp 1,000 trillion, 4 times of current spending on education. Since Indonesia’s education spending is set to 20% of total national budget, it means total national budget is also bigger. Something which is not caught to my eye. It is great to know that our nation, at least our minister, seriously plans seed for young generation to stand up for brighter future. However, continuous and serious monitoring on where the money flows and used is also worth of consideration. As the minister said, what happen to the fund is not actually kept by center government, but distributed to local government in 33 provinces and further to more than 300 regencies all over Indonesia. Out of 240 trillion budgeted fund for Ministry of Education, about 150 trillion is distributed to them for further management. It is on these points careful government internal control and close monitoring must be placed. We understand how these little new kings are full of sophisticated conflict of interest needs to be overcome. Until that happen, we can not just rely on the accounting-based report.

I guess, it is time, in fact everyday, for us to set our mindset that Indonesia can not, and will not be overlooked anymore as a nation. We have everything we need to be a great nation. Sounds cliché, but with a relentless effort on eradicating corruption, building people capacity through education, and maintaining better management on our national asset, we can be the next china or india.

Accounting Information System researches have been long pouring focus on risk and related controls. Particular to the issuance of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, some scholars started to examine the construct and internal validity of variety of control frameworks. One work has been performed to examine the internal validity of CobiT by examining the extent on which experts and senior auditors express the agreement on CobiT components to the way they think and view about control (Brad Tuttle and Scott D. Vandervelde, 2006).

Other also tested COSO framework components and information technology for their strength in representing material weaknesses (Klamm and Watson, 2009). To my self, this opens opportunity for accounting students for examining other angle of financial reporting process amid the close interdependency of accounting and information technology. My own expectation is more on the enrichment of final report topics, which still more on financial and auditing domain.

Though not completely mandatory, there seems to be a tendency in the process of final report working assistance to stay on those areas, which may impair the the holistic and creative side of research topics. The culprits I would say are, both the student’s propensity of working in a comfort zone and the lecturer’s limited time to seek out and to master more open and challenging topics. Sooner or later, it is imperative to stay open and be exposed with industrial practice both in information system and financial reporting practice. Afterall, we have heard about this saying, the only thing stay constant is change.

FYI, please give me comment if you’re interested to get the readings mentioned above, provided that it is for study purpose.