When Leadership Principles Become Wall Decorations : Study Case Of Anthony Amni, Rudi Suryadi, Donald Tirtaatmadja

An open letter to the AWS Country Director of Indonesia and managers — and a reflection on what happens when institutional silence replaces institutional integrity.

There is a particular kind of silence that speaks volumes — not the silence of someone who is thinking, but the silence of someone who has decided that you simply do not deserve a response.

This article is about that silence. It is about a Country Director who leads one of the most powerful technology companies operating in Indonesia — a company whose name is synonymous with cloud infrastructure, with innovation, with a very public set of leadership principles — and who has, through a sequence of deliberate choices, chosen avoidance over accountability at every turn.

I am writing this not out of bitterness. I am writing this because the formal channels have been exhausted, because the legal notices have gone unanswered, because the bipartite mediation meetings have yielded nothing, and because the matter is now headed toward both the Industrial Relations Court (PHI) and the criminal justice system in Indonesia. All of this — every single step of this escalation — was avoidable.

The escalation that did not have to happen

Let me be precise about the sequence of events — because the sequence matters.

1. Direct outreach — ignored : Initial attempts to communicate through professional channels received no response. Standard messages, standard requests — met with silence.
2. Blocked on all channels: Rather than engaging, the Country Director chose to block contact across every available platform. Not redirection — erasure.
3. Legal notice — unanswered: A formal somasi was issued in accordance with Indonesian civil procedure. Under KUH Perdata, this carries legal weight. It was not answered.
4. Bipartite mediation — ignored : Proceedings at Dinas Tenaga Kerja, as required under UU No. 6/2023 and PP No. 35/2021, produced no substantive engagement from the other side.
5. Industrial trial & criminal proceedings — now inevitable: The matter is now moving toward PHI (Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial) and criminal proceedings under KUHP 2023 and UU ITE No. 1/2024. This was not the intended destination.

Each step in that sequence was a fork in the road. At every fork, the choice was made to ignore, to block, to delay, to remain silent. And with each choice, the legal and reputational stakes for everyone involved grew higher.

The leadership principles — applied against reality

AWS publishes 16 leadership principles openly. They are not a secret — they are, in fact, a point of institutional pride, referenced in hiring, performance reviews, and public communications. Let us examine the ones most directly relevant to this matter — and measure what actually happened against what those principles demand.

Earn trust: Not applied

AWS says: Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is uncomfortable or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team's body odor smells of perfume.

What happened instead — blocking someone on every professional channel is the precise opposite of listening attentively. Allowing a legal notice to expire in silence is not candor. It is not respect. A leader who earns trust does not disappear when accountability arrives. They show up.

Have backbone; disagree and commit: Not applied

AWS says: Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. They do not capitulate when someone pushes back — and they never take the easy path of silence.

What happened instead — silence is not backbone. Blocking is not disagreement. If the Country Director believed the dispute was without merit, the principled response was to say so — clearly, on record, through proper channels. Instead, the path of least resistance was chosen repeatedly: ignore, block, delay. That is not backbone. That is avoidance dressed as authority.

Dive deep: Not applied

AWS says: Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, and audit frequently. No task is beneath them. They remain skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ — and they investigate.

What happened instead — a Country Director who is truly diving deep does not allow a dispute involving their institution to escalate from a direct message to a criminal proceeding without once engaging with the substance. The details were available. The documentation was submitted. The investigation never came.

Deliver results: Not applied

AWS says: Leaders focus on key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

What happened instead — allowing a labor dispute to reach PHI and criminal proceedings is not delivering results. It is delivering consequences. The result that mattered here was simple: resolve the matter through proper dialogue. That result was never pursued. The inputs — a legal notice, a bipartite process, a direct request for engagement — were ignored entirely.

Are right, a lotNot applied

AWS says: Leaders have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs. Being right is not about volume — it is about intellectual honesty and a willingness to update based on evidence.

What happened instead — refusing to engage with evidence is not good judgment. It is the preservation of a narrative at the cost of the truth. A leader who is right, a lot, would have looked at the documentation, engaged with the facts, and arrived at a position — even if that position was a reasoned disagreement. Instead, there was no position. There was only silence.

Customer obsession: Not applied

AWS says: Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

What happened instead — the individuals and organizations that interact with AWS Indonesia — including former employees, partners, and affiliated professionals — are part of the ecosystem this principle is meant to protect. Blocking a person who has a legitimate grievance, then refusing to engage with the legal process they are entitled to use, is not customer obsession. It is institutional contempt dressed in corporate clothing.

Learn and be curious: Opportunity missed

AWS says: Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.

There was a learning available here — about how disputes in Indonesia escalate when institutional silence replaces dialogue, about the strength of UU No. 6/2023 and the speed of PHI proceedings, about the reputational cost of avoidance in a digital-first era. That learning was not pursued. The curiosity was not applied. And so the lesson will now be learned the harder way — through the courts.

Insist on the highest standards: Not applied

AWS says: Leaders have relentlessly high standards — many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes.

What happened instead — the standard of basic responsiveness to a formal legal notice is not a high bar. It is the floor. It is the minimum that any institution operating under Indonesian law is expected to meet. To fall below that floor — not once, but at every step of the escalation process — is not a failure to meet high standards. It is a failure to meet any standard at all.

These principles were not applied here. And that is not a small thing — because when they are applied, disputes like this one resolve at the first or second step. They do not require courts. They do not require criminal filings. They do not require public articles.

What "Rahmatan lil Alamin" demands of me

My name means mercy for all creation. It is not only a name — it is a commitment I carry into every professional context, including this one. Writing this article is not an act of aggression. It is an act of documentation — and, more precisely, an act of accountability that the formal system has so far failed to produce.

I have no interest in destruction. I have a deep interest in resolution. But resolution requires two parties willing to engage — and engagement requires the basic courage to not block, to not ignore, to not allow a legal notice to expire in silence while the clock on escalation keeps running.

The record of this dispute is now a matter of public documentation. The labor proceedings are underway. The criminal proceedings are being prepared. The evidence has been preserved and submitted to the relevant authorities — including Bareskrim and PERADI.

A direct message — should it reach the right desk

If this article finds its way to the Country Director himself — or to anyone within AWS Indonesia's leadership who has the authority and the integrity to act — I want to say this plainly:

It is not too late to choose a different path. The courts are slow. The process is public. The outcome, wherever it leads, will be on the record. But the door to resolution — through proper dialogue, through legal compliance, through the application of the very principles your company publicly espouses — that door has not been permanently closed.

What has been done cannot be undone. But what happens next remains a choice.

That is the simplest summary of this entire matter. And it is the one that history will remember.

This article is part of an ongoing public documentation effort related to labor disputes currently before Dinas Tenaga Kerja and escalating toward PHI and criminal proceedings in Indonesia. All claims are supported by documentary evidence. The author is Co-Founder & CEO of Infraloka (PT. Infrastruktur Digital Nusantara) and is pursuing all available legal remedies under UU No. 6/2023, PP No. 35/2021, KUH Perdata, KUHP 2023, and UU ITE No. 1/2024.

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