Wake up and smell the rot<\/p>\n
The National Awakening Day, commemorated today, comes at a
\ntime when Indonesia is at a crucial juncture which could
\ndetermine our existence as a nation. Given the current state of
\naffairs, it is no exaggeration to suggest that the nation-
\nbuilding process is already heading in the wrong direction: That
\nwe, as a nation, are deteriorating, albeit slowly, from the
\ninside out. Unless we reverse the trend, Indonesia, as a nation,
\nwill soon cease to exist.<\/p>\n
Let us first recall what it was that made today such an
\nhistoric occasion for us to celebrate every year, each time
\nprofessing that we hold on to the vision of our founding fathers.<\/p>\n
On May 20, 1908, a group of Javanese medical students founded
\nBoedi Oetomo, a movement designed to help improve the lot of the
\nJavanese people through education. Leaders of the movement
\nhowever quickly realized that the fate of the Javanese was
\nclosely intertwined with those of the other oppressed people in
\nthe rest of the archipelago, then known as the Dutch East Indies.
\nThey expanded their goal and thus turned Boedi Oetomo into the
\nfirst organization that held a vision of Indonesia as a nation.<\/p>\n
Other organizations with similar causes emerged afterwards,
\nand the struggle for nationhood culminated with the gathering of
\nyouths from all corners of the archipelago in Jakarta on Oct. 28,
\n1928. Here, they made the historic Youth Pledge: One Nation, One
\nCountry, One Language: Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The struggle for this nation-building process received a
\ntremendous boost when a group of young people proclaimed
\nIndonesia's independence on Aug. 17, 1945, a few days after the
\nJapanese surrendered to the Allied Forces. This move preempted
\nthe return of the Dutch colonial rulers to Indonesia. After five
\nyears of bloody struggle, Indonesia won its full independence.
\nTheoretically at least, we became an independent nation.<\/p>\n
Nobody said that building a nation, out of a collection of
\nvery diverse peoples living on some 17,000 islands, would be
\neasy. But these people have many things in common -- from a
\nshared historical past, including being ruled by the Dutch, their
\ncommon heritage including, a shared working language, to their
\ngeographical proximity. But most importantly, and this was
\nsomething that our founding fathers strongly believed, was the
\nview that the fate of these people would always be interlinked.
\nSince we had a common destiny, we must then have a shared vision
\nthat the advancement and prosperity of everyone in the
\narchipelago would be best served and promoted by acting as one
\nnation, or so the argument went.<\/p>\n
Our experience in building this nation in the last 50 years or
\nso has been rocky, and filled with blood. And we would be
\ndeceiving ourselves if we claimed that we have succeeded.<\/p>\n
Today, we are not anywhere near the vision of one happy and
\nprosperous nation that our founding fathers meant it to be when
\nthey set out to fight for a nation called Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Where exactly do we stand today in terms of that vision of a
\nunified and prosperous nation? Indonesia today is not only poor,
\nbut it is also a nation of stark contrasts and divisions: The
\ngenerally wealthier people in the western islands against the
\npoorer people from the eastern islands; the ruling urban people
\nversus the exploited rural people; the educated elite minority
\nagainst the ignorant majority; the powerful few against the weak
\nmasses; the generally developed island of Java against the
\nbackwardness of other islands.<\/p>\n
With such a state of affairs, we could hardly justify calling
\nourselves a nation. Many of us may still believe in the need for
\na shared vision, but our experience of more than 50 years of
\nnationhood has been one of exploitation by one group of people
\nagainst the other. We have hardly departed from the condition of
\nthe Dutch colonial era. Java merely replaced Holland in
\nextracting the riches of the other islands in the archipelago.<\/p>\n
Yet, this is the state of affairs that suited most power-
\nhungry politicians. No wonder that our leaders since independence
\nhad no interest in redressing the problem. Instead, they sought
\nto perpetuate the status quo because this was the way to hold on
\nto power. This explains why post-independent Indonesia has
\nmanaged to produce authoritarian and ruthless leaders, and turned
\nthe country into a fertile breeding ground for sectarian politics
\nthat seek to exploit the wide disparities in our society.<\/p>\n
If today we can barely call ourselves a nation, that is
\nbecause we have hardly done anything in terms of nation-building
\nin the last 50 years. None of our leaders, from the 1950s to
\npresent day politicians, have ever matched the same vision of a
\nnation that our founding fathers laid out in 1908 and 1928.<\/p>\n
Many of these leaders have betrayed that vision of a nation.
\nThey have little concern for nation-building, and are instead
\nindulging in power struggles to fulfill their personal ambitions
\nor to serve the interests of their own groups.<\/p>\n
In honoring our visionary founding fathers on this National
\nAwakening Day, we should start by making an honest admission that
\nwe have not only failed to lived up to their dreams, but are also
\non the verge of betraying their dream and all their sacrifices by
\nputting the nation on a dangerous course towards extinction. We
\ndo not need a second awakening as some people have suggested. We
\njust need to wake up and smell the rot.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wake-up-and-smell-the-rot-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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