Wasted 60 years<\/p>\n
Indonesia as a nation reaches a milestone today with the
\ncelebration of 60 years of independence. There is every reason to
\nrejoice at this achievement: we have survived as one nation in
\nspite of the many forces that constantly threaten to divide us.
\nIn spite of our diversity, we have overcome trials and
\ntribulations, and come out intact as one nation.<\/p>\n
But therein probably lies the real problem today.<\/p>\n
We as a nation have been too consumed with forging unity out
\nof a collection of peoples who cannot be more divided in terms of
\nrace, ethnicity, language, culture and religion, and who live in
\nthousands of islands stretching from Sabang to Merauke.<\/p>\n
Our national leaders' obsession with unity, and at times even
\nwith conformity, has come at the expense of a genuine nation-
\nbuilding process that would have made Indonesia a democratic and
\npluralistic nation that is, in the very words of our founding
\nfathers, including Sukarno, \"just and prosperous\".<\/p>\n
Today, we are a nascent democracy, a process that only began
\nin 1998, but we are still a long way from becoming just and
\nprosperous.<\/p>\n
Looking back, we can find very little in the way of nation-
\nbuilding efforts to celebrate. It would not be an exaggeration to
\nsuggest that we have squandered time, opportunities and resources
\nthese six decades.<\/p>\n
Sukarno helped to liberate the nation from the shackles of
\ncolonialism, but he squandered the next two decades trying to
\nfulfill his personal ambitions, which ultimately brought the
\nnation to near bankruptcy, and precipitated his own ouster.<\/p>\n
Soeharto spent a good deal of his 30 years in power
\nsuppressing our freedoms. He brought about economic development,
\nonly then to allow his relatives and cronies could plunder the
\nnation, bringing us right back to where we started out from in
\n1965.<\/p>\n
The years of reform from 1998 up to now have been occupied
\nlargely with undoing the damage inherited from decades of misrule
\nby Soeharto and Sukarno, and only now we are emerging slowly as a
\ndemocratic society.<\/p>\n
But there is still a nagging feeling that we are not making up
\nfor our lost time in nation-building as we should. Instead, our
\nleaders constantly engage in petty bickering. Often times, this
\nsort of incestuous infighting erupts in open conflict among
\nsupporters at the grassroots level.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, many people are still struggling to fight for their
\nrights as citizens. Some are treated as second-class citizens,
\nothers have been completely marginalized; and many others face
\ndiscrimination and prejudice.<\/p>\n
Economic development has widened rather than narrowed existing
\ninequalities, and millions of our people still live in abject
\npoverty. This is in a nation that is blessed with fertile land
\nand an abundance of natural resources.<\/p>\n
We are squandering the resources that belong to our children and
\ngrandchildren even as we speak. The Rp 130 trillion in domestic
\nfuel subsidies that the government will fork out this year in
\norder to sustain the cheap oil policy is symptomatic of how we
\nare wasting resources when such a huge sum could be better spent
\non education, health and investing in the nation's future.<\/p>\n
Anyone celebrating today will really be celebrating our false
\nsense of nationhood. We are united as a nation, but inequalities
\nin many areas are still the order of the day. And justice for
\nmost people remains a distant dream.<\/p>\n
Our unity is more symbolic than anything else, and statements
\nlike \"Unitary Republic of Indonesia to the death\", as uttered by
\nofficials recently, only serve once again to divert our attention
\naway from the real and substantive nation-building issues to the
\nquestion of national unity.<\/p>\n
If a part of the nation-building process is the formation of
\nnational character, then pity Indonesia for what we have become.
\nToday, the characteristics that typify Indonesia are mostly
\nnegative, ranging from corruption and greed, through cruelty and
\nincreasing intolerance, to laziness, unreliableness and
\nincompetence. You might want to throw in hypocrisy for good
\nmeasure given that we keep proclaiming ourselves to be very
\nreligious in spite of all these negative characteristics.<\/p>\n
Today, as we mark our 60th Independence Day, it is worth
\nasking ourselves: What have we really achieved as a nation in
\nthese six decades? The honest answer is not a whole lot,
\nunfortunately. And our children and grandchildren will have every
\nright to curse us for squandering those precious 60 years.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wasted-60-years-1447899208",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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