81 Years of (Not Yet) Economic Independence

The state address and annual session of the MPR/DPR/DPD RI by President Prabowo form an important part of the commemoration of the 81st anniversary of Indonesian independence, an event usually held every 14 August. Listening to President Prabowo’s state address, there are at least several important points in the content of the president’s speech.

First, the report on government performance. The President presented the government’s achievements in safeguarding the constitution and overcoming the people’s difficulties over the past 21 months. Second, transformative policies. The government claims to have adopted 121 transformative policies to resolve long-standing complex problems.

Third, self-sufficiency and food security. The government claims to have achieved food self-sufficiency for eight commodities and self-sufficiency in diesel fuel (B50). Fourth, priority programmes. The President emphasised the rolling out of the free nutritious meals programme (MBG), the establishment of red-and-white village cooperatives (KDMP), downstreaming of natural resources and social assistance.

The essence of economic independence

The question is whether the four points of the president’s speech represent that the Indonesian nation has achieved economic independence. As an independent nation, it has the right to determine its own destiny, including the right to prosper the Indonesian people through an economic development model that is in line with the nation’s character and culture.

That is why in the first paragraph of the preamble to the 1945 Constitution, the phrase chosen is “that independence is the right of all nations…”. The meaning is that independence is not a “gift” from the colonialists, but the result of every nation’s struggle to seize its right to live peacefully in the realm of freedom.

This includes economic independence, namely freedom from the colonisation of economic sectors, as well as the right to regulate and manage the economy of human resources, financial resources and natural/biological resources in accordance with the identity of the Indonesian nation.

The question is, why is economic independence so crucial and strategic for a nation? There are at least several fundamental arguments to answer this question.

First, looking at history, control over the archipelago began with trade motives. History documents that the establishment of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) was motivated by the proposal of the Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt to form a trading company of Dutch middlemen.

Over time, the VOC received a mandate from the Dutch colonial government, with a number of rights it held. These included the monopoly right to trade, the right to maintain an army and wage war, the right to enter into agreements with local kings, and the right to print and circulate money.

Armed with this mandate, the VOC succeeded in seizing areas of the archipelago rich in natural and biological resources from the Portuguese colonialists, such as Maluku and Jayakarta (Batavia). Eventually, at the height of its glory, the VOC was beset by massive internal corruption that caused the company to suffer a financial recession and dissolve in December 1799.

Second, independence was achieved “by the grace of Almighty God” (third paragraph of the preamble to the 1945 Constitution). This sacred statement is a form of acknowledgement by the nation’s founders that the ideal of independence was realised solely through God’s help (QS. Ash-Shaaf: 13).

From this it can be interpreted that independence means freedom from the enslavement of man by man, freedom from the exploitation of the human body by man, and that man is only obliged to worship the Lord of all the worlds (QS. Adz-Dzariyat: 56), and that Allah is the Being worthy of human worship (QS. Lukman: 30).