August 17 should be a happy day

By Harkiman Racheman

MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): On Aug. 17, the country will celebrate the 54th anniversary of its independence, seized from the Dutch colonists and the occupying Japanese in 1945. After several decades where the date was marked by monotonous historical reminiscences of the colonial past, the most important event in the history of contemporary Indonesia will be free this year of the New Order regime's political dictates.

Put succinctly, the commemoration is likely to be finally independent of the New Order's militaristic bent.

In welcoming a new Indonesia under a completely new system of government in the foreseeable future, it may well be essential for us to revise, or better still reassess, the true significance of the anniversary to ensure the commemoration itself will no longer amount to being a ritual formality devoid of connection to life and real experience.

In fact, it is widely expected that this year's celebration will conjure up renewed nationalistic emotions, ones which are relevant especially within the context of the country redesigning a blueprint for its renewed future.

Under the powerful regimes of Sukarno (1945 to 1967) and Soeharto (1968 to 1999), the commemoration of the anniversary was interpreted and conducted primarily in conjunction with the vested interests of the two different regimes. Under both influential leaders, the commemoration of the Independence Day seemed to be a "state" event only (read "not yet for the masses"). Therefore, the celebration had to be arranged and designed in a top-down manner and was expectedly awkward and rigid as a result.

We may rightly ask: What is wrong with celebrating Independence Day creatively, in a relaxed and joyous manner? We could take examples from the peoples in neighboring countries, without paying too much attention to campaign-like speeches or brainwashing slogans. Without overly formal protocol and without making it look as if the celebrations, if anything, are only an official event of the state.

In other words, would it not be ideal to see Indonesia's independence celebrated in a multicontextual or even multimedia manner in accordance with the sociocultural developments and changes in the life of the nation as a whole? To mention one extreme suggestion, would it even be so intolerably wrong to see the celebration presented as a foreign exchange-generating tourist attraction?

Immediately following the attainment of the country's independence from the Dutch in 1945, the commemoration of Independence Day was, imaginably, a sheer celebration of the heroics of the country's great patriots. It centered around a kaleidoscope of historical events, feting heroes with unrivaled courage.

It is not hard to imagine even now that the commemoration in those days was colored by gross emotional outbursts. Such oft- used war cries as "Merdeka! Merdaka!" (Freedom! Freedom!) were used to express revengeful and acrimonious feelings toward the Dutch and the Japanese.

That may well have been the reason why the day-to-day life of the nation demonstrated impulsive swings of emotionalism. It was only much later, when the passage of time had separated the people from their own emotional attachment to the dark age of colonization, that Indonesians were made aware of the disadvantages of being trapped in the haunting historical past.

They also must have learned that similarly colonized nations in Southeast Asia were starting to emerge from colonialism's shadow in order to start rebuilding their future and to let go of regrets from the past.

Under the New Order, the commemoration of Independence Day took a radical shift from the Old Order's stance. No longer were there open expressions of abuse or disrespect for the former colonizer. Instead, it became a nationwide meditation, especially on the meritorious deeds of the courageous members of the '45 Generation (Angkatan '45) in liberating the country from the oppression of alien powers as well as their service in maintaining national development. As part of the commemoration itself, the entire population was supposed to declare its complete loyalty to preserving the values and spirit of the '45 Generation.

There is, however, a clear suggestion here that the real significance of the Indonesian independence has to be regularly translated and actualized into the most current conditions of the entire populace. Unfortunately, there was at the same time a frequent reference to a certain political agenda. The New Order often utilized the anniversary to impose maximum blind loyalty derived from the '45 Generation on the people.

It is no wonder that the teachings of the '45 Generation later became a standard code of conduct in not only commemorating the Independence Day but also judging historical events. However, it must be stressed here that within the framework of defending and preserving the inherited values, implicit authoritarianism was used as a tolerable pretext for more than three decades. Thus, under such a militaristic regime, the anniversary of Indonesian independence could only be a series of sacred and occasionally frightening military ceremonies.

However, with the fall of Soeharto's regime, itself a symbol of the mammoth strength of the '45 Generation, the commemoration of Independence Day must now shift from the value polarization of the past. With the victory of the people's sovereignty and the mounting pressure by the reformist movement, the once-glorified '45 Generation's values and spirit will have to be sidelined.

However relevant some of the values may remain, it is now acknowledged that those traditional values are not and cannot be the only philosophical grounds for the welfare of the nation. In the context of the present times, which is undoubtedly so different from the past, other remedial values may well be more urgently required. Therefore, under pressure for reform and change, it seems that the '45 Generation's influence will have to be replaced by the reformist front, which accentuates the power to immediately liberate the country from the present social, economic, political and cultural crises.

Commemoration of Indonesian independence in the reform era of democracy has to be a celebration of the newly acquired freedom by the entire population of the country. In other words, it is a celebration of the people's victory against various kinds of New Order corruption, collusion and nepotism and other unscrupulous values from the past regime.

Not thoroughly a celebration of the country's freedom from the colonial Dutch or the Japanese as such, the anniversary should now be seen as a commemoration of a complete freedom from the New Order's deviations, distortions and manipulations.

Let us hope that the commemoration of the anniversary this year will give rise to a totally liberated atmosphere for the general public to celebrate their reempowerment. We hope that the whole country will remember that Independence Day, proclaimed in 1945 by the founding fathers Sukarno and Hatta, in a relaxed, creative and joyous manner befitting a public celebration. The days are gone when the anniversary had to be commemorated only in a formal militaristic ritual.

Finally, may this year's anniversary celebration of the country's Independence Day not be weighed down by formal speeches, dull rhetoric, meaningless advice or other indoctrinating messages. It is, indeed naive, to think that the populace would not know how to be grateful to their past heroes for what they did to liberate the country. Times have changed. Let the ordinary folks celebrate their freedom freely and not within an atmosphere of formal protocol or rigid ceremonies. Long live Indonesian independence and long live our most beloved country!

The writer is a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Based in Medan, he is currently a freelance writer and university lecturer.