August 17 should be a happy day

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.