Intellectuals confused over second awakening

Intellectuals confused over second awakening

JAKARTA (JP): As Indonesia prepares to celebrate national
awakening day next week, philosophers and historians have
questioned whether Indonesia can ever be swept by such passion
again, as the government hopes it can be in the cause of
development.

Historian Taufik Abdullah yesterday questioned whether such a
second awakening could really occur, given the conditions in
society.

"Whether a true "awakening" will take place or not is still
unclear," he said.

Taufik maintained that many of the crucial elements which
provoked the 1908 awakening no longer exist today.

Indonesians commemorate May 20 as national awakening day. On
that day in 1908 a group of educated Javanese nationalists formed
an organization called "Budi Utomo".

Taufik was speaking at a seminar titled The Nation and the
State in the Era of Globalization at the National Resilience
Institute to commemorate upcoming National Awakening Day.

Taufik said that Budi Utomo introduced the concept which led
to the birth of the nation.

He explained that any "second awakening" would be pushed ahead
and powered by the government, not the people.

Unlike the first awakening, which mobilized all Indonesians,
the putative second awakening would simply require the people's
compliance with commands from above, Taufic explained.

"If this happens we'll see an anachronistic situation in which
we value things of no relevance to today," he said.

Meanwhile, economist Faisal H. Basri questioned the meaning of
economic nationalism in a global era.

Faisal maintained that in there was no need to be overly
nationalistic and added that a leading economic actor cannot
depend on domestic capabilities alone.

He pointed out that the government in the past few years had
taken bold initiatives in the economic sector under the guise of
"nationalism".

Among these are the N-250 airplane which required the
appropriation of funds originally allocated to reforestation
projects.

Then there is the Timor "national car". Here, a license was
given to a well-connected private company with no experience in
the automotive industry.

"Even if this has to be paid for dearly -- that's the cost of
nationalism," Faisal commented.

People seem to be required to make a sacrifice by choosing
domestic products, even though they are more expensive and of
lower quality than foreign ones, he said.