On Youth Pledge Day
One country? One nation? One language?
Those question marks weren't there when the words were first stated on Oct. 28, 1928 by a handful of young Indonesian intellectuals meeting in Batavia, the present-day Jakarta.
"One country, one nation, one language" was the motto that inspired the Indonesian nationalist movement in those early years of its existence and that has since continued to arouse the spirit of freedom and unity among Indonesians. It became the battle cry that has so far effectively united this nation consisting of hundreds of diverse ethnic and cultural groups.
It is therefore not without reason that Oct. 28 is commemorated each year with deference as national Youth Pledge Day, in homage to those pioneers of Indonesian independence who had the momentous foresight to see and treat this vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands as one political and cultural whole.
At present, however, 72 years after the 1928 youth pledge, Indonesians would do well to ask themselves where 55 years of political independence has led them on their journey toward realizing those ideals.
As a unitary republic, Indonesia still stands intact, undivided and whole -- for now. But religious and communal strife in several parts of the archipelago make it seem increasingly doubtful that the unity of Indonesia can be maintained, unless Indonesians remain true to the ideals promulgated in the 1928 pledge and put their sectarian differences aside.
Up to this moment, unfortunately, there is little indication that this can be effectively accomplished any time soon. The general situation in Maluku seems to have calmed down, but the tendency for violence to flare up unexpectedly at the least provocation still seems to prevail in various parts of the islands.
Conflicts in restive Aceh continue to claim victims on both sides and although a so-called humanitarian pause is in effect, there is little sign that it is being observed by the parties involved.
In the latest case of sectarian violence, a savage conflict erupted without warning in Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan. At least six people have so far been killed in clashes between indigenous locals and migrant settlers.
Indeed, all across the Indonesian archipelago, Jakarta included, violence seems to have become the accepted way to settle differences -- a clear token of a loss of authority on the part of the administration. With the specter of disintegrating hanging over the country, the very cohesion of the nation is also endangered.
As for the Indonesian language, experts and educators have long complained about the chaotic use of Bahasa Indonesia. Even television announcers, who are university graduates, seem to lack the ability to speak the national language properly.
For this, it is not only the education system that is to blame. The authorities, too -- from the national leadership down to the lowest ranking subdistrict officials -- commit the offense of abusing Bahasa Indonesia.
It is no exaggeration to say that, as far as its public use is concerned, Bahasa Indonesia is on its way to becoming a defunct language, its place being taken over by a kind of gibberish without any set rules of grammar or idiom.
On this propitious day, then, Indonesians had better start giving more substance to their commemoration of the 1928 youth pledge. It may be difficult to put the national house in order, but it is not too late.