Self reflections on National Awakening Day

Self reflections on National Awakening Day

Mochtar Buchori, Legislator, Jakarta, mbuchori@indo.net.id

May 20 is National Awakening Day for us Indonesians, and May 2
is our National Education Day. Every year, on these two dates in
May, we try to renew our understanding about the significance of
the two important events for our national life. Personally, I
also try everytime to refurbish my respect for the noble minds
that made this historic events happen.

Every time I think of these two dates, one question
persistently comes to mind: Can our educational system bring
about a second national awakening? Will our educational system be
able to bring about new leaders among the young generation,
leaders capable of taking the nation out of the present disorder
and the doldrums?

I am not sure why this question persists in my mind. I think,
though, this is because I firmly believe that as a nation we
cannot possibly sustain our present way of life, and that sooner
or later we will have to change our current system for running
our country and our nation. To me, the most aggravating feature
of our society today is that even though we have formally decried
the New Order system, in our day-to-day life we are behaving in a
renewed New Order way. We are still trapped in the New Order
mentality. We have become real hypocrites. We don't practice what
we preach.

Can we change this situation? I think so! Not in my lifetime
perhaps, but certainly in the future there will be a new
generations of Indonesians who, spurred by their knowledge of
past national glories, will be determined to resurrect a
respectable Indonesia. This will be the second national awakening
of the Indonesian nation.

It could be that this is just an illusion or hallucination on
my part, but somehow I believe that our nation does possess the
will to change and the potential to do so. And, I also believe in
the power of education. I believe in its power to shape minds and
to influence young people in formulating their aspirations about
their personal and collective future. I believe that good
education will help the young to enrich their lives, broaden
their horizons, and ennoble their ambition.

I think in this respect that our educational system, in spite
of all its shortcomings today, has the capacity to heal itself
and will, at some point in the future, be able to bring about new
generations of leaders capable of motivating and guiding the
population to work hard to improve their personal and collective
lives. If and when such a national resolve could be attained, it
would be a matter of organization to transform this national
resolution into an endeavor to end this present humiliating mess
and to build anew a nation and a country, which we all can feel
proud of.

Thus, in my opinion, the arrival of generations that will save
the country and the nation from bankruptcy will be determined by
cultural and educational factors. On the cultural side, the
question is whether we will be able to continuously adjust our
value systems to the changing challenges of the time, and whether
we will be able to transmit effectively these value systems to
the succeeding generations. To cite just a simple example, we can
ask ourselves whether we will be able to transmit values related
to personal and national pride, hard work, decency, and empathy
-- to name just a few -- to the successive generations.

On the educational side, the question is whether our schools
will be capable of redesigning their educational programs. In my
view, our schools will have to extend their current programs
beyond training students to accumulate, store, and retrieve
knowledge, to guiding them towards understanding and appreciating
the struggles of their forefathers to create a "just and
prosperous society", and ultimately impelling them toward a
commitment to continue whatever task their forefathers left
unfinished.

Thus the arrival of Indonesian generations that will restore
the honor of this nation cannot and should not be taken for
granted. As I see it, it will depend very much on our ability to
synchronize family education at home, formal education in our
schools, and the unintended educational impact provided by the
mass media. If we are sincere in our pledge to revive and
rejuvenate our country, we will find ways of synchronizing these
various educative forces. But if we merely use those lofty words
and ideals for partisan political gain, I am afraid that this
generation of national angels will never come.

Each of these three parties -- the family, the school, and the
mass media -- has its own assignment to bring about a second
national awakening. At the initial stage it will suffice if each
of these three parties formulates its own agenda. But for the
purpose of speeding up this national rescue agenda, I think it
will become necessary for these three parties to coordinate and
synchronize their agendas.

In spite of my cautious tone, I still believe that my dream
for a second national awakening will materialize. I think in this
regard of the way in which our founding fathers were educated and
brought up. The majority of our founding fathers had a colonial
education that was never intended to nurture national political
leaders.

But it provided our forefathers with a solid intellectuality
that made them capable of understanding the moral and cultural
climate of the time, the zeitgeist, and understanding also the
burning aspirations alive among people at the bottom of the heap.
They should also not forget that their home life can equip them
with strength of character, which emphasizes willingness to
endure political pain, persistence in hardening one' resolve and
readiness to make sacrifices.

It should be stated here that in spite of the scarcity of mass
media, which sustains the idea of creating cultural identity and
achieving political independence, the combination of forces
stemming from family education and school education that
emphasized intellectuality succeeded in creating generations that
changed the history of the country.

If we may use this sketchy analysis as our guide we can say, I
think, that the main assignment for Indonesian families today is
to contribute to the building of a noble character in their
children). The main assignment of our schools, as I see it, is to
strengthen the learning capability of our children. The idea that
accumulation of knowledge creates smartness, wisdom, and power is
misconceived and misplaced.

And what is the main responsibility of the mass media? I
don't know! One thing that I feel worth mentioning is that the
time seems to have come for contemplating how the
commercialization agenda can be balanced with the missionary
agenda, viz. programs that constantly remind the public that we
have to save the future of the nation and the country.

Are we up to this challenge?