The meaning of independence

The meaning of independence

Benny Susetyo, Malang

On Wednesday, Indonesia will celebrate its 60th Independence
Day. Several generations have experienced various ups and downs
in the process of building a nation out of Indonesia. The bad
times Indonesia has experienced as a nation should serve as
valuable lessons for us all.

Sadly, we still find it hard to learn from experience; in
fact, we have almost never learned from experience or are
frequently unwilling to do so. We are reluctant to learn from
history, which often leads us to repeat the same mistakes.

A great nation is one that should be capable of "rereading"
its history and making it the basis of its behavior. Studying
history is the best way to reflect on the direction in which the
country should be heading. It provides the foundation for nation-
building. The country's history of injustice and colonialism
should open our minds to the fact that this nation has to be
built on the solid foundations of humanism and justice.

The Indonesia of today often forgets about these values as a
result of the conduct of its elite. They frequently act in the
name of the entire populace while in reality acting solely in
their own interests. Indonesia is facing a crisis of values.
Various areas of national expression have been reduced to mere
materialistic values, which solely serve the logic of economic
growth and political stability.

Redefining our Indonesian status means that we should view it
from a new perspective in the context of global politics that
tend to be oriented toward liberalism. The market ideology and
neo-liberalism have converted the state into an institution that
is no longer able to play a decisive role in determining its own
future.

Global interests often dictate our policies. Indonesia should
now realize that it is a mere tiny bolt in a global industrial
power that dominates the life of nations. The state in the
conventional sense no longer possesses its original power as its
sovereignty is frequently circumscribed by the owners of capital.

Therefore, we are apt to forget: What is the nation already
independent from? What are we independent for? These two
fundamental questions reflect the unfinished work of
independence. While we are independent, we in reality have only
gained our freedom from conventional colonialism.

Reading history with a new paradigm means daring to say that
as a nation our awareness remains critically weak. It is still
founded on historical ties valued by the outgoing generation. The
cohesion of our nationalism is not strong either as the younger
generation do not feel the nation's unity to be part of their
struggle.

Capitalism and its control of the media has changed the way of
thinking in the world community so that life on earth is
seemingly determined by what can be perceived by the five senses
only. Men are intoxicated, losing their awareness of being human
beings as their choices are now dictated by the media.

Technology has reduced the sovereignty of individuals,
communities and even the state to systems that are built in a
virtual framework. It is this virtual world that has overwhelmed
sovereignty with technological systems merely to legitimize
modernization. Modernity, wherever practiced, has disrupted the
collective spirit and solidarity, which had previously united the
nation.

For this reason, we should avoid attaching importance to
history in the old fashion, by only looking at independence as a
story of war and struggle. Without diminishing the merits of
those involved, this myth will only blind us by physical prowess
while in fact independence is the fruit of thought.

The state's basic orientation should be restructured in order to
enable us to promptly respond to global changes. Independence
should be able to make this nation more creative by producing
opportunities for building strategic economic ties with, for
instance, China and India. These two powers should at least be
invited as strategic partners to establish a balance in the world
economy, which is now dominated by neo-liberalism.

Independence has hitherto been a "myth". This needs to be
changed into a framework for overhauling the nation's culture.
Otherwise, the nation will be trapped in an attitude of
glorifying past history without the courage to see it in the
present context.

By adopting a new outlook, the nation's independence will not
just be an abstract ideal that can only be understood by the
older generation while ignoring the younger one. The nation's
courage to contextualize history will give rise to a new
Indonesia that is truly independent, not only from classical
colonialism but also from neo-colonialism.

The writer is executive secretary of the Indonesian Bishops
Conference.