Losing Indonesia

Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo

Yudi Latif

“To govern is to foresee.” Because no one knows exactly what may happen in the future, the best way to deal with the future is to manage it. Upon the use of valid data, positive or negative directions can be anticipated to ensure that the future movement of history will remain on a safe path.

What happens if someone with the potential to run for president "buys" a negative scenario by predicting that Indonesia will be dissolved by 2030? Yes, of course this is okay. However, a leader’s statement on matters as serious as the future of his country must be taken seriously.

First, is the forecast based on appropriate data and argument? Second, regardless of how bad the possible future scenario may be, a leader\'s job is to foster optimism. Former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew said: "My duty is to give the people hope, not demoralize them."

With the complexities facing Indonesia in the future, what is needed is not blind optimism, but optimism viewed with open eyes. We have to be able to use pessimism to foster a sense of interconnectedness with reality through an ability to see the situation more accurately. However, there is no need for us to be swept away in the shadow of darkness that will tie us up in a prison of pessimism. Conventional thinking assumes that success engenders optimism. In fact, evidence suggests otherwise. As psychologist Martin Seligman disclosed, optimism tends to boost success.

However, optimism must be based on vision and commitment. Optimism without vision or commitment is nothing but an empty daydream. Efforts to sow optimism must reinforce a vision that takes into consideration the legacies of the past, present opportunities and their effectiveness in anticipating the future. This vision must be made a reality by strengthening the transformative capacity of power.

First of all, let\'s recognize that Indonesia is a country of warriors, not a land of thugs. In the words of Bung Hatta, "For us, Indonesia declares a political objective because it symbolizes and aspires to become a country in the future, and to make this happen, every Indonesian will struggle with all his strength and ability."

Struggling, "striving with all strength and ability", flows through the veins of Indonesian-ness, ensuring that it exists and also maintains its existence. The determination of this struggle is not the empty rhetoric of a political image, but rather, is based on the experiences of repression, oppression and suffering that made the nation’s founders gain a deep comprehension of the meaning of humanity, unity and justice.

If Indonesia exists because of the ethos of the struggle to uphold the ideals of humanity, unity and justice, Indonesia is threatened with drowning as its basic values fade. Indonesia has been able to overcome various tests of poverty and suffering, as long as it upheld the spirit of struggle and solidarity of humanity. However, the strength and character of Indonesian-ness become suspended in limbo when the elite’s greed and infighting play out over the people’s suffering.

With greed and disputes among the elite, we face the threat of "losing Indonesia". This calls to mind Dutch prime minister Hendrik Colijn\'s statement in 1938. In response to the Soetardjo Petition, Colijn, a member of the Dutch East Indies Parliament who demanded Indonesia\'s independence, saidL "Indie verloren, rampspoed geboren" (The loss of Indonesia, a disaster). Losing Indonesia was deemed a great catastrophe, the downfall of the great ideal to realize a nation that was independent, united, sovereign, just and prosperous.

To avoid that, the Jakarta elite must learn and empathize with the people. Travel all over the country. A diverse people who await hope with the persistence of the power to fight will be found at all corners of this country.

Seeing Indonesia from the periphery is like looking at light, the luminescence of which looks more beautiful from the outer edge. What looks grim within the capital city looks brighter from the edges. Not because life on the edge is more prosperous, but because of the simplicity and modesty that makes expectations for life more approachable. In the fertile, peripheral lands remain fertile souls. The innocence found in rural faces is a clear mirror that reflects an equally sincere devotion.

There are two periods of time we cannot determine: the past and the future. The only thing we can do is to act in the present. We must seize this day by planting the seeds of goodness, even if it seems to be an impossible mission. There is no need to despair, because the life’s task is not to achieve success, but to fight for success. With sincere devotion, no deed will be in vain.

This is the homeland of our devotion. In these emerald isles along the equator, the nation’s children live in peace by loving one another, without the animalism of stepping on each other and driving out others. We must show our gratitude to the Divine by taking care of the motherland and ensuring that it prospers. Where there is earth, the sky is upheld.

Yudi Latif, Chairman, Presidential Working Unit for the Implementation of Pancasila Ideology