A Significant 73 Years

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Children of the Tengger Tribe put up red-and-white flags during a Scouts Day Ceremony to welcome Indonesian Independence Day on Mount Bromo in Sukapura district, Probolinggo regency, East Java, Tuesday (14/8/2018). The ceremony was marked by hoisting 2,018 red-and-white flags and pledging to maintain the sovereignty of Indonesia.

If only there were sentinel satellites over Indonesian skies, their sensors would have caught people belting out the national anthem, “Indonesia Raya” (Great Indonesia), throughout the archipelago.

We acknowledge that the patriotic song and its poetic lyrics, written and composed by WR Supratman and first played publicly in 1928 at the Second Youth Congress, is truly visionary. Supratman once said that he had a feeling his song would be chosen one day as the national anthem, although he passed away seven years before independence was proclaimed.

“Indonesia Raya” has the unique ability to evoke Indonesians’ nationalistic spirit, much like how the symphonic lyrics of Jean Sibelius’ “Finlandia” aroused the Finns’ patriotism at a time when the Russian empire was tightening its grip on that nation.

As quoted by the late Bondan Winarno in his 2003 book on the national anthem, Dutch Indies governor-general Jonkheer de Graeff once asked, “Why should there be a national anthem for a nation that does not even exist?” De Graeff then banned “Indonesia Raya” from even being mentioned as a national anthem.

Through the decades, many doubted Indonesia as a sovereign nation. Even in 1993, Stephanie Neuman, a professor of political science at New York’s Columbia University, quipped that Indonesia was “an impossibility”.

How could such diverse ethnicities, languages and religions unite as one nation? In overcoming such impossibilities, our founding fathers were – long before the age of Google – enlightened and highly literate. They had learned of the theory of French philosopher and historian Ernest Renan, that nations can grow out of a desire to live together (le desir de vivre ensemble); they were also versed in the theory of Austrian thinker and politician Otto Bauer, that nations can manifest upon a shared outlook and fate.

Through physical battles and psychological warfare, the long-dreamt birth of the nation became a reality on Aug. 17, 1945. However, we are reminded that independence is merely a bridge towards achieving the nation of our dreams, one that is – as Yonky Karman wrote in his opinion piece on Wednesday (15/8/2018) – “united, sovereign, fair and prosperous”.

In welcoming our 73rd independence anniversary, it is time for self-reflection in asking ourselves: What dreams of our independence have we achieved? We intend to be fair in assessing our achievements in various sectors.

In carrying out our mandate of upholding world peace, Indonesia has credentials. We have been actively involved in various UN peace missions. In June, Indonesia was granted a seat as non-permanent member of the powerful UN Security Council.

We believe in and have a sense of entitlement that we will be able to enhance our contributions toward building a peaceful and orderly world, once we achieve more success in key sectors, including the economy, the military, science and technology and sociopolitics.

With all due respect to the leaders and technocrats of the seven presidencies since independence, Indonesia’s achievements – with all the attendant costs to our natural resources and the sacrifice of our people – are not yet optimal.

In politics, for instance, it is true that we can stake the claim as the world’s third largest democracy. However, we also need to acknowledge that our costly democracy has yet to produce statesmen that are fully devoted to the republic.

More alarmingly, recent developments show that our democracy, which should have advanced our sense of unity and nationalism, has marred by the identity issues that should have been buried when we accepted Pancasila as our state ideology. Our defense and science and technology sectors are not progressing much and our economy – often claimed a symbol of national success – is fragile.

Despite having been inducted to the elite G-20 group and often projected as the world’s seventh largest economy in 2030, we need to acknowledge the fragility of our nation’s economy. Many wonder why we are unable to achieve self-sufficiency in salt, sugar and rice, even though we have many brilliant economists educated at the world’s top universities. Even our success in infrastructure development has failed to make us immune to the impacts of the US trade war and rising interest rates.

If sovereignty is among the goals of independence, we are still shedding tears over our economy, which has been overtaken by other countries such as Vietnam. This is sad, as when Vietnam was gasping for breath at the end of the 1975 civil war, we were already well on our way towards becoming a developed nation – even if we found out later that we were standing atop a fragile foundation at the time.

Nevertheless, as a nation that fought for its independence with blood and tears, Indonesia must remain optimistic: “Lift the soul and reinvigorate the body.” Therefore, we should stop being small-minded people, as founding father Bung Hatta said in quoting German poet Schiller: “The times are great; it is sad that the people are so small-minded.”

In this celebratory atmosphere of Independence Day, Indonesian athletes will compete in the 2018 Asian Games. We fully support our nation’s target of making it to the top 10 in Asia’s greatest sporting event on the road to our dream of hosting the Olympics.

Sports should light our way towards becoming a nation focused on achievements, sportsmanship and physical fitness. It is this sportsmanship that we hope to see in next year’s general elections.

We hope that the sentinel satellite that watches over us from the skies above will not capture low clouds or our people fighting amongst ourselves. We hope this guardian satellite will show a nation that “lifts the soul and reinvigorates the body” for the glory of the motherland. Post nubila, jubila: After the storm, comes joy!

This hope is not an empty one, as Indonesia currently stands on a platform where the train of civilization will soon arrive and depart for a new world. Disasters and earthquakes have been disrupting the world at its core. The artificial intelligence at the center of Industry 4.0, combined with the internet of things (IoT) and big data, will play an important part in our lives today and in the future. Cyber warfare may become inevitable. All this requires brilliant youths with nationalistic souls to emerge as cyber warriors – as data scientists and cybersecurity experts.

This is our reflection in welcoming the nation’s 73^rd independence anniversary. We are grateful to God the Almighty for having blessed us with a wonderful 73 years. Despite our numerous shortcomings, our Republic still stands tall. Happy Anniversary, Republic of Indonesia!