The Youth Pledge Revisited: It's Time to Bury the Hatchet

E PLURIBUS UNUM. The experience from my high school times has redefined my view of nationalism, with my Chinese-Indonesian friends acting as the unlikely teachers who taught me the true meaning of Unity in Diversity.

Could anyone be able to mention any nation in earth whose diversity is greater than Indonesia?

No one could. With more than 17,000 islands scattering across the archipelago, in where around 300 local tribes roaming around with each of whom speaking their own local languages; the diversity of Indonesia is definitely unrivaled.

Indonesia’s vast diversity, however, is a two-edge sword and sometimes becomes the major constraint for its citizens to unite and have a mindset as one nation. Since the arrival of the first colonialist –that was the Portuguese in 1512–, it took more than 400 years for Indonesia’s massively-diverse citizens to unite as one nation and declare its independence from the colonialists.

Certainly, the key to our unification was the declaration of Sumpah Pemuda (the Youth Pledge) on October 28 1928, where jongs or youths from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Jong Sumatranese, Javanese, Bataknese, Ambonese, and even Chinese) gathered together and vowed to eliminate the great divide of their racial barriers and all declare themselves as Indonesians.

It is the oath that became a keystone in uniting Indonesia’s massively-diverse citizens and later proved to be pivotal for Indonesia to finally unshackle itself from colonialism.

Fast forward eighty two years, it is worth reflecting the values of Sumpah Pemuda once again when we look upon the situation of Indonesia at present.

Violence on behalf of the interest of specific religion and racial groups erupts in many parts of the region, with hatreds and resentments toward each other eclipse the aphorism of “unity in diversity” that is tightly gripped by the Garuda bird as one important part of Indonesia’s national symbol.

While in the past Jong Ambonese worked hand-to-hand with other Indonesians regardless of which part of Indonesia they came from, today there seemed to be no love lost between the Ambonese and Flores people at the street of Ampera when they exchanged blows and spilled each other’s blood.

And while in Merah Putih movie we can watch how a Moslem school teacher fought the Dutch colonialist shoulder-to-shoulder with a Christian farmer and an obedient Hindu soldier, today the religion intolerance in this country can only grow larger than ever following the stab of two church leaders at Bekasi, allegedly did by Moslems who opposed the presence of the church’s activities in the area.

If only our founding fathers who proclaimed Sumpah Pemuda could see what we are doing at the moment; they would surely be very ashamed to have us as their descendants.

Why, as I am deeply puzzled here, do such racial barriers and differences have to matter? During my high school times, my school was mostly dominated with Chinese-Indonesian students with very rich family background, yet in reality they never look me different despite the fact that I am a Moslem Javanese who merely come from middle-class family background.

And regardless our racial, religion, and social status differences; we are still Indonesian at heart.

“You know, I was very impressed by the way you guys enthusiastically sang your national anthem together,” said an Irish teacher who taught high-school students in United States, as he paid a visit to our school.

“In the United States, young people in your age don’t even memorize [the lyrics of] their own national anthem,” he added.

Indeed, it is ironic why those ethnic-group people should look down against each other’s roots, while back then in high school times all my friends always identified me as “Indonesian”, nothing else matters. During that time, my Chinese-Indonesian friends frequently offered me ride home, jovially invited me to their houses, and on occasions even introduced me to their parents who later cooked me dishes so we could have dinner together.

Did those specific ethnic groups say that they did it merely for retaliation, because of one or two things which some Bataknese or Ambonese did in the past? Then they really should learn to forgive and bury the hatchet: When I sat with my friend’s parents around the dining table, I was sure that they had not forgotten how the Javanese people brutally treated their Chinese relatives during the 1998 riot either.

Revenge is never-ending; forgiving each other and living together in such harmony look to be a life more comfortable living. For massively-diverse citizens of Indonesia, it is indeed a better option to choose rather than fulfilling your revenge now and living life full of insecurity later.

Amidst recent clashes involving religion and ethnic groups in Indonesia, this is the day when I miss the moment when a foreigner was in awe and felt really timid seeing Indonesian high-school students from different religions and ethnic groups singing Indonesia Raya sincerely together.

Ask the then Dutch colonialists at this date eighty two years ago, and that’s the same feeling which went through their spines when those Jong Sumatranen Bond, Jong Ambon, Jong Batak, Jong Java, as well as other Indonesian youths from different backgrounds, all ignored their differences and stood as one to sing Indonesia Raya with all their heart.

This article was published in The Jakarta Post on Thursday, October 28 2010

The Lesson from Obama's Win

Yes, Barack Obama won the election. No, he has not elected as the president yet; and people are criticizing him already for not making any actions regarding the conflict in Gaza. Thus let’s momentary ignore Israel-Palestine war issue when we talk about Obama as today he is officially inaugurated as the 44^th president of the United States. As a matter of fact, the Israel-Palestine war has eclipsed what actually we can learn from his triumph and what it really means to all the people in the world.

Today, as we say goodbye to the out-of-favor president George W. Bush, Americans and the world welcome an unlikely new president who is supposed to be the one to fix the battered image of the country abroad and change United States to a nation that the world can depend once more.

Obama’s win is an unlikely case; simply because he is black. As it happens in most of the countries in the world, the minority usually hasn’t got the same opportunity as the majority has. Now we can see that the world’s most powerful nation is led by a black man, and that’s really something.

Change we can believe in, says Barack Obama, the man who successfully convinces Americans to believe that he, regardless the color of his skin, can make change for country’s future image to the world. The man who teaches us that being minority doesn’t mean you can’t fulfill your dream; even his once impossible reverie to be a black president in his country can come into reality. And this is the man who, most importantly, unites the Americans and razes racial barriers which have overwhelmed the people for years.

“No he will not make it because, you know, he is a black. And racial discrimination in that country is way bigger than you think”, said my Indonesian colleague friend from United States when he came back to Jakarta a year ago. Obama was still trailing behind Hillary Clinton in the race for Democrat’s presidential nominee back then, and skepticism still arose whether Americans were ready yet to have an African-American to be their president.

But the United States people have proved themselves that they can brush skin color judgment aside and unite for the country’s purpose. Obama’s win as the first black president of the United States shows that now each citizen in that country, black or white, minority or majority, can share the same opportunity and freedom; the mere delusion that was dreamed by Martin Luther King 45 years ago.

And bear in mind that it happens in United States –where there was time when black students were not allowed to be in the same class with white students, when black people are obliged to sit at the back of the bus, and when a black politician is condemned for having dinner in the White House.

Today, many countries are still struggling to surmount their own underlying racial and ethnic problems. And the one who suffers is always the minority, who has yet to experience commonly unfair treatments and conducts and can not share the equal opportunity as the majority has.

As an Indonesian, it is true that I am not considered as minority. Yet speaking about being part of the minority, I am an obedient Muslim who spent 6 years in Catholic school that is dominated by the Chinese, the race that hold only less than 4 percent of Indonesia’s total population and for long has been struggling to find their way out of frequent unfair treatments from the bureaucracy or other Indonesians. Trust me, I do know what it feels like to be a minority.

Think the way Americans were thinking when they cast their vote in the election. It’s not Obama’s race that matters; it’s his ability to bring the country back on the right pathway. As the new president-elect officially stepped in to the oval office this January, the Americans have shown us that the earth we are currently living is no longer a place where people are judged by the color of their skin, or other differences that matter.

If American people can do it, then why can’t we? Oh obviously, yes we can.