It saddens us that many people do not appreciate this most important celebration. You do not get harassed by colleagues and strangers when you do not celebrate it or ignore the ceremony, which is usually broadcast live television and radio. Even seasonal flag vendors have deplored sluggish sales in the first days of August. Independence Day’s meaning is diminishing.

Waning nationalism is at the core of this problem. It is tough to celebrate the birth of Indonesia amid the government’s failure to improve the prosperity of society, let alone our government and people’s poor bargaining power at the international level following the reform era.

Malaysia has started dictating the rules of the game to Indonesia. In 2001, Amien Rais as the speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) was told by high-ranking Malaysian officials not to interfere in the country’s decision to whip illegal Indonesian maids and laborers. “Don’t mess with our business. Mind your own messy house,” they said. Not only that, but Malaysia later claimed batik clothing, rendang food, pendet dance and many other quintessentially Indonesian things were part of Malaysia’s cultural patrimony.

After 65 years of independence, Indonesia should be much greater than it currently is. A feeling of having achieved nothing is also prevalent. No wonder it is acceptable for people, especially young people, to have no pride as Indonesians.

This country has gained independence as a nation state. It is now time to become more independent as a society. Independent society constitutes the first step towards finding solutions and remedies to the country’s current and future challenges.

Human resource management is central to an independent society. Local talent is greatly needed to help this nation further. The use of local talent to develop the country will greatly serve to strengthen the confidence of our fellow citizens and also provide an opportunity for future leader regeneration.

East Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have proven that developing a high-quality local workforce and selecting and grooming local leaders can result in successful multinational investment and a legion of extraordinary development programs in a variety of sectors.   

For that purpose, “the right person in the right place” principle must be taken into account. The absence of such principle will bring about poor state management, which in turn makes the fiasco of government more tangible.

It is public knowledge that Indonesia’s best scholars prefer to work abroad rather than at home due to the poor appreciation of intellectuals in this country, which reflects intolerable human resource negligence. B.J. Habibie and Ken Soesanto are good examples. Imagine: a young and inexperienced local House member receives 10 times the pay of a university lecturer with a doctorate.

Indonesia and Indonesians should take charge of their own country. It does not mean that we do not need foreign talent. No country in the world, from highly developed countries to developing or under-developed countries, can sustain its economy, research facilities, hospitals, academic institutions, etc., without foreign workers and experts.

Singapore, for instance, has been so successful economically because it has done its best to attract top experts and talents from all over the world and succeeded in integrating them into its economy and society.

Foreign talents have to be included in the country’s national interest and pre-designed national agendas, with a long term plan in mind. Foreign talents are not merely meant to do the jobs that nationals are simply not interested in doing. That’s not how it works.

Such talents have to play the role of the worker, but also the teacher, because without technology transfer, Indonesians will continue to live in a state of total dependency on outsiders. That is debilitating physically and psychologically.

However, it is important to note that consultants, committees, or employees (whether foreign or local) are no substitute for something that we woefully lack, namely a public sphere in which people discuss what the problems being faced as a society are, what their causes may be and how to solve them.

This problem has come to the fore because we rely on the government for everything: jobs, houses and car loans; solving our financial problems as well as planning our futures and making decisions for us.

Everything is left to that kind paternal institution that we call the “government”. When will we grow up?

As a society we will not be able to compete successfully with other countries unless we overcome this dependency syndrome.

Only an independent society could maintain the spirit of Aug. 17. Enough with conceptualizing the problem. We have to activate all of our energies and work as hard, fast and precisely as possible, before we end up reminiscing about the good old days.  

As the African-American (and Muslim) leader Malcolm X once said: “It’s time to stop singing and start swinging.”  

Dirgahayu RI

Long live Indonesia!

The writer is a lecturer at Andalas University, Padang, and a graduate of the University of Canberra, Australia.

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