T

housands of young people marked the 84th anniversary of Youth Pledge Day in Jakarta and other big cities across the country on Sunday.

“We will try to reaffirm the spirit of the founders of this country, as they declared on October 28, 1928,” Thoriq Mahmud, one of the initiators of the commemoration, said in Jakarta, as quoted by Antara news agency.

According to Thoriq, young people today have been restless due to the disappearance of Indonesia’s national identity after the emergence of various problems, ranging from student brawls to rampant corruption, has destroyed the foundation of people’s lives and the state.

Due to the problems, Thoriq said that he, together with representatives of various youth organizations, took the initiative to renew the spirit declared by the original proclaimers of the Youth Pledge, who believed that the people of what would later become Indonesia shared a single motherland, nation and language.

The attendees of the All-Indonesian Youth Conference in 1928, Thoriq said, longed for national unity and then worked together to build a nation that could compete with other countries.

“The unity of youth is important capital for the future of the nation,” Thoriq, who is also head of the Anti-Corruption Youth Movement, said.

Similar commemorates were also joined by thousands in several big cities across the country, including Balige in North Sumatra, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Bandung in West Java and Jayapura in Papua on Sunday.

In Yogyakarta, students attended a youth congress held on the campus of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) to search for ways to settle the problems of the nation.

Led by UGM rector Pratikno, the students read aloud the Youth Pledge.

“The declaration was designed to express concern over the various problems affecting the country,” Khairul Umam, a law student at the university, said.

It was time to return to the national ideology of Pancasila to improve the condition of the nation, according to Khairul.

“We strongly oppose any type of violence in the nation’s life and invite the people to return to the ideology of Pancasila to settle their problems,” Khairul said.

The events held on Sunday also meant discussed fighting corruption.

Pratikno said that the spirit of the Youth Pledge should not be forgetten after the events commemorating its anniversary endeds.

“Youths should be able to improve their academic quality, moral integrity and leadership capability to improve the condition of Indonesia in the future,” he said.

In order to achieve the goals of the pledge, young people today should avoid illegal drugs, violence and brawling, he said.

“The youths who fall victims to these three problems, fall far short of our expectations,” Pratikno said.

In Balige, social observer Tengku Pardede said that young people should show their integrity and identity amid globalization. “The national spirit should be used to motivate them to create a deeper meaning with regard to the role of the young generation in struggling the fate and existence of Indonesia,” Pardede said on Sunday.

The original pledge was made at the close of the third All-Indonesian Youth Conference on Jl. Kramat Raya in East Jakarta, where the future national anthem, “Indonesia Raya”, was first heard.