T

he annual Aug. 17 Independence Day celebrations have become a somewhat prosaic affair: a holiday filled with community events, children'€™s games and ceremonial flag waving, preceeded by long-winded speeches by leaders and dignataries.

Perhaps the most exuberant people during independence week are the flag sellers hoping for an upturn in their sales.

Aug. 17 has become a custom whose significance is sometimes overlooked. There is nothing iniquitous per se by not being enthused by the celebration. Freedom was not won in a day and, hence, the value of freedom is not something that can, or even should, be encapsulated just once a year.

In the same way a celebration of life is a sum of deeds and experience, independence means more than the obligatory hoisting of flags.

We can and should celebrate life every day through our philantrophy, creativity, hard work and social responsibility.

The 69th anniversary of the republic comes at a unique juncture in the nation'€™s history on the heels of the most bitterly fought and important election in the country'€™s nascent democracy, an election that pitted two opposites against each other: a moving forward with hope to a great realm of possibilities, or a reversion to the proverbial politics of the past.

The nation resoundingly chose the former. The outpouring of enthusiam demonstrated during the election period was en encouraging symbol of the health of our democracy. It was a wave of activism to defeat the apathy that often plagues a democracy. The momentum of electoral activism should be propelled farther by honoring our independence in committing our thoughts, our sweat and our passion towards getting involved as much as possible.

It is said that the business of government is too important to be left to government alone. Therefore no government should be left unchecked to its own devices.

This is the pledge that Indonesians should make tomorrow as they observe national Independence Day.

In his State of the Nation address President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was correct in saying that the nation'€™s founding fathers would probably be proud to see the progress of the country.

With an average economic growth rate of 5.9 percent from 2009 to 2013, Yudhoyono has also launched a revolutionary milestone in establishing the Social Security Management Agency Health (BPJS Kesehatan) earlier this year.

The president also pointed out that education was also improving with now more than 200,000 schools and 3 million teachers catering to 50 million students.

While these statistical achievements are laudable, we should question the quality they bring. For example, the quality of Indonesian education is one of the poorest compared to other countries in the region. The fact that the government continues to allocated 20 percent of the national budget to the education sector has not shown tangible enough results.

So let us commemorate our Independence Day with a determination that it is our duty to do more for the country, without the promise of material compensation..