The burden for all young Indonesians

Tasa Nugraza Barley ,  Maryland   |  Mon, 05/19/2008 11:50 AM  |  Supplement

It's not easy being a young Indonesian. The challenges are great and numerous. Some of you might wish you were born in a developed country like America or Japan so you wouldn't have to see the poor crying out for food every single day.

It's a burden I have to carry.a burden you, your friends and other young Indonesians have to carry. It's a burden our founding fathers wanted us to carry. It's what young Indonesians have been pressured into: effecting a big change in society.

Some say a country's greatness depends on its young people. Some say it's always the young who make the great changes to a society. They say the young are the ones with great motivation and energy. They are the brave and optimistic ones. They are the ones who dare to fight injustice.

In 1908, a group of young Indonesian intellectuals living in the Netherlands established the first Indonesian political organization, Budi Utomo. This organization was probably the first group of young Indonesians who felt the need to spread the spirit of nationalism throughout the country. Their efforts would prove to be revolutionary.

Ninety years later it was the young who stood up to Soeharto's dictatorship. The 1998 movement gave birth to a concept that would form part of daily lives and conversations for the many years to come, and that concept was reformasi. Young Indonesians were praised at the time for their courage.

But 10 years after reformasi and a hundred years after Budi Utomo, it is sad to see more pessimism than optimism among the young. Everywhere I go I meet young Indonesians who believe there's nothing we can do for the country. They simply say, "It's Indonesia, what can you expect?"

When they gather there's one kind of joke they love to tell: jokes of how stupid Indonesians are or how ridiculous our culture is. They say Indonesian values are old-fashioned and not in tune with current conditions.

In six years of living in Jakarta it was hard to find young Indonesians who were proud of being Indonesian. Yes, they claimed they lived in here and they were citizens, but at the same time they admitted they felt some shame inside their hearts for being a part of this country.

Most young Indonesians I know think the country is corrupt and the whole political system is flawed. Every day they read news about how government officials are accused of being dishonest and disloyal to the people who voted them into office.

Their frustration is very real and should be taken seriously. Some travel around the world to see how other nations have managed to do so well in developing their people and countries. And when they come back all they can see is how the country they call home reeks of hopelessness and helplessness.

It's hard to come up with another Budi Utomo. The circumstances are different and the energy is different. But I believe there's still hope.

Although there's a strong proclivity toward pessimism among our youth, I see many of them exuding the same energy our founding fathers had in the past. Unfortunately, they are overlooked by the media.

The spirit of the 100th anniversary of national awakening should be used as a platform for those who still care about our founding fathers' dreams to remind the country there's still hope.

Young Indonesians need to learn how Budi Utomo and its founders managed to instill the country with the spirit of nationalism and unite Indonesians. They faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet they succeeded.

Although the times have changed, the problems we face are in essence the same ones Budi Utomo once faced: Young Indonesians are not united, the economy is in a bad state and there is too much of a Western influence in our culture.

I know it's hard to effect changes. I know it's hard to effect good changes when circumstances are so forbidding. And I know it's hard to effect great changes when everything seems to be so imperfect. But no one is perfect and you don't have to be good to do good things.

Let us be the change everyone wants to see in Indonesia, and let us begin right now. Let's carry the burden our founding fathers wanted us to carry, not just because we love our government or because our politicians tell us to.

Let's carry it in the name of our Indonesian parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, families and friends. Let's carry it for all those people who love us for being born in this beautiful paradise called Indonesia.

The writer is a postgraduate student in Washington D.C. His personal blog is http://guebukanmonyet.com.

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