Merdeka means freedom. “Merdeka ! Merdeka !” the word was called by everyone that day. It was 17th August 1945, at 10 AM, by our first president – Soekarno - Indonesia declared the country’s freedom from colonialism, 350 years by the Dutch plus three and a half years by Japanese. No more colonialism, no more scares, no more suffer, no more hunger, freedom is now in our hand.
It was a day when the Japanese kidnapped all the girls, any where, every where, at any time. In front of the house, at the market, in the mosque, in the church, on the street. Dragged and compiled them into a truck and kept them in a locked room each to serve the Japanese sexual desires. Everyone was scared to death to save their daughters as well as my grand father. He had 5 girls and 3 of them were teenagers. No father in this world would like to see his daughters to become a bunch of hookers, so did my grandfather. Thus, my grandfather went to the nearest monastery asking the priest to let his daughters to stay in the monastery. He kissed the priest’s feet. He promised anything he could. He would not leave the monastery till the priest gave him his permission to let his girls to stay in.
I hate war. I hate seeing people killing to each other. I even hate war movie. For me, wars leave us nothing but pain and trauma. Why do we have to suffer other’s people life when we can make their life better?. Why do we have to hurt others when we do not want to be hurt? See war in Iraq. Who wins the war and who suffer the most? See Sierra Leone in West Africa. A country produces a high amount and the best diamond in the world. War gives their people nothing but pain and hunger. AFROL.com explains that “since 1991, the country has suffered war, terror and a deep, unrelenting humanitarian crisis which have left it devastated….Between 20,000 and 75,000 people have been killed and thousands mutilated……The worst of it might be that there do not seem to be other motives for this than maintaining control of the rich diamond fields of Sierra Leone”.
See Ethiopia. The Afrol.com says that during the civil war “hundreds of civilians have died in the fighting (the ONLF estimates 2,000 killed by the government in the past year, though one independent estimate suggests the figure is less than half that), and 1.8 million more may be at risk, as an Ethiopian blockade has cut off commercial food shipments from neighboring Somalia and prevented the region's nomadic people from selling their livestock”. The war made people suffering, made people hungry. The war gave the children no future, but instead they were junk food for the condors. You saw that picture, didn’t you? There are more and more news about wars. But I wish there will be no more wars existing in this world.
Back to Indonesia. 17th August every year, besides formal ceremonies in the presidential palace and all government institutions, is the day when people are having fun, forgetting all troubles in this life. There will be games for children and adults, finalized in the evening by musical performances or big feast with everyone in the neighborhood. People are inventing new games for more fun such as play football with wife’s house dress, pillows battle on the river, though there are similar games during these decades such as running is sack, etc. Prizes could be something simple like books and candies for children, or T-shirt for the adults. But fun is the most important thing. Look at the picture. My friend – Sabina Lucia – took the picture of a famous palm tree’s climbing race in Kali Malang. The palm was oiled and placed in the middle of Kali Malang river. There were shirts, trousers, bicycles, attached on it. People smeared sands into their bodies to beat the oil. They were holding to each other to climb the palm. It was reported that 2 hours later, no one succeeded. They kept falling down into the river. More laughing, more fun. The race attracted hundreds of people and had made a long traffic jam. Climbing the oiled palm trees is a common race during our independence day all over Indonesia.
When everyone is having fun, some people are questioning. Is that all? Is it the way we fulfill this freedom? Do we love our country enough? Make the best for it enough? The answer is may be yes, may be not. In my opinion, Indonesian people are varies. There are people who build the rules and implement it in the right ways to make this country better. There are people who play around with rules to fulfill their own ambitions for power or money. And there are people who even do not realize there are rules existed. 1998 was a critical time in the country when Soeharto’s regime - the government at that time - fell down after more than 30 years governed the country with his iron hands. Euphoria of freedom rose. Everyone was eagerly struggling to reach the goals, in the name of reformation. Chaotic situation occurred. In my working field, many national parks were invaded by people who claimed that it was their land forcedly taken by Soeharto’s before. The worst I saw when I was in Tanah Bumbu, South Borneo. Along the motorway, I saw hundreds of illegal trucks with coal inside. According to our national regulation, mining trucks should not be on the public road by any reasons. In that area illegal coal mining is the main problem but seemed no one did nothing. I heard from the TV news, a teacher was beaten to death by local gangsters as he complained about the dust and noisiness produced by the coal trucks. What a reformation.
Afterwards, people during Soeharto’s era started to gain their power again now, when things are getting worse, less money available, less jobs, less food. Reformation in reality do not give people in general a better life unless for some individuals. People are memorizing the plenty of food available during Soeharto’s era, and they selected those people again. Selecting our leaders - nationally, provincially, locally - directly is something new for us. Although, as I wrote before, people are attracted more to appearance than the quality. But this is the process of democratization. People are learning. But I remember a Malysian guy said on TV “Melayu people are people who easily forgetting things. If you make troubles. Stay away for sometime, abroad if necessary. Then people will forget your mistakes”. No wonder more and more people from the past are having their political power again now. I’m wondering, if I make mistake someday, I’ll do the same. Why not ?
With freedom in our hands in 1945, we build our country. Though we are far behind India (1947), Malaysia (1957), Singapore (1965), for the country’s economy and technology development, but we never stop to love our country. Let me quote my friend’s note – Agus Sari : “Not because we won the war. Not because we were given freedom. But because we love it. Because we can do something to it. Make it better. Love it. Short negligence or ignorance, some apparent weaknesses, are not a way to disown or to deny the love. Have a great independence day, Indonesia”. And I could not agree more.
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