Every 17th of August, every year, we commemorate our beloved country's independence, Indonesia. Indonesia has been independent since 1945. That means that we have commemorated the independence of Indonesia for 65 times. And today, August 17, 2011, we commemorate the 66th independence of Indonesia.
Indonesia is one of the countries that gained its independence with great difficulty. Citizens had to fight against the invaders like the British, Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese who came alternately. Indonesia struggled crucially at the time. In addition to the weapons and war equipment were inadequate, citizens were also still not quite good at fighting so they often did guerrilla war. Indonesia took about more than 350 years to be independent from colonialism. Hundreds of thousands of people and warriors were killed during that time until finally, on August 17, 1945, Sukarno and Hatta declared the independence of Indonesia.
Since then, Indonesia formally became an independent state. Nevertheless, the struggle did not end there. Most of the invaders countries did not acknowledge our independence. Consequently, to defend the sovereignty (kedaulatan) of the state, Indonesia had still to struggle. There is one quote which states that freedom is difficult to achieve, but it is far more difficult to defend it. It is true indeed, and that's what happened in our country at that time. People and warriors had to back to fight and not a few among them died in the war.
If we look at history, both achieving and defending the independence of our country, hundreds of thousands of people had to die to pay the price. Therefore, we should be thankful, because at this time, we do not have to do bloody battle to defend the independence that we have achieved. The problem is, most of us, in my experience, do not realize how valuable the struggle of the warriors in the past to obtain this independence so that what we see along the road every August 17 is just a meaningless noise. I'm not saying that the celebration of August 17 is not important. Only, we are always seduced by pleasure, so we often forget the true meaning of the independence itself.
Proves? Every year the people of Indonesia both domestically and abroad, rabble (rakyat jelata) up to the officials commemorate the Independence Day of Indonesia. However, there are still many cases that do not reflect an appreciation of the independence itself. For example, corruption still occurs everywhere. In the past, the problem was how to be independent from the colonizers, while the current problem is how to be independent from the corruptors. I often shake my head when watching the television showing the cases about corruption. People just did corruption as if they were free to do it. They didn’t care about how hard the independence was acquired. They just think how they could become rich by exploiting the State. I’m wandering, what would they do if they find themselves in the same situations to the previous warriors?
There are various ways that we can do to defend this independence, nowadays. Certainly, we do not need bleeding just like the previous warriors. In my opinion, as good citizens, to defend this independence, we can engage in various fields such as education, economics, law, and other fields. In economics for example, by increasing our income and encouraging others to do the same thing, we already participate in advancing this nation, and that is, of course, one manifestation of the State defense. In education? Well, we can become experts in our field of study, so that the country will no longer need to import specialists or experts from abroad. Anyway, there are many ways, you just choose one or more of them. (@visionasc)
by Naskar Hansam | Hasanuddin University
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