I surfed the Internet, watching videos of Ted x events in Jakarta in Youtube this morning. I found two very interesting videos. First, the video Ridwan Kamil spoke about change, on how Indonesian youth should be creative and be responsible to the community. Second Anis Baswedan who spoke about a program called Indonesia Mengajar.
The most interesting part in Kamil's video is at the end of the speech where he remind his father's advice. His father told him that there are four kinds of youth; the smarts but do not care, the fools but care, the fools who do not care, and last the smarts who care. The smarts who do not care are people who just think about their leisure such as students and scholars who work abroad, and too afraid to return to Indonesia to work with petty salary. The fool who care are those who go to demonstration, some times get paid for that. The fool who do not care are the hoodlums in the market and villages. The one that his father advocate him to be is the smart who care.
Baswedan spoke about the Indonesia Mengajar program where he sent 51 Indonesian smart youth to teach in the isolated area of Indonesia. In Sukarno Hatta airport anis said to the kids that Sukarno and Hatta are example of youth who had a leisure future in front of them but took a hard way to fight. That is why they are hero. Before these fifty one youths are chosen there are 3000 more applicants to the program although they know they will stay in a hard life in isolated parts of Indonesia. Thus, Anis stated that mothers in Indonesia do not quit giving birth to heroes.
From the first video, we are told to be a hero for the second, we are told that so many of us a intrinsically are born to be a hero. Both rise optimism in me, that Indonesia will have a bright future. The question is why do our progress to a better future in Indonesia is like facing a wall. Why do we almost always face a skeptical view when we think about making Indonesia a better nation. Why does reformation process do not result as what is expected.
The answers to these question might different from a person to another. For me the answer for me is that we did not do enough and we did not collaborate enough, we did see enough of our good works, and we did not appreciate enough. Thus, I believe that we must do more, collaborate more, talk about good works more and appreciate enough.
To quote Yamada Jirokichi, master of swordsmanship from the school of jikishin kage ryu, one master that develop kendo, "technique alone is not sufficient, spirit alone is not enough." The ideas above is about the spirit of to be useful and beneficial to others. Both of the have done things in a spirit with their capability. It is clear that they are smart people, so we can see their works.
In public sector, I have seen people who might not less spirited nor less clever. Ministry of finance have abundance of those spirited and smart person. Yet, reformation program in the department is not yet resulted as expected. Not to lessen the achievement of Ridwan and Anis, but to point out that there are others who also work hard, There are people that even have sacrifice more. If Anis and Ridwan in their effort still live well, there are others that have to live a hard life to hold on their believe and accomplish their deed. What differentiate is that these people work in an environment that heavily correlated one to another, while Ridwan and Anis work independently.
Working alone have advantage that none can eliminate the result of the deed. Working in public require the synergy of the whole element to succeed. The work of the good and clever (may be not clever enough) is also dependent to the work of others. If others do not support, the deed of the organization will still fail. from this point, I can simplify that the work of public is the work of the whole body of the public. We do need the motivated and smart persons, but we also need cohesion of work. This is what Indonesia in general, and any others organization to focus, lack.
Last, I just want to add another though that I had about what else Indonesia lacks in its direction: the though of unity of Indonesia. This does not mean the separatism view, instead the view that Indonesia is single. During many occasions I was highly irritated by friends who talk about working out side Java is a terrible thing. I do not blame those with this though because we can see this meme anywhere in Indonesia. We can see everywhere, from the history class, fashin, TV program, economic reports, advertisements. What I feel is that Indonesia to this time have seen Indonesia as Java accompanied by other islands. I have a dream that one day when we present Indonesia, we will show sky crappers in Irian, Business districts in Sulawesi, Silicon Valleys in Kalimantan, and students in Indonesian top university in Sumatra. I believe this dream should not be just a dream, but must be a vision to the SUPERPOWER INDONESIA*.
* a friend from Georgia told me that he anticipated Indonesia will be a superpower. I see his point, that we are a big country, but I have to admit that I cannot shrewdly picture it. Most of Indonesia now are liabilities instead of capital. Most provinces are right now are as Alaska to the United States compared to the provinces in Java. I kept thinking and imagining what kind of Indonesia is that, until I come with an image of Indonesia where wherever you landed in Indonesia, it can represent Indonesia as much as Jakarta does.
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