Indonesia’s awakening point

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Policemen, soldiers and members of the local community, including traditional village communities and mass organizations, take part in a nationality gathering at the West Java Police headquarters in Bandung, West Java, on Tuesday (23/05/2017). They made a nationality declaration to uphold the Pancasila and the diversity of the nation for the unity and harmony of Indonesia.

”Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

- John Lennon

Whether realized or not, the above quotation applies to anyone. Indonesia is no exception.

While discussing beautiful dreams and many other plans about the future, but if in its reality they are carried out in the framework of continuing the misdirection of the "way of thinking" and the feeling of not being shackled by the past residue, it will be counterproductive, even negligent, careless and complacent, that our neighbors have raced in managing themselves and utilizing the opportunities of the times that are driven by various factors of changes.

Other countries have managed to reorganize the "nation-state" that they manage to enter the global integration elegantly and confidently. We also witness the "battle" of the "market forces" versus "government forces". The role of the government is increasingly diminishing as it is taken over by the market mechanism. Especially if the government is slow, inefficient and corrupt, then the problem of a failed state is not impossible; it could even threaten the existence of the nation-state itself, because such a government will not only be a burden to the people, but also to the whole system.

Nation\'s internal portrait

Realized or not, there is a fundamental mistake in this nation, namely when it was built without common sense. For example, the Decree of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) – a product of the official law of this country – turns out to impose a heretical logic on everyone, including school children who will get a red mark on their report card if they do not answer as follows: "Bung Karno was involved in the G30S movement. The G30S coup. A coup against a legitimate government. The legitimate government was led by Bung Karno. Bung Karno was under house arrest ", and there are still many other examples.

It is not surprising that eventually there is a decline in the quality of culture, which is characterized by a rigidity on almost all sides of life, no exception in community life, technology (not caring about ecosystem) and even in religion, so that this nation finds it increasingly difficult to respond to the changing times. This disappearance of flexibility is accompanied by the damage of harmony that leads to social divisions. Actually, we know that the extinction of a civilization is marked by the malfunction of entities that form social order, such as government (bureaucracy), society (religion), economic lubricant (banking) and social examples.

The past behavior of the authoritarian country encouraged the government to use its authority arbitrarily, accompanied by a culture of bribery from table to table, which is left without attention, so that it is deeply rooted. As a result, a bureaucratic mentality, which is infected by the "kleptomania" disease, is formed. There is still a lot of bad behavior of the state instruments, including in the judiciary,

which is no longer based on moral ethics. Truth is frequently overtaken by procedures, which, to be honest, are intentional or engineered.

On the other hand, the community is lulled by heresy in the name of religious teachings. Not a few among the religious preachers who offer heaven-hell, teach humans to pray for heaven, but when there is a chance to immediately enter heaven, they are reluctant and even quickly reject it. This is a contradiction that encourages the fertility of hypocrisy.

This nation has allowed for a long time a number of educational processes that prioritize the fact that students have the knowledge for life after death, without providing sufficient skills and/or expertise to deal with real life in the real world. This condition is exacerbated by the practice of the banking world, which should be the lubricant of the wheel of the real sector, to become loan sharks and blood-suckers of the economy, which often strangle the people.

In short, like a family, this nation is being hit by a crisis of togetherness, a crisis of trust, a crisis of harmony and also a crisis of exemplary figures who should be among those to become role models and give examples to the wider community. Then what should we do to address this? Do we continue to be busy with "trivial things", which are unclear about their origin in the country, so that they do not end? This is the nation\'s big agenda in 2019.

In fact, in this nation there is a lot of beauty, majesty and great power to make big changes. What is not available in this country? The blessing of God Almighty is so abundant, poured out in this country, isn’t it?

Portrait of external world

The game of "money gives birth to money" on the money market without real economic activity, only trading money and valuable papers with various derivatives -- no need to bother dealing with social problems as in businesses in the real sector, such as the difficulties of license processing, labor strikes, and others -- will lead to an economic bubble. Meanwhile out there, China with careful preparation -- through their factories that conduct collaborative marketing in the United States and Europe – succeeds in dominating the top 10 world capital markets to extract huge amounts of foreign exchange. This condition has prompted the US to think hard about keeping pace with China, which slowly but surely will shift the role of the dollar as the world\'s reference currency.

On the other hand, the rapid growth of telematics technology, specifically blockchain and cryptocurrency (digital currencies) also continues to proceed to become a "borderless" transaction platform throughout the world, shifting the role of paper money, banking and the currencies of a number of countries, mainly the US dollar. This currency war will and is marking a shift in the role of the "nation-state" in a more relevant direction in the future, namely from a political economy-based state leading to a culture-based state as the identity of nations in the world.

Another major influx of world movements is the emergence of shared awareness among the world community as a unified entity. Like the human body, if the lungs (Indonesia) are ill, other parts of the body will suffer. From there emerge at least 10 "global concerns" that are a common agenda for the whole world, including the issue of climate change, equality (gender, ethnicity, race, religion), and human rights.

Post-2019 presidential election agenda

With an appearance that by a number of parties is referred to as plonga-plongo (indecisive), President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has carried out a "detoxification" process of chronic diseases suffered by this nation. The slogan "Work, work, work" from the global side is in line with the scenario of changes in a civilization that is leaving the model of "lazy capitalism". So, actually, with the capital that has been achieved, for the future government as long as it dares to make history by breaking down the reality that has been stifling the nation up to now, in a short period of time, we will surely emerge as a model and at the same time, a world lighthouse.

As a nation, we have the potential to form a new economic model, namely people cybernomics through the process of cultural revolution. A system that returns the noble values of nusantara (archipelago) as a holistic philosophy of life that is in line with the movement to be back to nature to save the Earth and other global problems, so that its output will return sovereignty to the people in concrete ways. The people will become organized in the form of a kind of corporation through telematics applications. This concept brings together capitalism and socialism in populist corporations, although not necessarily in the form of the legal body of cooperatives, rigidly. In this concept, equality and equal rights and opportunities will occur automatically.

In the future, we need to knit back our diversity. We have to end old resentments. Going forward, the meaning of diversity should no longer be a source of national calamity. So, Indonesia in the future is an Indonesia that can accommodate all teachings, groups, tribes, religions, cultures, regions, local wisdom and also all the nation\'s children without exception.

We must understand that capitalism and communism are products of civilization, through the dialectical process of what Bung Karno once described about Pancasila, has now without being realized become a reality of human civilization everywhere. So, what is needed is how this nation can form a new collaborative model in playing geopolitics and geo-economics, so that this nation plays a role in world peace and the people enjoy fortune and justice from the process of changes.

The history of the struggle for justice among nations in the world has placed Indonesia as the leader of Asia-Africa, which is celebrated every year in Bandung. It is proper for this nation to welcome the upcoming 74th anniversary of the Asia-Africa Conference (KAA) to design the agenda of "Bung Karno Millennial" to lead Asia-Africa again with a real example. (Saurip Kadi, Expert staff to the coordinating political, legal and security minister)