Wish For A Better Indonesia

August 17, 2005, the 60th year of of Indonesia's independence. This is exactly two days after Japan declared surrender to the Allied Forces, which ended the World War II. As much as I claim myself to be a citizen of this world more than citizen of Indonesia, I am realizing that I must never forgot where I have come from.


Millions of lives were sacrificed to free our people from the occupation forces that were Dutch, Japan and then some more fighting with the Dutch, when they tried to claim what was not theirs in the first place. I can only pay my respect to those who have fallen to create Indonesia as we know today.


It is still a long way to go for Indonesians to reach the goal of "Menuju masyarakat yang adil dan makmur" or "Toward a just and prosperous society", with many uncertainties of whether or not we could ever reach that stage. On top of that, the country has not been blessed with rulers who are just, honest and have the capacity to lead a vast country such as Indonesia.

I do feel a sense of hope however that things might just go for the better. Today is a historical day as well as a great gift to Indonesia, when I read that in Aceh, the rebel known as GAM and the Republic reached an MoU to live together peacefully. A great news indeed, after 30 years of conflict that has brought nothing but suffering to the Acehnese.

So with this, I wish you the best, I am looking forward for a better future and I will do my best to contribute and be a part of that better future!

MERDEKA!

PS: I hope this piece is not too corny, I just felt I needed to write it after reading a lot of articles about WW II lately