Today is a special day for me as an Indonesian. It’s the anniversary of my country’s independence day. Sixty nine years ago, a baby just born and called as Indonesia. A new free country with thousands islands, hundreds different tribes and languanges, different kind of clothes even different type of food.
Freedom.
We all wants it. When I was a kid, I remember that I wanted to grow up so fast that I would have my own freedom. I imagined that it would be a lot of fun to be able to sleep late at night, skip my day nap, watch any TV shows without asking permission from my parents first, go to many places at anytime of the day without being called to go home. Being a grown up was great, that’s what I thought.
But, I was wrong.
I didn’t know there was two kind of freedom, ‘freedom to’ and ‘freedom from’. What I dreamed as a child was to have a ‘freedom to’ while I didn’t realize that at that time I actually enjoyed the luxury of the other type, ‘freedom from’. In ‘freedom to’ situation, you can decide and do anything by yourself. No one is above you. You are in charge of your own life. But no one tells me that once I’ve got my 'freedom to’, I'm own my own. In the ‘freedom from’ condition, you are guaranteed to have no suffering. You are freed from discomfort, hunger or even dirt. When you’re a kid your mom will do all of those necessary things for you. You don’t have to decide what food you want to eat or how you will get it. You are freed from thinking. Even more important, you are freed from the complexity of life.
Most of the time, it is easier to live with ‘freedom from’ rather than ‘freedom to’ type. Puppet countries as known as commonwealth do not need to endure bloody war to gain their independence as they receive it as a gift. It’s not necessary for them to think about their country’s form, constitution, or even national anthem. Everything has been settled and prepared. Even before proclaiming their independence, they already have their head of country. To have a template to build a country, what a luxury. Those ‘freedom from’ countries are usually more developed than the ‘freedom to’ countries. Canada, Australia, are some examples. However, those so called freedom are fake. They are surrounded by walls, their choices are limited. They may never be able to have their own decision. There will always be advice or interference as the consequences of their non suffering. Nothing is free.
I was wrong again. ‘Freedom from’ is not that special.
There will always be two sides of everything, there isn’t any light without shadow. What struck me the most is how hard it is to have a' freedom to' can be. It is a tough job with big responsibilty. If you mess up, you have to fix it yourself. If it is just ruling my body then fine. How hard it can be to handle one self. But governing a country with 250 million people in it who comes from thousand different islands and have their own culture plus without any help feom outside? That is tremendously difficult (look at my president before and after photo, you will see).
Not to mention, my predecessors built this country out of scratch. No template. It's not like there was any senior or expert that they could come to consult as it was everyone's first time. They could not make any mistake, because all of their efforts could be vanished over a night. I remember the story of deciding the proclamation day. The young generation had to force the old generation to proclaim Indonesia's independence on the next day, August 17th, as Japan already lost World War II, on 14th. The old did not want to hury because they remembered Japan's promise to give independence to Indonesia while the young saw no reason to wait longer. So the young kidnapped the key points person, Soekarno and Hatta, to force them to do so. The young won. We proclaimed our independence on August 17th, 1945.
Though my country is still struggling as a developing country. I feel lucky to be born here, in the country where differences are seen as a union. Luckier to know that I have every right to say anything that I want without any fear of being caught, and the luckiest of all, I can do anything mens can do (except, making girls pregnant).
Terima kasih. Dirgahayu Indonesiaku. Merdeka
Freedom.
We all wants it. When I was a kid, I remember that I wanted to grow up so fast that I would have my own freedom. I imagined that it would be a lot of fun to be able to sleep late at night, skip my day nap, watch any TV shows without asking permission from my parents first, go to many places at anytime of the day without being called to go home. Being a grown up was great, that’s what I thought.
But, I was wrong.
I didn’t know there was two kind of freedom, ‘freedom to’ and ‘freedom from’. What I dreamed as a child was to have a ‘freedom to’ while I didn’t realize that at that time I actually enjoyed the luxury of the other type, ‘freedom from’. In ‘freedom to’ situation, you can decide and do anything by yourself. No one is above you. You are in charge of your own life. But no one tells me that once I’ve got my 'freedom to’, I'm own my own. In the ‘freedom from’ condition, you are guaranteed to have no suffering. You are freed from discomfort, hunger or even dirt. When you’re a kid your mom will do all of those necessary things for you. You don’t have to decide what food you want to eat or how you will get it. You are freed from thinking. Even more important, you are freed from the complexity of life.
Most of the time, it is easier to live with ‘freedom from’ rather than ‘freedom to’ type. Puppet countries as known as commonwealth do not need to endure bloody war to gain their independence as they receive it as a gift. It’s not necessary for them to think about their country’s form, constitution, or even national anthem. Everything has been settled and prepared. Even before proclaiming their independence, they already have their head of country. To have a template to build a country, what a luxury. Those ‘freedom from’ countries are usually more developed than the ‘freedom to’ countries. Canada, Australia, are some examples. However, those so called freedom are fake. They are surrounded by walls, their choices are limited. They may never be able to have their own decision. There will always be advice or interference as the consequences of their non suffering. Nothing is free.
I was wrong again. ‘Freedom from’ is not that special.
There will always be two sides of everything, there isn’t any light without shadow. What struck me the most is how hard it is to have a' freedom to' can be. It is a tough job with big responsibilty. If you mess up, you have to fix it yourself. If it is just ruling my body then fine. How hard it can be to handle one self. But governing a country with 250 million people in it who comes from thousand different islands and have their own culture plus without any help feom outside? That is tremendously difficult (look at my president before and after photo, you will see).
Not to mention, my predecessors built this country out of scratch. No template. It's not like there was any senior or expert that they could come to consult as it was everyone's first time. They could not make any mistake, because all of their efforts could be vanished over a night. I remember the story of deciding the proclamation day. The young generation had to force the old generation to proclaim Indonesia's independence on the next day, August 17th, as Japan already lost World War II, on 14th. The old did not want to hury because they remembered Japan's promise to give independence to Indonesia while the young saw no reason to wait longer. So the young kidnapped the key points person, Soekarno and Hatta, to force them to do so. The young won. We proclaimed our independence on August 17th, 1945.
Though my country is still struggling as a developing country. I feel lucky to be born here, in the country where differences are seen as a union. Luckier to know that I have every right to say anything that I want without any fear of being caught, and the luckiest of all, I can do anything mens can do (except, making girls pregnant).
Terima kasih. Dirgahayu Indonesiaku. Merdeka
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