81st Youth Pledge Commemoration: What is the Essence?
Today is Oct 28, which means this is our 81st commemoration of Youth Pledge (Sumpah Pemuda). Seeing on Metro TV some Indonesian girls and boys being asked by the reporter "Can you mention correctly three points of Youth Pledge?". Most of them were giving the wrong answer, showing their teeth while grinning in front of camera. But is memorizing the Youth Pledge points enough to show how profound and thorough our nationalism and respect to what our late heroes had done for the nation are??
My answer is NO. I think memorizing perfectly the whole content of YP verbatim is just a bridge leading us to a better understanding of the nation's founding fathers' struggle. It does not necessarily guarantee that someone is a real nationalist or a confirmed patriot. Maybe I have to admit, I myself have completely forgotten the entire three Youth Pledge points, which I used to be able to mention easily years ago when I was going to school. Now after a long time not taking any Pancasila-related classes (such as PKn or Tata Negara), the memory got wiped out gradually.
The point I am trying to emphasize here is that we - Indonesian- take theoretical stuffs too seriously and at the same time neglecting the significance of putting our theoretical knowledge into real action! I suppose it is homework for our National Education Minister, Muhammad Nuh, to internalize the noble values of Pancasila and Youth Pledge (Sumpah Pemuda)to the minds of young people (=Indonesian students). There is no reason to be happy when our kids can memorize Pancasila so well but s/he cannot behave politely towards his/her parents, right people??
Labels: Indonesian Youth Pledge commemoration |
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