The Rise of Indonesian (elitist) Nationalism.

I’ve never felt a stronger surge of nationalism in Indonesia in my whole lifetime as it is right now. Nationalist movement has however been around ever since the establishment of this Republic. But how is it now? Is it good, or bad, or just a trend that exist temporarily and fades? Also it is for me personally interesting to analyze this nationalism thing; having spent my time in the US and Germany –both has very different interpretation of nationalism. As in for Germany let’s just leave the word nationalism as it might mislead people to think that you are a right-extremist.

So I saw two Indonesian movies during my two and half week time at home this summer, Merantau, an action movie that involves Indonesian traditional martial art called Silat, and Merah Putih, a movie about the struggle against the Dutch aggressors. Add in Garuda Di Dadaku that makes three big nationalist themed movies. Moreover, the bombings in J.W Marriott and Ritz Carlton have surprisingly seemed to strengthen the feeling of unity as a nation, more than just a mere condemnation of the act. Following the bombings, the Indonesia Unite movement that originally started in Twitter spread quickly, online and offline. The #Indonesiaunite hashtag has became one of the most famous one in Twitter (perhaps due to the sheer number of our gigantic population that is on Twiter). People are now wearing t-shirts that has prints saying I Love Indonesia or “Kami Tidak Takut” (we are not afraid). Suddenly, wearing symbols of Garuda or just some forms of our flag is cool. One should also take into account the ever-rising sentiment against Malaysia. People back home are furious to Malaysia’s claim of Indonesian culture such as Batik, some of our folk songs, and very recently the Balinese ‘Pendet’ dance. This has results in more awareness towards our culture. The cool kids or Jakarta are wearing Batik in more occasions now, and learning traditional dances in high schools are in.

Now what is so different this time? People occasionally get nationalistic or patriotic at times like independence day or election times. But never has it been in my time that wearing or talking about Indonesia is cool. Amidst the globalization and influx of western culture, the so-called ‘cool kids’ - middle and upper class young Indonesians – are avid consumer of whatever west. Now suddenly they are wearing batiks, talking about the hunt of the terrorists, and tweet each other about things related to their country.

In a book written by the vice-president elect Boediono that I read recently, nation-building is a key to social cohesion, which could help economic development. Furthermore, and related to it, the elitist apparently plays a big role in leading the path of our newly born democracy. These kids who are well educated in our scarce elite institutions should start thinking where this nation is going. Economically speaking, the two percent of Indonesians that own more than half of the assets in Indonesia do play an inevitably big role in deciding our economic growth. If they are more conscious about all the problems that rotted our country, I believe more substantial changes could be done in the future (when this cool kids actually inherited all the powers from their parents). So I think we should really capitalize this national excitement and somehow translate it into a more concrete effort in saving our nation.