Indonesian youth is not confronting global challenges that they compete with not only Indonesian people but also other country citizens. Indeed, in the end of this year, there will be ASEA Economic Community (AEC) so that Indonesian youth’s existence will be displayed to face it. Commemorating Sumpah Pemuda on 28 October 2015, Indonesian youth needs to reflect and prepare their missions to encounter the global challenges. The statements were declared by Mohammad Ichsan, an alumnus of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) as well as a grantee of LPDP (Educational Fund Management Institution) in a discussion at UMY.
Ichsan contended that Indonesian youth is now lack of internalizing Indonesian cultures s that they have to imbue and raise their nationalism. “Indonesian youth’s nationalism is low due to cultures of other countries come rapidly to Indonesia so that their nationalism is substituted by foreign cultures,” Ichsan argued.
He mentioned three ways to enhance Indonesian youth’s nationalism and to emerge enthusiasm for changing Indonesia, namely being aware, studying, and taking actions. “Being aware refers to self-awareness of getting up from any aspects like education, economy, and socio-culture. Indonesian youth’s should be conscious that Indonesian heroes employed bamboo to fight against colonials. Nevertheless, youth now possesses sophisticated technology like social media that they can invite all elements to bring changes for this nation. To bring into reality, they have to take actions,” Ichsan maintained.
Furthermore, Head of International Student Affairs of UMY Idham Badruzaman, S.IP., M.A deemed that Sumpah Pemuda is not a usual day. For one reason, the day shows that there will be a number of challenges for Indonesian youth to foster themselves in this global world. “There are three challenges faced by Indonesia youth. They are fronting AEC, being future leaders, and bringing global impacts,” he stated.
Idham conveyed that AEC is firstly conducted and it will become a reminder of youth to take roles in ASEAN. “As future leaders, Indonesian youth should study anything everywhere to be good leaders having global knowledge. They have to look around and prepare themselves since they will be leaders of this nation. They will also determine the future of this nation. Besides, they are now encountering serious challenges due to global impacts,” he elucidated.
He inserted that the circumstance nowadays is supported by technology, extremely high modernity, and internet access. In fact, foreign cultures can easily come in and out from Indonesian youth. “If they are not quite smart to filter the impacts, they will only follow the cultures. It will influence the youth’s quality and automatically will effect on how the future leaders are,” he added.
He asserted that Indonesian youth begins taking actions to cope with issues around them. “We now have awareness of overcoming issues around us, and this behavior should be maintained in youth because we have higher creativity than older generation. They are incredible since they utilize their creativity to solve issues in environment. We might think that the issues were not our responsibility and there were people obliging to manage them. However, we now have already moved on and believed we can make changes and engage in coping with the issues,” he told.
In addition, youth is a group of people who do not doubt to broaden their global knowledge, yet implementing Sumpah Pemuda may not overlook Indonesian identities. “We have to promote Indonesia, for small instance the use of bahasa Indonesia. “Most of us are proud of using English and consider is as a global principle. However, it is not in line with Indonesian principle. We can use English but we are supposed to be proud using bahasa Indonesia,” he emphasized.
Idham affirmed that youth ought to comprehend Indonesian capacity and potential. We need to cooperate with a lot of parties like government. The government has to grow nationalism along with respect. “To be noted, this nation is not a homogenous nation, but a heterogeneous nation so that respecting and appreciating the differences are essential. Be educated youth since it is the key to raise prestige and economy. It displays that we have excellent self-esteem and honor, while economy is the welfare symbol of a nation. Besides, youth may not quit school because they will not be able to get involved,” he ended.
