Indonesia Needs Jokowi's Mental Revolution

I was surprised when a politician said that the mental revolution, which is currently being proposed by Mr. Joko Widodo (one of Indonesian presidential hopefuls), is related to communism. The said politican has a narrowed mindset, like arguing without understanding the concept of mental revolution for Indonesia. I am not a politician, but I am an ordinary citizen who wants Indonesia to be one of the winners in the international arena.

According to my understanding, the proposed mental revolution consists of two important elements: honesty and compliance to our constitution. Honesty will develop few strong national characters like anti-corruption, delivering what you said, self-confidence, self-reliance, etc. Meanwhile, compliance to our constitution means to place people’s interest above personal/group interest, to fight to deliver social justice, to make Indonesia as a winner in the international arena, etc.

I like to share a simple example when I was a primary school student in the beginning of Suharto’s regime. When we saw a friend cheated during examination, were we brave enough to report it to our teacher ? Most of us will keep quite either we were afraid or wanted to maintain our friendship, although we knew that cheating is a wrong act. We also remember that we need to remember very detailed elements of each Principle of Pancasila (Believe in God, Humanity, Nationalism, Democracy, and Social justice). It seems thatit was only a formality to obtain a good mark during the examination provided the fact that after becoming government officials, most of us follow the corrupt environment. I agreed with Mr. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaya Purnama (the current Acting Governor for Jakarta) in one occasion mentioned that the character composition of officials consists of 10% good, 80% followers (depends on their big bos), and 10% bad. Instead of following their conscience when a poor people were given injustice treatment, the government officials (who ideally shall serve for the people) will be quiet, like the case of cheating during the school age. How Ironic ?

This is the importance of mental revolution in Indonesia. Of course, to build a nation character, it needs sufficient time, not as easy as to flip your hands. For an example, when Jakarta local government currently move those poor people who live at illegal slump in the river side, few of them took the free (fully subsidised) apartment given. After few months, they rented the apartment, received some money, and they moved back to the slump area. This situation is almost similar with the condition of Singapore in early 1970 when former Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew started to build highly-subsidised government apartment and relocated those people from the kampong. Education and right approach is needed. The most important thing that the mental revolution shall be begun at primary school.

I fully support Mr Joko Widodo’s plan that education at the primary school shall consist of 80% character building and 20% science inquiry. The portion of science will increase in the secondary school. This is almost the same as the education at developed countries like Australia. Young children are educated to respect diversity, to uphold honesty, to learn emphaty through fund raising activity, etc. The result is positive. For example, when a child finds a jacket which is not belongs to him/her, he/she will not take it for granted. My daughter’s jacket was still at the school hall for two days when she realised that she accidentally left it at school. Another example, bullying is a serious offence. When a child bullies his friend (because he is an Asian), another friend of the bullier (although he is a fellow Australian) reported him to the School’s Principal. As a result, the bullier was given a serious warning. Can this happen in Indonesia ? Perhaps the child with the same religion or ethnic will follow bullying or be quite instead of reporting this incident to the school’s principal. I was very surprised to hear a sad story from Ms. Megawati Soekarnoputri (our fifth President of Indonesia) who was prohibited to continue her tertiary education at a state university during the beginning of our second President Soeharto’s regime shortly after overthrowing our first President Soekarno in 1967. Why is the mentality of government official like this ? Even Mr. Soekarno himself was allowed to study at a state university during the Dutch’s Occupation in Indonesia. Indonesian Reform in 1998 has changed few things especially in the physical reform (like the new institutions, local autonomy, etc) and regulations (like the amendment of constitution, direct presidential election, big budget for education, etc). However, it has a little impact on our mentality of our government official.

Those who are of the view that Mr. Joko Widodo breaks his promise (by not completing his governorship for five years after being elected in October 2012), my answer is only one: Indonesian people have our sovereignty. If Joko Widodo is elected by the people in the upcoming direct presidential election on 9 July 2014, we shall respect the people’s decision. Hope to receive the mandate from the people, Pak Jokowi. Indonesia needs your proposed mental revolution!

Two-Finger Regards,

Melbourne 28 June 2014