Jakarta – CIDISS. Nationalism is the patriotic feeling and the feeling of belonging to certain country. It is still remembered clearly how Indonesians are shaken by the news of some bombings done also by Indonesian people who were being radicalized by some ideologies that are against the principles of NKRI (Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia), The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. These Indonesians are relatively young and at their productive ages. The radical ideologies wrapped in religious faith have brought these radicalized persons to be far away from the feeling of belonging to the country where they were born and where they lived.
It is important to think of the way to promote de-radicalization to Indonesian younger generation. Some programmes related to de-radicalization have been recommended. The programmes are inserted in the curriculum, in the television programmes, in the educational programmes in pesantren and in other events. The aims are to minimise the spread of radical ideologies to younger generation and to prevent the emergence of new fanatical organizations. Yet, we have to first look at the smallest and closest entity that should be introduced and re-introduced to these younger generations. The entity is our national anthem Indonesia Raya.
When Indonesian badminton mixed doubles won their gold medal in the 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympic Games, we are all very enthusiastic. As the gold medals were given to the players, Indonesia Raya was played. The players cried as their nationalisms were burned when hearing the anthem. We, as Indonesians, also felt that our nationalisms are inflamed by seeing our national flag raised above the flags of other nations along with the sound of our national anthem. The nationalism is burst inside our chest signifying pride of being Indonesians.
These experiences have shown that nationalism can be constructed even from a very small thing. Even though this anthem is often considered minor and gives no effect to de-radicalization programme, we should not put it aside and underestimate its function and impact. It should be frequently played in every event held at schools, pesantren, and offices, so that younger generations remember how difficult our heroes back at the warfare period fought for our nation independence and start to learn about the meaning of nationalism. We should start from this small entity, Indonesia Raya, our national anthem, which is able to initiate our pride of being Indonesian and at the end will help us fight against radicalization. (Wp)
)* The author is Jakarta Contributor