Our National Pride

In the past few days, we have heard many posts about how they stole our cultural heritage like tari pendet and reog and many more in the past.

At first I heard the news, I was just like other Indonesians, angry of course. How come that our culture was stolen by our own neighbor??? This also brought the idea of "GANYANG MALAYSIA", just like our past president, Soekarno, did many years ago.

But, when I'm following the news on TV and internet lately, it seems that my fellow citizens have become too nasty. I mean they are doing too far bad as good Indonesians. They burnt Malaysian flag and insulted them. This has been too much for me. I feel so sad knowing that my fellow citizens insulted others.

Instead of getting angry easily, we must still have a retreat into ourselves. Let's ask these to ourselves: what have I done to honor my own culture? Have I respected my culture just like other countries' citizens (such as Japan, China, India, even Malaysia) have done? Can I do one of our own culture traditions (such as angklung, kolintang, dancing traditionally, or any other)? Am I proud of our own culture and not only proud of knowing American or other countries' culture (such as rap, foreign songs, hip hop, basketball)? At last, am I proud of being Indonesian (as a whole)?

If we have answered all those questions well, then we are truly Indonesian. We understand well about our own country. And most of all, the greatness of a country is considered on how the citizens behave and respect other countries identity.

I've been following many discussions on TV about how Malaysia stole our cultural heritage and found out that if they didn't do such thing, we won't think about our own culture. We look like a person who is "kebakaran jenggot" (burnt beard). We will lose our own identity. As a nation, we must save and be proud of our own country.

When I'm looking back to my past as a high school and college student, I saw many of my friends didn't really care of our own culture. I was among the rare who cared of playing gamelan and dancing Javanese traditional. I was also among the rare kid who liked to listen to Kartolo's comedy (Surabayan Comedian).

Now, instead of justifying others stealing our own culture, let's save our own culture by doing what is worthy. Instead of insulting others, let's make our country proud of us. And I also want to salute all my fellow citizens who have made us proud such as Anggun, Susi Susanti, Alan Budi Kusuma, Taufik Hidayat, and many others who have done such beautiful things to our country.

I'm proud of being Indonesian. I'm proud of living in Indonesia although there are many things still need to be fixed. I'm proud of my nationality. Are you????