Pasca-Indonesia: Revitalizing an Inevitable Concept

No Indonesian, who do not enjoy the privilege of having been born in rich family, are content with how Indonesia is developing and governed. If you are poor, meaning you are among 70% of Indonesians who earn less than 3,5 million rupiah per month: you cannot afford the luxury of a proper health facility and treatment, if you are sick; you cannot send your children to university, if your children are not the top five students in the high school; you cannot help your other family members or friends who happen to be in need; you cannot own or rent a proper house you dream of. Indonesia's government does insufficient care about the life of the low earning social class. If ever luck brings you further, and you get a scholarship to attend university, a descent or even perfect job in a high-paying companies, getting another scholarship for attending university abroad – that is luck. A society, where the motivation structure of its inhabitant for a self-made social mobility depends entirely on luck is not a sustainable one: it is an entirely unjust one that is in deep need of reform.

© Sagala 2025

The social-media campaign of #KaburAjaDulu (viral around February 2025, English: Let's Just Escape), which was initiated mostly by young individuals belonging to the rising new middle-upper and professional class reflects the feeling that something is not right in the Indonesian social system. The brave and renown Indonesian sociologist, Heryanto, added: "Mungkinkah status kelas menengah terpelajar sedang merosot mendekati status TKI/TKW? Apakah #KaburAjaDulu hanya gairah baru melanjutkan migrasi lama kaum TKI? Bedanya kini pelakunya kelas menengah yang suaranya nyaring di ruang publik? Mereka sama-sama mengejar karier lebih baik di negeri asing, karena kurang dihargai di tanah air? [English: Could it be that the status of the educated middle class is declining, approaching that of migrant workers (TKI/TKW)? Is #KaburAjaDulu merely a new wave continuing the old migration of migrant workers? The difference now is that it’s carried out by the middle class, whose voices are loud in the public sphere. Both are chasing better careers abroad, because they feel undervalued in their own country]."

Responding to these legitimate concerns some politicians and government officers attempt to launch a typical nationalist counter-narrative – or guilt tripping. "Kalau teman-teman berpikir untuk pindah ke luar negeri, saya malah meragukan nasionalisme kalian. Kita merebut kemerdekaan ini lewat perjuangan. Orang tua kita dalam merebut kemerdekaan ini banyak yang diperkosa, banyak yang dibunuh, banyak yang disuruh kerja rodi. Tujuannya adalah kelak anak cucunya bisa membawa negara dengan baik [English: If you’re thinking about moving abroad, I begin to doubt your nationalism. We gained independence through struggle. In that fight, many of our parents were raped, killed, or forced into slave labor. The goal was that their children and grandchildren could one day carry this nation forward]," said Bahlil Lahadalia – the minister for energy.

Bahlil surely does not know, that diaspora community could play a huge role in increasing the global network of Indonesia which would impact positively to its development. The case is proven widely with China, India, Malaysia, Israel, and many other countries, who profit well from the network of their citizen diasporas. In Indonesian case, one of the most successful industrialization program of the country, the building of the National Aircraft Industry – which tragically ceased to be important at the beginning of the Reformation Era due to foreign intervention – , depended highly, if not entirely, on its internationally well-networked scientists and professionals. 

So, is it wrong and unpatriotic to kabur or go abroad and stay abroad as Indonesian diaspora? What is defined as a patriotic doing? Is buying a doctoral degree in Indonesian university nationalist or patriotic, while actually working hard to gain it abroad not?

If he would still be around, Mangunwijaya, the Indonesian budayawan, intellectual, pedagogist, architect, novelist, historian, and philosopher – a rare kind of polymath – , would have responded on it critically. He once coined a concept, called the "pasca-Indonesia" generation. He situated the term in the intellectual history of the country, seeing the impoverished interpretation of nationalism in Soeharto's era which seemed to want to fight the contemporary "globalization" trend with nationalist closure policies. All of us know that pre-Soeharto era was a very much vibrant and global era: almost all politicians which we are taught to call the "founding fathers" – although I prefer "parents" – spoke at least one European language properly and can read in it. "Globalization", even in the case of Indonesia, did not just start with the rise of global communication technology in the 1980s; it has always been there even ever since the pre-colonial era – its modern politics was the one which reversed the trend and its influence is very strong still.

Situating nationalism in its historical place, as suggested by Mangunwijaya, is important to counter in a grounded manner the typical anti-nationalism narrative which government officers like to pose in the face of criticism against their policies or deep disappointment expression against the country in general. For, in reality, it does not concern only the middle-class who could think of escaping the country for global opportunities elsewhere, but also the numerous marginalized Indonesian groups who resist to state's intervention in their existing social-ecological system. "Para petani di Kedung Ombo yang ratusan KK dan menggugat Pemerintah di pengadilan karena tanah sawahnya diambil secara kurang adil dan di bawah paksaan, mereka pun tidak dapat disebut kurang patriotik, kurang nasionalis, sebab memang negara Pancasila bukan lagi negara feodal agraris zaman dulu di mana orang dapat diperlakukan sewenang-wenang [English: The farmers in Kedung Ombo—hundreds of families who sued the government in court because their rice fields were taken unfairly and under coercion—cannot be called unpatriotic or lacking nationalism. After all, the Pancasila state is no longer the old feudal-agrarian state where people could be treated arbitrarily]," said Mangunwijaya in 1990s, adding further: "Maka, nasionalisme pun di sini punya tempat historisnya. Hanya kita harus berhati-hati jangan sampai memutlakkannya. Tidak ada di dunia ini yang abadi [English: Thus, nationalism has its historical place here. We just have to be careful not to absolutize it. Nothing in this world is eternal]."

As diaspora I often have discussions with fellow diaspora, who are privileged enough to be able to escape the country – either thanks to their hard work or rich parents – and are very loud and critical against the country's bad policy. Many have changed their citizenship, but many have dared only joking about doing it. I realize that being diaspora, however, increases ones' bravery to say things or critiques which are considered taboo or even unspeakable in Indonesia. Topics like nature exploitation, oligarchy, "separatist" issue, gender, heteronormativity, and others are talked about here in the manner which is only possible with the established analytical – and physical – distance from the country. Despite being formally democratic, Indonesia is doubtless an illiberal political sphere where being inside it many things are not allowed to be spoken or even not yet named. Those farmers and surely other members of Indigenous People are thus exceptional in their bravery, being vocally critical despite many risks they could get. 

Sutan Sjahrir – not Pandu Sjahrir, his opposite in everything – , the first Indonesian Prime Minister and a respectful statesman with high individual integrity, once said: "Kemerdekaan bangsa Indonesia hanyalah alat untuk mencapai tujuan yang lebih luhur, yaitu kemerdekaan manusia-manusia Indonesia [English: The national independence of Indonesia is mere a tool to achieve a nobler purpose, that is the freedom of Indonesian People]." Reinterpreted for our discussion: Indonesians are surely allowed to escape and live a better life abroad, if it means a greater freedom for them. What matters has always been, from the day the "Indonesian nation" was proclaimed, the people, not the state which has always been run either completely or partially by corrupt elites.

I argue, that the inherently progressive, humanist and cosmopolitan spirit of "being Indonesian" and Indonesian nationalism must be rediscovered to boost the spirit of Indonesians who still doubt to leave it for their own good, while continuing to love its people and contribute to its development. "Sebab, memanglah perjuangan para perintis kemerdekaan kita tidak diarahkan primer melawan Belanda, akan tetapi melawan sistem dan perangai kolonialisme-imperialisme itu atau - mengutip perumusan Bung Karno yang menyitir salah seorang pujangga Prancis - melawan exploitation de l'homme'par l'homme [English: For indeed, the struggle of our independence pioneers was not directed primarily against the Dutch, but against the system and character of colonialism–imperialism itself—or, to quote Bung Karno citing a French poet, against the exploitation of man by man]," said Mangunwijaya.

Author:

Geraldus Martimbang is a doctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich, where he researches the social, economic, and spatial history of colonial tea plantations in Priangan, West Java, Indonesia