Happy Birthday to The Old Lady

Indonesia is celebrating her 66th birthday on the coming 17th August. While she is supposed to be wiser and wealthier as she gets older, this country is suffering from serious diseases. Our beloved old lady is sick. The people of this country, or the cells that make up the flesh and muscles of her body, are aching. 

And if I were a doctor to examine her, I would probably come up with this diagnosis: 

• The central government, or the brain that control the organs of her body, suffers from Alzheimer. They have a severe memory loss, forgetting that the main purpose of their job is to serve the country, the people. Instead, they make the best out of their position to rich themselves. Greed takes over. Systemic corruption is getting prevalent.  

• The local government, or the heart that circulates blood to all cells in the body, suffers from coronary heart disease. It can no longer circulate blood fairly because of too many plaques hardening and narrowing the coronary arteries. More wealth is concentrated in some areas and some people, while the less fortunate ones only get less and less. 

• The judicial system, or the kidney that excretes waste and toxin from blood, suffers from kidney failure. It can no longer filter the bad from the good. In fact, the bad is continued to be circulated while the good goes to urination. Corruption and bribery go hand in hand. The court system is only for the poor who has no resource to bribe, while the wealthy criminals remain untouchable. 

• The education, or the bone that support the body, suffers from Osteoporosis. It can no longer support this country’s obesitized body. Education is there for people with money, by bribing all along the way from kindergarten to university. All these pampered kids have to do is laying their butts on the classroom’s chairs, do the exam if they can, or just wait for the answer from systemic cheating organized by the teacher for the sake of the school’s prestige. 

• The media, or the eyes of this country, suffer from Cataract. Political interests drive the media to air things for special purposes only. Certain corruptors being displayed over and over, while some others who are actually much dangerous crooks remain hidden. It’s laughable, considering that most corruption cases are systemic and almost impossible to be done by single person.

• As a response, some of the cells of her body turn to be malicious cancer. Some manifest in a form of rampant corruptions and bribery, some others in a form of radical Islamism, terrorism, killing of the so called religious deviants, etc. Scary.

These diseases are most possibly caused by unhealthy lifestyle, too much delicious intake and lack of exercise. Excessive external debt and the abundance of natural resources are pampering this country. Not too mention the endless development of malls, and endless luxurious imported products flooding Indonesian market on daily basis.

And this lady is lack of exercise. She rarely shakes her butts (unless there was an earthquake). She is too lazy to uphold the law and justice. Too lazy to take care of the poor and homeless children. Too lazy to protect the local products and small industries. Too lazy to conserve the environment. Too lazy to learn about technology. Although it doesn’t need a rocket science to process raw material to be end products, she’d rather exporting  the raw materials which creates small added value, while she could've done much better. 

Can she be healed? I hope so, though I don’t know where to begin. Maybe by improving the education? Let students pursue the true learning by doing projects that have distributions to other people’s life, and let them be satisfied and proud of doing it. If necessary, in-class examination and entrance tests should be abolished, because they incite cheating and bribery anyway.

Or by improving the media? Put more television programs about knowledge, science, discoveries, and less programs about corruption and infotainment. Less displays of pseudo wealth and luxury through sinetrons, and more shows about reality.

Or improving the judicial system? Since nobody can no longer be trusted and it’s hard to change an already established “culture” in judicial system, could it be possible that the judicial system is changed to computerization? More criminal detector devices, and more robocops, please. 

But one thing that I know for sure is I love this old lady as much as I love my late grandma. And although she’s currently not in her best condition, and this bitter rambling probably just infuriates her on so many levels, let me truly, sincerely say: Happy birthday, Nana. Get your kicks on Route 66 :)  May happiness, fairness, and righteousness be with you in years and years to come.