The Pledge

Sumpah Pemuda

PERTAMA. Kami Poetra dan Poetri Indonesia, Mengakoe Bertoempah Darah jang Satoe, Tanah Indonesia

KEDUA. Kami Poetra dan Poetri Indonesia, Mengaku Berbangsa jang Satoe, Bangsa Indonesia

KETIGA. Kami Poetra dan Poetri Indonesia, Mendjoendjoeng Bahasa jang Satoe, Bahasa Indonesia

Soempah Pemoeda (Sumpah Pemuda 28 Oktober 1928) was a pledge. A pledge about the spirit of equality and of togetherness brought by sharing the same land, nation and language. A pledge that was stated so loud and clearly by the young Indonesians in a conference for the national youth in the year 1928. It was a time when the spirit of freedom and the will to fight for it had been built up so massively in the heart of Indonesians.

Well, that was the year 1928. Fast Forward, 79 years later, a 19-year old named Cliff Muntu was killed through bruttal punishments from his seniors in IPDN, which stands for Institut Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri or the Institute of Public Administration. These are the men that eventually will run the government, and yet they practice physical punishments to state their points. Something is terribly wrong.

How do you go from such beautiful pledge to killing a fellow Indonesian for no apparent reason? But we might probably want to look inside ourselves too. Do we even remember that there's such a pledge?

How do we go from brave to, simply, coward?

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