Independence Day 2024 – Jakartans Celebrate without the President

Jakarta, IO – Last year, President Joko Widodo announced that 2023 would be the last time the Indonesian president celebrated Independence Day in Jakarta. In the last weeks, Jakartans and Indonesians in general watched via the mainstream media as well as social media as the government spent tax money scrambling to finish the presidential palace and several other buildings in the new capital, Nusantara. The project ran over its time limit and so lights remained on in buildings throughout the nights as workers pressed on to make the President’s determination to celebrate Independence Day in Indonesia’s new capital in 2024 a reality. Furniture was hurriedly flown over from Jakarta for the palace for Jokowi is determined to make a new capital the legacy for which he is remembered. The economic burden for finding the funds to build the new capital, he is leaving for the new incoming president and the Indonesian tax payers to sort out.

On August 17^th 2024, I did as I have done for the last thirty years: I commemorated Independence Day by going to Taman Pahlawan Kalibata or ‘the Kalibata National Heroes Cemetery’ to place flowers on the graves of national heroes related to me or who I have personally known. My sister, my niece and her husband accompanied me. When my nieces and nephews were still children, going to the National Heroes’ Cemetery was a very exciting outing, almost as good as going to the zoo or to the aquarium in Ancol. As they grew up, I was lucky if even one of them would accompany me. Sometimes a friend comes with me and if there is no one then I go by myself but I go because I feel that somehow, I owe it to the dead to take time at least once a year to remember them. So many of them gave up their lives so that Indonesians today can live in a free country. So many of them made great sacrifices to make Indonesia a better, fairer and more kindly place to live.

Early in the morning, I rushed to the flower vendors at the Jeruk Purut Cemetery not far from where I stay. I found that the price of a package of jasmine flown in from Ungaran in East Java had gone up a lot. Last year, the cost was around Rp 35,000 per package. This year, I could not get it for less than Rp 50,000. The vendors blamed the situation in East Java. “The harvest was not good this year. There are less flowers for sale and so costs have risen,” explained one vendor.

Could it be climate change affecting the weather, as I found no bags at all of the usual red and white rose petals for sale?  In the past there were always packets of them kept in Styrofoam boxes packed in ice. I tried to buy different flowers from different vendors to spread the 17^th of August prosperity a bit. From one vendor I bought large bags of red and white balsam blossoms and one lady threw in hands full of finely chopped up pandanus leaves for free. These added a strong scent of vanilla to the flowers.  Together with jasmine it makes up the official scent of Java. Present at births, deaths and marriages and any other important celebrations or rites. It reminded me of how in the 17^th century the Indonesian slaves and rebels brought by the VOC to the Cape in South Africa, tried to continue Indonesian traditions such as the bunga rampai or Javanese ‘potpourri’ in which one ingredient is always chopped pandanus leaves; but how they could not find these in the Cape and replaced them with thinly sliced citrus leaves instead which give off a tangy scent replacing the vanilla scent of pandanus leaves. Thus are new traditions created.

In 1953, army engineers began work building the Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery under the well-known architect Friedrich Silaban who also designed, the Bung Karno Stadium, the National Monument and the Istiqlal Mosque which is the largest mosque in Jakarta. The Kalibata National Cemetery was finished and opened on the 10^th of November 1954 by former President Sukarno. The 10^th of November is Indonesian Heroes’ Day. The cemetery itself consists of 247,423 square meters of land which is about 24,7 hectares. At present, there are over 10,000 graves in the cemetery. Over 7,000 of the graves are the resting place of soldiers who were involved in the struggle for independence which took place between 1945 and 1949. It is also a resting place for those who have rendered other important services to the nation. These maybe military or civilian personnel. They must be Indonesian citizens and if they are civilians, they will have had to receive a civilian award such as the Pahlawan Nasional or ‘National Hero’, the Bintang Republik or ‘Star of the Republic’ or the Mahaputra or ‘Great Son /Daughter of Indonesia’ award.

The exception to the rule that only Indonesians may be buried at Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery, is for the Japanese soldiers who at the end of the Second World War volunteered to remain behind in Indonesia to help fight against the Dutch during the struggle for independence. The cemetery is also a resting place for them and important Japanese government officials make it a practice to always visit the cemetery.

We began by visiting the grave of my father’s cousin Sutan Sjahrir who was Indonesia’s first prime minister and leader of the Partai Sosialis Indonesia or ‘Indonesian Socialist Party’, usually referred to as the PSI. As a social democrat, for Sjahrir what was most important was firstly, the people’s economic welfare and then democracy. After Sukarno nearly destroyed the Indonesian economy, disbanded parliament, did away with elections and appointed himself president for life, many in the PSI rebelled in what was known as the PRRI PERMESTA rebellion, although Sjahrir himself did not participate in it. Nevertheless, Sukarno imprisoned him. As a person Sjahrir is remembered before Independence for his witty humour and in the Banda Islands where he was exiled for 7 years by the colonial government, he is remembered for his great love of children. He was an idealist who spent most of his life fighting for a free Indonesia but ended his life a prisoner of free Indonesia.

We placed red balsam blossoms over three quarter of his grave and jasmine at his head with two tiny Indonesian flags. Then I lay a red rose and a white one on the grave. We encircled the grave and sang the national anthem, Indonesia Raya.

I have always loved the first lines of the anthem which translate roughly as: ‘Indonesia my motherland

Land where my blood was spilt

There I stand as my mother’s scout…’

It is the: ‘There I stand as my mother’s scout’ that moves me deeply. My mother is of course my motherland and as an Indonesian woman I love that my country is described as a mother and that we her children are her scouts, seeking out the view ahead to plan a safe and good course for our mother.

Another relative’s grave at Kalibata (albeit a more distant one by marriage), is that of former Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mochtar Kusumaatmadja. He was a highly intelligent and capable man who did not tolerate fools gladly. Indonesia owes him a great debt for via his Wawasan Nusantara or ‘Archipelagic Principle’ he increased Indonesia’s territory by a third without Indonesia having to fire a shot or pay a single rupiah. Very few people can be said to have done so much for our nation, so it puzzles me that to this day the government has not approved the proposal to make him a national hero. On the other hand, someone like Malahayati whose actual existence remains a question mark, was appointed a national hero by President Jokowi. (To read more about him, see: https://observerid.com/mochtar-kusumaatmadja-formulator-and-champion-of-the-archipelagic-state-principle-part-i-the-man-who-increased-indonesias-territory-by-a-third/)

Another outstanding Indonesian foreign minister who is buried in Kalibata is Ali Alatas. He is remembered for amongst other things organizing the normalization of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Portugal which soured as a result of Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in the 1970s. He was a very wise and kindly man of Arab distraction, descended from the Prophet himself. We lay flowers on his grave too.

I then went to the grave of one of my best friends, the journalist and editor-in-chief of first Sinar Harapan and then Suara Pembaharuan newspapers, Aristides Katoppo. His grave lies in the Christian section of the cemetery and consists of a white cross filled with white stones surrounded by black stones which make the cross stand out beautifully. I covered the black stones with red balsam blossoms and that made the white cross stand out even more. I thought of my old friend from whom I had learnt so much and said a little prayer. Like so many buried here, he fought for the truth and struggled to make Indonesia into a better society even when the government shut down his paper Sinar Harapan. (For more about him see: https://observerid.com/aristides-katoppo-has-slipped-away-to-the-mountains-and-the-sea/)

From there we visited the grave of another special man I had known and also a friend of Aristides namely, the grave of H.S. Dillon who battled for Indonesian farmers and for the poor. He helped formulate the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indonesian Farmers which was the foundation for the Law on the Protection and Empowerment of Indonesian Farmers and became the basis for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. He is also the first Sikh to be buried in Indonesia’s Heroes’ Cemetery. (For more about H.S. Dillon, see: https://observerid.com/h-s-dillon-who-fought-for-indonesias-farmers-and-the-poor-has-left-us/

As is my usual custom, we then strew flowers on the graves of other heroes  on which there were no flowers strewn that day, especially on the graves of the unknown heroes for no one ever visits them. I was pleasantly surprised that the government had apparently conducted further research and that many of the dead whose graves had previously been marked “unknown” now bore names. The cemetery gardens had also been much improved with far more flowering plants. It also looked far more well taken care of.

On the way to Kalibata the roads were filled with children parading the flag and people headed to commemoration ceremonies and independence day contests and dances. One thing I noticed this year, was that in many places there were Palestinian flags flying beside the Indonesia red and white flag. The suffering of the Palestinians especially the people of Gaza has upset Indonesians deeply and many want to show their solidarity with Palestine especially on Independence Day for during Indonesia’s struggle for independence, the Palestinians were the first to recognize Indonesians independence. (For more information about this  please, read: https://observerid.com/palestine-the-first-to-recognize-indonesian-independence/). Despite bombing and facing a lack of electricity the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza is still operating and the president elect, Prabowo Subianto has been performing shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East and America trying to help create a ceasefire. The following day after Independence Day  another large demonstration was held for Palestine in Jakarta.

This is Indonesia’s 79^th Independence anniversary and for the first time the President did not celebrate Indonesian independence in Jakarta but rather at the new capital, Nusantara. An Independence Day ceremony was also held at the Istana Negara in Jakarta, led by the Vice President and the vice president elect. However, this year there was no raising of the flag there, rather this was carried out in Nusantara. The troops who would have normally raised the flag simply saluted the flag which was already flying in the Jakarta palace grounds.

President Joko Widodo has never really cared for Jakarta. He comes from Solo and began his rise to power as Mayor of Solo. He had no real interest in Jakarta itself and his bid for Governor of Jakarta could be described as simply a stepping stone to the presidency. Once he obtained the governorship, he did not even bother to serve his full term, remaining only for a year in the position and then running for president. Also as president, he never really resided in Jakarta preferring to remain in Bogor where he had a house built for himself within the grounds of the Bogor Palace.

Recently he ruffled feathers with his comment that the Presidential palaces in Jakarta and Bogor were too colonial for his taste. His words give the impression that he still sees us as victims rather than as the victors who drove the Dutch out and who are free. We built those colonial buildings with our blood and tears and now we can enjoy them for many are very beautiful. Without them how does one tell the story of our victory?

A Jakartan response to his words, would be that yes, there is nothing colonial in Nusantara, the new capital. But Jakartans would also be quick to point out that “That is also why the Youth Pledge of 1928 was not pledged there, Independence was not proclaimed there, the Cultural Polemics of the 1930s were not held there, the Indonesian language was not modernized there, the Constitution was not promulgated there – no, that all took place in Jakarta. And the dead, the heroes from so many different parts of the Archipelago who gave their lives for independence are not buried in Nusantara. They are here in Jakarta, Mr President…” (Tamalia Alisjahbana)