Page 16 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Didn’t Bung Karno, in his well-known defending speech, Indonesia Menggugat (Indonesia
Accuses, 1930), divide Indonesian history into three eras? With the courageous spirit in his
defending speech before the colonial trial of the Dutch in Bandung, this famous PNI figure,
revealed his “secrets” of campaigns.

And what were his ways of developing nationalism, his ways of making it alive? There were
three ways:
First : we show the society that it has old days, the beautiful old days;
Second : we add up society’s awareness that it has present days, the gloomy present days;
Third : we show the society the light of future days which are cheerful and bright, with
the ways to create future days which are full of promises.

The glorious past, gloomy present, and very promising future? So there was his
national struggle conducted; not to take away something which had never been owned.
The national struggle was also a scrimmage full of idealism to regain the glory of the past
imagined to have been owned, no matter that the glory has at present been forged by the
nationalism desire which had been filled with an ideal to obtain the future full of hope.
Nationalism has never been separated from idealism—either the one coming from the day
of hope to get the variety and righteousness of the future desired, or the one having been
nurtured with romanticism of the glory of the past which allegedly used to be owned.
In such a context, Muhammad Yamin (1903-1962)—a poet and an activist of youth
organizations in his teens, a lawyer who was active in the national movement after
growing up and a historian with a nationalist vision which was romantic till the end of his
life—said undoubtedly that in terms of historical review the Republic of Indonesia was
the third country which united Nusantara. After the golden era of Sriwijaya (7th-13th
centuries) almost came to an end, then at that time the uniting power came into existence
as well. In the glorious era to come, Majapahit Kingdom centralized in the eastern part of
the North coast of Java island showed itself not only as the most dominant political power
in the Nusantara world but also the uniting power of the entire region. Did the poet of the
Kingdom, Mpu Prapanca, tell about these in Nagarakrtagama as a reality of present time?
However, in the turbulent time travel, Majapahit eventually experienced crises as well.
When this happened, then Java also entered a new period in the flow of its history—an
Islamic kingdom established in the Javanese world. Once it happened then the desire to
go back to Majapahit era has since then become an impossibility, no matter the memories

16 Introduction

MELANESIA BOOK FA LAYOUT 051216.indd 16 2/10/17 2:10 PM