On August 17 yesterday, I was in Singapore for a meeting. Maybe because Singapore has also celebrated its anniversary, and there are many flags here and there, the atmosphere of the "17s" feels to me. In the local media there are also many interesting articles about Singapore's birthday. The country whose infrastructure is among the most modern in the world turned out to be full of occupation in history, before being released from Malaysia in 1965, long enough to be controlled by the British, far before they even had the seat of Majapahit (which supposedly gave the name "Temasek" or Tumasik in language Java), and before that Sriwijaya (Prince Sriwijaya is the one who named this former slum fisherman village in Singapore).
One interesting article that I briefly read was an interview with one of the People's Action Party (PAP) elders, the ruling party there. The story is still about nationalism. But it is different from the stories of our elders who are usually around war, he (I forgot his name, the name Chininesse) actually tells about the experience of hearing Bung Karno's speech during the Asia Africa Conference in Bandung in 1955. At that time there was not even Singapore, and he had to satisfied to be present as an "observer" only. One of Bung Karno's words that he kept remembering was (and now I remember in my mind):
"Be guided by hopes and determination, be guided by ideas, and yes ... be guided by dreams!"
Honestly, I shudder to read it. I think this sentence is extraordinary. Imagined how the spirit was transmitted to all the leaders of the country who were present in 1955. This "Bandung Spirit" is said to inspire many countries to be free from colonialism and self-determination. That spirit also brought Singapore to choose to stand alone and become a developed country and prosper the people.
Counting the Asian-African countries if it is calculated, the largest number of land and oceans compared to other continents (read: controls the largest natural resources on earth), and has human-power more than half of the earth's population. As long as after independence, the Asian-African nation can live prosperously in accordance with their ideals of independence. In fact, the Asian-African nation is still struggling with poverty and conflict.
Why? The easy answer is to blame "the other party" and put yourself as a victim. But if that's the case, isn't it different from being colonized? Blaming the invaders, and lamenting the fate. The gift of natural resources which is so abundant from God, finally cannot be utilized for our own welfare. Even the welfare of people from countries that do not have natural resources. Why is that? Let's take a look from the perspective of change.
When Asian countries become independent Africa, the world is changing from an agrarian society to an industrial society. If in the era of agrarian society, the law is more or less: who controls natural resources, so he wins. So, it was a busy country to fight over territories with natural resources. In another era of industrial society, it turns out that even though we don't have natural resources, as long as we have technology and people, we win. Then the mastery orientation switches to man, machine / materials, money (capital). Who has the champion capital. But this also turns out to gradually change, it turns out there is something more powerful than capital, namely information and knowledge. New information-based professions appear. In this era travel agents know tourist attractions and how travel arrangements can be paid handsomely. Stock-traders, forex traders, or investment managers never have capital but are paid handsomely for the knowledge and information they have. Fad making computer software from the garage can be the most effective person in the world. This is the age of information or anyone who calls the knowledge-worker era. Even countries based on services and trade are now very prosperous countries. So relying on natural wealth, "this day" is no longer relevant. So do not be surprised in a country that is said to be rich in natural resources, rich in oil, natural gas, fertile land, rich sea, in the end the majority of its people still live in poverty.
This may be the meaning of the words of Bung Karno first, who once said would allow our natural wealth in the bowels of the earth, until our engineers can process it themselves. Maybe Bung Karno wants us to have enough knowledge to utilize it, so that it is competitive compared to other parties. He seems aware, our power should not be in its natural resources but in our own knowledge.
I don't know what time to come after this information age. And whether or not when the ideals of the founders of the Asian-African nation will be achieved. What is clear is that we must always be ready with changes, even we must be able to take advantage of those changes.