“When you look at the matter objectively, it is astonishing that the world’s fifth most populous country (after mainland China, India, the Soviet Union, and the United States) should be so little known in the West. The country’s population exceeds 140 million, and her horizontal geographical spread is greater than that of the USA. Her 13,667 islands – ranging from tiny atolls to island giants of 100,000 square miles and more – make her the world’s largets archipelago. She possesses rich and varied human and natural resources together with remarkable cultural diversity. The charm of her people blends with their tropical environment in never-to-be-forgotten fashion. She is Indonesia.” (Preface of ‘Emerging Indonesia’ by Donald Wilhelm, 1980)
I was pretty flattered reading that paragraph at first however looking at it more critically had humbled me instead. I looked at his astonishment from two sides, with the pop psychology ‘is the glass half empty or half full’ question. What it is that is so ‘astonishing’ about Indonesia and all the great potentials in her that she ‘should be so little known in the West’? First he could just mean that the West should have paid more attention to Indonesia then they have been. But with a heart of self-introspection, he could also mean that the Indonesian people should have done more thant have been. What have we done to her to be so little known? It is not the responsibilty of the ‘West’ to know her, but it is my job to make her known. 23 years past since Wilhelm published the book, I am just wondering what have changed and what have not?