When I first came to Singapore, I thought it was a bit "crazy" that people have to sing the national anthem and recite the pledge every morning during assembly. It is different from our tradition here where we only sing the national anthem and recite our "pledge" (we call it Pancasila) once a week every Monday, where we have a formal assembly. I was in the choir okay! Mwahaha.
But after eight years of listening to my Singaporean friends recite the pledge every morning, six words will forever be etched in my mind. They are: regardless of race, language or religion.
These six words will forever stay in my mind. A reminder that we should treat everyone with respect and love, regardless of their race, language or religion. And that's how unity is achieved in a country. Just like in Singapore where really, everyone is united although there are many people of different races. And people can get along pretty well without having to compare their different race/religion.
Looking at what's unraveling in my country right now, maybe it's time for us to not have weekly assembly (upacara) but we should make Indonesian kids recite Pancasila every single day. I think it's a great foundation to this country of ours and we should remind our kids of this every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment