The 23rd of July is National Children’s Day in Indonesia. There are currently around 76 million children in the country and I feel sorry for every single one of them. And it’s not just because 50% of Indonesians live on less than $2 a day or over two million children under five are malnourished. It’s mainly because they really don’t deserve to have the kind of adults that are currently raising them and making decisions about their future, nor the sorry environment they have to grow up in.
The thing about children is that they are wonderful human beings. They are naturally honest, straightforward, fun loving and easy to please. They are unaffectedly compassionate and caring and largely not prone to prejudice or discrimination. They are extremely curious, open minded, tolerant and delight in new things. They suspend judgment, are quick to show appreciation, eager to learn and get upset if they feel they’re treated unfairly.
Left to their own devices, they are more likely to engage in participative and collaborative playing as opposed to plotting on how they could cheat one another or make each other’s lives miserable. There’s nothing more disturbing to a child than see another child cry or get upset. Empathy comes easily to them, as does a spontaneous desire to help.
Show a child how to throw away their rubbish properly and they will do it and remember it for the rest of their lives. Tell that to an adult, he will stare at you with a blank gaze of incomprehension or take offence. A child is selfish but has no ego. He might want the cookie all to himself but he will share if told that sharing is a nice thing to do. Theirs is a world of hope and optimism.
However, I feel sorry for the children because they have a voice but they are not being heard. They have needs but are not being met. They have rights but are not being respected. For this year’s National Children’s Day commemoration they were not even given the forum or opportunity to read out their message of aspiration.
And when children grow up with their needs unmet, with their voices unheard and with their hopes unfulfilled, what will they become? They will become the same adults that are now making decisions about their family, their community, their city and their country: Adults that lack compassion but generous in condemnation, short on ethics but large on egos, expert in hypocrisy but foolish in wisdom.
They will turn into grown-ups that are poor role models and bad examples, because those are the kinds of adults that currently permeate every sphere of their lives, from their home environment, to their school, in the media, at college and all the way until they too are grown enough to enter the real world.
So what are the children’s wishes? The Children’s Congress in 2008 produced a declaration on what Indonesian children want but until this moment remains unfulfilled. The children want to be smart, creative and be people of quality, free from all form of violence, exploitation, neglect and discrimination.
They want to be protected from the dangers of cigarette smoke and want to understand about how to lead a healthy life, have rights over their reproductive health so they could be protected from infectious and communicable diseases.
The children want to be united with all the children even in the most far-flung corners of the country in order to build democracy and solidarity as well as safeguard the country’s unity. They also ask for the creation of a ministry for children affairs that will focus on their specific needs.
But what happens when young people are given the opportunity to have their voices heard, express their ideas and implement action? Contrary perhaps to some grown ups expectation, young people are great at getting things done. As a matter of fact, when young people are encouraged and given the opportunity to organize, their creativity, capacity and resource are tremendous.
I attended the recent International Youth Conference organized by Indonesian high schoolers and involving youth from across the country recently and was highly impressed by their zeal, team work and fresh ideas. Moreover, underlying this initiative was the desire and the confidence to do something for the betterment of the country and their future. Theirs is a call to social activism to become change makers and to make a difference in the world.
They worry about the state of the environment, the quality of education and the role of the media. They are concerned about the nation’s character, the country’s unity and commitment to pluralism. Not only that, these young people came up with a clear agenda and action plan on what need to be addressed and followed up.
Their method is dialog, sharing and exchanging of ideas in a setting free from the trappings of vested interest and politics. Their objective is clear and their mood optimistic. It is a far cry indeed from the adult world of endless conflicts and bickers, short-term objectives, narrow political interests, hardened cynicism, power-grabbing and outrageous materialism.
Perhaps we would have a better future if indeed we let the children lead the way.
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