National Essay Writing Contest

Juara 2 - Welcoming Golden Indonesia 2045: What Should the Students Do?

The government of Indonesia aims to achieve the "Golden Indonesia 2045", that is to achieve prosperity, excellence, and progress in various fields, especially technology, by 2045. This ideal is supported by the demographic bonus, the condition when people of productive age between 15 until 64, outnumbers those of non-productive age between zero until 15 or more than 64. To take advantage of this democracy bonus, the government has been encouraging all the ministries to prepare for the "Golden Indonesia 2045" Besides infrastructure, various programs in education, health, transportation, and other sectors of economy including vocational and technological skills training are developed to prepare Indonesia’s human resources for this golden age Unfortunately, there are still a lot of issues to be overcome such as Indonesia's education quality which is still behind other countries, rampant corruption, as well as poor etiquette of Indonesia's netizens This essay will address some challenging issues that should be faced in welcoming the "Golden Indonesia 2045" and what Indonesian students should do to be able to contribute to the achievement.

First, with regards to education, it is known that Indonesia's education is still below other countries. According to the U.S. News & World Report, Indonesia's education system is ranked 55 out of 73 countries. This quality is in line with the study conducted by the Microsoft which pointed out that Indonesian netizens were the least polite in Southeast Asia. When the result of the study was released, many Indonesia netizens simultaneously attacked Microsoft's social media. What's the relationship between the education system and the netizens etiquette quality? The response to the study is an example showing that education is not only related to academics achievement, but also to character The great generation is the generation that has good attitude beside academic achievement. The great generation should also not be easily provoked, and always seek the truth of information from an issue. The role of teachers is very big in coaching a great generation A teacher should be competent in teaching the students to have qualified character Meanwhile, we as students can start changing the way we learn from simple things such as by studying or reviewing the lesson for 15 minutes before going to bed and 15 minutes before going to school Always looking for accurate information and not easily being provoked by the issues spread through the internet, especially sensitive issues. In addition, speak politely, even on the social media, because one’s digital track record can be seen easily in the future and it might harm him or her.

Next, responding to the corruption issue, we often receive information that corruption happens in government institutions, even in education institutions. As Quoted from dataindonesia id, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said that the disadvantages resulting from corruption cases reached Rp 62.93 trillion. Up to now there are still many Indonesian people who live in poverty and find it difficult to access proper food, education, health, let alone technology.

Limited infrastructure also hinder the development of economy of the remote regions. Imagine if the large amount of money is used optimally for the development of the remote areas, education, infrastructure, or any other important aspects that can improve the quality of Indonesian people's lives. Then what can we do as students to deal with such condition? There are some simple solutions –first, don't corrupt the time, use the available time to the fullest to accomplish what we should do. Second, be honest, get into the habit of returning other people's belongings, or handing over the valuables we happen to find to security, and learn to be responsible for what we do. Doing such things consistently can lead to building honesty and responsibility in us as the future leaders.

Another issue is concerned with religious fanaticism As quoted from suarasurabaya net, the "Pew Research Center" in its survey "The Global God Divide" states that Indonesia is at the top level as the most religious country However, unfortunately, there are still conflicts between religious communities. This phenomenon can be obviously seen on social media. How people say some bad things about other people’s faith, or make use of religions’ symbols to provoke the people for their own interest. As students, we must do understand the background, intention, and purpose of the teaching of our holy books We should ponder what God means in the verses, and not read them literally or only memorize them because it might lead to misinterpretation or misunderstanding. It is believed that people who are truly religious are those who are able to practice the values of life, love and kindness to others, caring for others, and willing serve one another.

Finally, it can be concluded that to prepare for the "Golden Indonesia 2045", Indonesian students should complete themselves with education and vocational as well as technological skills, strong character, and religiosity These will make Indonesian students today a great generation So let's improve ourselves by getting used to doing positive things to welcome the "Golden Indonesia 2045". If we do not start it ourselves, who will?