Haidar Bagir

Dr. Bagir has been the president director of Mizan Publishing, an established publishing house in Indonesia, since 1982. Among his many other professional responsibilities, he is the chairman of the Lazuardi Hayati Foundation for Education, president director of GUIDE (Digital Edutainment), founding director of Madima Ilmu College, and lecturer of the Islamic College for Advanced Studies. He has received several notable research grants from U.S. institutions, including a Fulbright Grant for Graduate Studies at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and a Fulbright Grant for Doctoral Research in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University. He has written numerous papers and articles on various topics in Indonesia and authored six books, including Pocket Book of Islamic Philosophy, Pocket Book of Tasawuf (Islamic Mysticism), Al-Farabi, and Deciphering Mystical Experience.

The Strengthening of National Identity, the Appreciation of Pluralism, The Development of Self Reliance Oriented Education Toward A Just, Dignified, and Prosperous Indonesia

Although it has always been controversial, nationalism is never so strongly questioned as it is now. It has been challenged strongly by another school of thought that is almost it's antithesis, i.e. globalization. It is challenged even more by a tendency that is also a symptom of this postmodernistic era, i.e. ethnic tendency.

My position has been that globalization is our necessary future. We can not - and need not - reject it. What we need to do is to contribute to the creation of a more just global coexistence between people. In a situation in which a group of people that has a collective consciousness - whether it is historical, cultural, ethnical, linguistic, and religious - is at a risk to be treated unjustly by another group of people, nationalism and the strengthening of national identity is then necessary. Still, however, the strengthening of national identity has to be understood as a means to achieve a more just global life and not a goal in its self. Exactly in accordance with Martha Nussbaum's observation : "… emphasis on patriotic pride is both morally dangerous and, ultimately, subversive of some of the worthy goals patriotism sets out to serve -- for example, the goal of national unity in devotion to worthy moral ideals of justice and equality. These goals, I shall argue, would be better served by an ideal that is in any case more adequate to our situation in the contemporary world, namely the very old ideal of the cosmopolitan, the person whose primary allegiance is to the community of human beings in the entire world. that we should give our first allegiance to no mere form of government, no temporal power, but to the moral community made up by the humanity of all human beings."

Is -- apart from that -- nationalism and the strengthening of national identity are no longer relevant? Certainly not. National identity is needed for national integrity. And certainly national integrity is needed not only to mobilize people against any injustice inflicted upon a group of people by another group of people. It is needed to allow any national program be launched successfully and with maximum result. Be it political, economical, social, educational, etc. On the other hand, the strengthening of national integrity is crucial to preserve national unity - as cliché as it is. This is more important for a country with territory, population, as well as ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity as big and rich as Indonesia's.

Finally, efforts to develop a pluralistic attitude toward other groups of people is needed so that the strengthening of one group's identity would not result in a kind of xenophobic and chauvinistic attitude. And this includes mutual understanding and tolerance, even appreciation and mutual cooperation between people. Only through this kind of efforts a balance between nationalism and global conscience can be created. Factors involved in the development of pluralism are basically the same - social and economic justice. I dare to say that a multiethnic, multicultural, and multilanguage, even multireligious society can live a peaceful life as long as justice for all can be preserved. While conflict can always emerge within a homogenous society once injustice appears. Historical facts and researches are abound to support this thesis.

So, without disregard to the traditional factors that are important for the strengthening of national identity such as history, culture, language, and religion this paper would focus on the more substantial components of national conscience mentioned above, i.e. social and economic justice. Here, I do not really agree with the criticisms launched by some observers that questioned the global orientation of our education. As I also mentioned, education oriented toward the strengthening of national identity to my opinion is needed only as far as it contributes to the achievement of a just global life. More than that, it is a matter of preserving social and cultural richness and diversity.