Brian Kusumawan on the Internet

This is a message from Barack Obama I received in one of his online groups I am participating.

I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don't want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing...

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

First of all, I am very proud to know that he was willing to spend some time for thanking us all by writing this response as soon as he won the election. It clearly reflects that he does not forget who he was born to be the US President with and as he mentioned, he was born with us, with all of his supporters.

For me – personally, his victory might not directly affect the country I am currently living – Indonesia – where notably he has spent years to live in. However, I strongly expect that this can be a good motivation for us as a developing country. We have to take a little flashback on the history how a person like Barack Obama struggling to be what he always wanted to be. Look at him now, a boy whom once schooled in Indonesia has become President of The United States of America; the land of opportunities!

Again, I want each and everyone of you clear about a thing that by referring to his message does not mean I put other country(ies) on everything, it is just nothing more but a real example of a success. I never hate my country and I am always proud to be an Indonesian. However, my description of being “Indonesian” might be different from most of the people.

Corruption is the hugest issue in our nation recently and I think most of us admit it. I have been listening people comments about political lives in which they feel irritated and hopeless by attending campaigns or even the elections. Most of them wonder whoever they go for will produce the same result as previously and statements listed below are some of the examples:

1. Whoever we choose will still sit down, relax, and have fun with our money.
2. Whoever we choose will gain more money no matter how the way is since they have spent so much in advance to gather votes.
3. Whoever we choose will regenerate the parliament as their own company.

By looking at some of the issues, are we still appropriate to stand still and keep talking that way? How about making move? And this is the real “Indonesian” I want myself to be; the Indonesian who does not pay the government to foolishly smoothen your business, the Indonesian who does not keep believing the nightmare we had in the past, and the Indonesian who wants to be different in positive ways. Remember, those jerks are alive because we used to feed them with chances they could take, so simply start it from now onwards to stop giving them chance. Moreover, if you are responsible for your country, please wake up and replace them as I believe best thing will come with confidence, actions, and prayers.

As a conclusion, let's refer back to Obama's message. I do believe that life is about making history but still, we are not living alone. We therefore have to make it together and that's a thing named history if probably today or tomorrow we really make it! Please start motivating people around you, your families, mother and father, sons and daughters about how important this small-looked issue really is.

Last but not least, please always bare this in mind that we go for one thing for sure; better Indonesia!

Kindest regards,

I Made Brian Kusumawan
An ordinary kid who has been dreaming of better Indonesia.

First of all, I wish this writing is not going to be so late as I believe that chasing Obama's pace in 2008 is pretty hard; he's indeed running forward and no looking back. This writing is expected to answer couple of questions from some friends of mine in regards to my admiration to Mr. Barack.

Perhaps, we all do not know very well when precisely Barack Obama started his debut in politic. Some might think that experience is significant point to judge whether or not someone is qualified to do something, to be called an expert, etc. On the other hand, some might look according to the age. For me, I do not bother so much on those two aspects, I do believe more in real performances shown so bare in mind that in this case I will write my view regardless when Barack Obama began his political experience. However, I will put a reference on it so that you can have a look about his complete autobiography.

Barack Obama is a newly-born form of pure idealism to me. He is the initial point where idealism is brought back into surface and he has the strong belief in it. Personally, I most of the time face bunch of people who are doing the wrong things and sadly, they are aware or even know and believe that the things they are doing are wrong. How can we tackle this issue meanwhile the globalism era is counting down the days to come? What is actually the cause of this issue? The answer is just hopelessness! That simple word has been haunting our people for so many years. It is like a wrong belief that has been being injected over generations and this is the result where we seem having nowhere to go, nothing to do, and just sit back and relax without realizing that the blue skies up there are no longer blue and are about to fall down; the world is falling down!

I quite often see people laughing when we talk about improvements. Most of our people still tease all those politicians' speakings and think pessimistically that they will take no action but money once they sit under the political crown. There are two things I want to talk about here regarding this issue. First, I also quite often to see people showing their best, knocking each other down, and arguing on something. It seems like we have a good or even talented bunch of people but by the time we have to do something, people dismiss! What do they do? What best have they debated for? Please do not tell me that it is just for the sake of making you to be the winner of every game you have gone through without figuring what the best solution(s) supposedly is, I do not like that answer! Life can sometimes be a game but moving together as a family, village, town, city, and/or country is not a game at all where we need to represent a winner! So, let's just assume if you are skillful, then why do you let all those politicians to take their intended places? Stop teasing and replace them if you feel that you are qualified enough, do not knock others' ideas just for your own satisfactions! Secondly is about dream. Being idealistic for better improvements is everyone's dream so, what is dream now? Is it some kind of shame? Something we need to laugh? And this is what happens to the people in our community; they laugh for something positive and they keep doing something negative. I know that negative stuffs probably addict ourselves very easily, it comes unintended but it does not go off intendedly. What is the motivation of being negative anyway? Aren't we capable of doing something good? Or – again – hopeless? Let's start dreaming then! For me, dreaming is not hopeless because dreaming can be a good direction of every step a person need to go. Having no dream makes you feel empty, unaware, and having no imagination about what to do and where to go. At least you think of something in your brain then you will know exactly what you need and want. But again, it does not stop there, real action is still needed to make it real. Take it back into the topic, Barack Obama is ready for this. He has a very reliable vision for being better American, for being better world in general. He had that dream and has started some actions in order to make his dreams come true. Importantly, he has shown a great understanding through a pure idealism on how to turn people from laughing to believing that better improvements are not just in our dream and are about to get real soon enough!

Before I end this writing, let me emphasize one more time that this admiration is not because Barack Obama is a US president candidate who notably has higher chance to win the election. Taking our country – Indonesia – a little bit into the topic, there is a valuable lesson we can actually pick up. If I still see some of us regretting themselves of being Indonesian or some of them want to leave the country and have no plan of returning back at all, let's just take this real example that no matter where we live but it is the matter how well we do things. Barack Obama ever spent a year or two to “taste” Indonesian education in Jakarta and look at him now, he is the US president candidate! He is about to win and significantly he is about to improve the world!

Barack Obama is just one example of history maker. He is probably not yet but he has been trying to be and that is the very huge point we have to put our respects into. As sometimes seemed, I am not here to blame anyone in our country but I am just positively compare and criticize what is actually happening in real in our country. As usual, I will be glad to hear any comments, arguments, critics, and/or others about this issue.

Kindest regards,

I Made Brian Kusumawan
B.Sc. (Hons) BIS, B.Sc. (Hons) IS
An ordinary boy who has been dreaming Indonesia