I have heard the Indonesian national anthem countless of times before but the first time I truly took notice was when a video was screened in a Southeast Asian history class instructed by Professor Lieberman’s all the way back when I was a freshman at Michigan.
It was about the Dutch East Indies at the beginning of the 20th century right up to the independence of Indonesia 4 decades later.
At the end of the video, probably marking the birth of a new state and probably a nation too, after the wars, Sukarno was among a crowd, smiling and waving with Indonesia Raya playing in the background.
For a person that understood Indonesian language amid those whom had never learned it, I thought I felt something then. I thought I alone was the only person whom truly understood the moment of what it meant to be free. There was a sense of joy. And I thought, the music made it all the more beautiful.
