Independence Day

The country has a host  of long lasting  traditions to commemorate the day when it was finally liberated from both the Dutch and Japanese colonizations : from the ceremony at the State Palace in which the specially selected 68 Indonesian senior high students wave the national red-and-white flag before the eyes of President Joko Widodo and his full cabinet along with the ambassadors, to the public fiestas where everyone gets to join the competition of eating kerupuk (traditional crackers) with their hands tied  back and the kerupuk dangling loosely inches above their heads. If it wasn’t for the first president Soekarno and the many  years of his rigorous attempts for independence, things might be different today. Let’s find out the true meaning of independence to Indonesians, then and now.