Eighty years ago today a group of young men and women from far-flung islands assembled in Jakarta to pledge that they would be united under one motherland called Indonesia, one nation called Indonesia and one language – Bahasa Indonesia.

This was a tall order considering the fact that Indonesia as a country did not exist on that historic Oct. 28, 1928. This archipelago of thousands of islands which the young men and women wanted to call their homeland was known internationally as the Dutch East Indies, a colony governed from the Netherlands.

Besides, how do you construct one nation out of a collection of tiny nations, made up of people of different races, ethnicities, cultures and traditions, as well as religions?

And how do you convince people who speak hundreds of different languages and dialects to agree on one national language?

But look at where Sumpah Pemuda, as the pledge is called, has gotten us.

Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945 and gained international recognition as a sovereign state in 1949.

In spite of its many troubles, including violent rebellions rooted in its diversity, Indonesia has remained as one independent state. It is also the proclaimed motherland of most of its people.

Bahasa Indonesia, rooted in Malay rather than the language spoken by the dominant ethnic Javanese, is the archipelago's lingua franca.

When it comes to nationhood, enough of a majority of its 240 million people still feel a sense of belonging to Indonesia.

But one nation we are probably not – at least not until everyone is on board.

Indonesia remains sharply divided along many of its components. It is largely governed along racial, ethnic and religious lines, and now also class divisions, though thankfully not language divisions. Altough not written in our constitution, it is widely assumed that a non-Javanese can never be president of this republic, and a non-Muslim has even less of a chance of taking over the number one job in the country.

For decades, Jakarta and the larger Java have been the recipient of the lion's share of the cake, including public investment funds, to the consternation of the people living in other regions. Only now are we beginning to address this issue – which has been the source of many armed rebellions – through greater decentralization and more regional autonomy.

Many small racial and ethnic groups feel they are being marginalized by the nation-building process. And one study shows that many local languages are disappearing fast, and with them generations of history, culture and tradition.

Recently minority religious communities have been feeling the squeeze as the dominant Muslims have been flexing their political muscle, such as with the introduction of sharia (Islamic law) in place of the national law in various regions.

Very soon the House of Representatives will pass a law on pornography which non-Muslim regions such as Bali and North Sulawesi have rejected because it will negate their traditions, cultures and artistic expressions.

One can look at these developments in Indonesia with apprehension because minority groups are losing out to the power of the majority, but one can also look at this as symptoms of a nation still very much in the making – and certainly learning through trial and error to live as one.

What is certain is that since 1998 we have agreed that the way forward in building this nation is through democracy – not so much the one-man-one-vote system of democracy as the homegrown version of using deliberation to reach a consensus. This will certainly be more challenging and time-consuming in reaching decisions, but given Indonesia's complex diversity, some decisions simply cannot be based on a majority rule.

At 80, if we take Sumpah Pemuda as the turning point, Indonesia is still a relatively young nation struggling to remain as one. Its diversity has probably contributed more to its ugly tensions and violent conflicts rather than acting as a source of strength.

Indonesia is young compared to China, which has more than 5,000 years of history of its own civilization. The success of Beijing Olympics 2008, in which China played a good host and won the most medals, attests to the greatness of the nation.

Still 80 years is a good start for this emerging nation, bound not only by a common history of four centuries of Dutch colonialism, but also and more importantly, committed to a common destiny and goal as set out by our founding fathers, which is a just and prosperous Indonesia.

Today, as we mark Sumpah Pemuda, we should not only renew our commitment to stay as one nation, but also renew our commitment to make sure that everybody, without exception, shares in the rise and fall of this nation, irrespective of race, ethnicity, culture, language, religion and gender.

Only then can we truly declare ourselves as one nation.