We Indonesians hear the national anthem "Indonesia Raya" (Great Indonesia) a lot as we go about our days.
At schools, it is routinely sung – typically on Monday mornings during a regular flag-raising ceremony.
We hear it on the broadcast channels a lot too. Come August, we will hear it even more. It plays to accompany other content, usually news, almost becoming mere background music.
In the past few months, thanks to a November circular from the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry for SOEs to play the national anthem every day at 10:00 a.m., commuter train users have heard the song one more time each day.
Train operator KAI Commuter Indonesia (KCI) diligently obeys the letter, with stations in Greater Jakarta playing the song every morning according to the determined schedule. If only they did the same with trains.
For some commuters, the national anthem may have become banal. It is as if the song has become just a tune marking the end of morning rush hours, and the start of midday lull in the train service.
We hear "Indonesia Raya" a lot.
But there are rare moments when we do actually listen to the anthem, and we sing it with our whole head and heart in sync with our fellow citizens.
For the older generation, a moment that will forever be on our minds was when the Red and White was hoisted full mast and "Indonesia Raya" was played as our badminton living legend Susi Susanti won Indonesia's first ever Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992.
Even today, clips of Susi standing proud on the podium with tears of joy rolling down her cheeks as the national anthem plays still tug at our hearts when they appear on TV or randomly pop up as we doomscroll on social media.
More recently Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu made history by winning Indonesia's first gold medal in the badminton women's doubles at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020.
More than marking an Indonesian achievement, the gold medals provided us with a tremendous moment to celebrate in a period when we were neck deep in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. That image on the TV, and that emotional outburst in the middle of disease restrictions is now etched in our memories, serenaded by "Indonesia Raya".
It is therefore good news that last week the Culture Ministry released an "Indonesia Raya" vinyl record in commemoration of National Music Day on March 9.
March 9 is the birthday of Wage Rudolf Soepratman, the national hero who composed the national anthem in 1924. Wage passed away on Aug. 17, 1938, exactly seven years before his anthem was played when Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed Indonesia's independence in Jakarta.
The record, released in partnership with local vinyl record pressing plant PHR Pressing, features eight versions of the anthem, from its first version introduced to the public in 1928 to several other renditions over the years by other composers.
The record features an official arrangement of the song used nationwide recorded in 1951 by Dutch musician Jos Cleber, then a conductor at state radio station RRI, in both stereo and mono versions.
Also quite importantly, the record fits in the song's original version, which has three stanzas. Since Sukarno issued a presidential decree on the national anthem in 1958, the version that has been played on television and radio stations across the nation has a single stanza.
The collection serves as a significant milestone for the national tune, as it provided Indonesians with a historical auditory document of the anthem. With the record, the national anthem has a safekeeping for future Indonesian generations.
The dark mood smothering our nation may have become a fact of life. But there will come moments when we are moving together to seize greatness, soon, if not later.
Hiduplah Indonesia Raya (Long live Great Indonesia)!
Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2025/03/15/long-live-indonesia-raya.htm