Indonesia needs either a very inspiring dream or a wake up call. Otherwise we all will miss the train.

Every big success story begins with a small yet beautiful dream that feels real and motivating. Indonesia has either not dreamed at all since the reform began in 1998, or it has simply dreamed for too long. If we have had a good dream why has very little come into reality? On the other hand if everything in the last ten years is the battles we needed to win, then we must remind ourselves of what war we are in. We need one shared vision, one harmonious set of actions and one grateful celebration.

The greatest, cheapest yet powerful thing in life is to dream big time about what one aspire to become, and to actually pursue it when one wakes up to real life. In fact, for tens of generations the American people are always proud to sell the American Dream, among them as well as to the rest of the world. The American Dream can be as simple as a recently married couple owning a real estate or a young president in the 60s declaring that the next frontier is the moon.

However, for a nation to be great, dream only will not pull it off into reality. Again, the one thing that makes big countries great nations are their ability to dream as one and to treat that one dream as one goal. Goal here means a dream with a timeline.

Indonesia used to have such a dream under the first President Soekarno, At then, the Indonesian dream was to become a free, sovereign, legitimate and respected nation that could sit and stand as high as the older and more developed nations. Within less than 20 years after declaring independence, it did.

Under second President, Soeharto, the Indonesian dream was to bring the whole nation into one of the world’s most accounted countries through successful economic development and peaceful regional and international engagement. In around three decades, Indonesia was admitted into the privileged league of emerging economies called the Asian Tigers, amazing the rest of the world with undisputed economic success story that was dubbed the Asian miracle, chairing numerous international organizations, and hosting series of international and regional conferences.

Surely there were negative excesses from the two periods. Soekarno due to ignoring the economy for grandiose political ambition and Soeharto for neglecting the importance of good governance.

But the positive achievements remain as facts of life that allow Indonesia to have a proud history. And the people who were in the driving seats, fewer of them still a live, left a living legacy that is not less heroic for Indonesians than Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln are for the Americans.

For good or bad both Soekarno, Soeharto and all their lieutenants had the one dream, held it dearly, and successfully convinced the world’s fourth largest population to dream as one. If their periods are now, both would have been leading branding experts. They made promises, lots of them, and they fulfilled them.

They kept promises by identifying the common challenges, setting the priorities, putting the strategies in place, and assuring that the state will protect those who try to pursue the common goal, regardless of the result. In fact those who pursue the common goal were distinguished with incentives, rewards and even awards. Big ideas and quick little wins were equally appreciated. Top and lower level officials were equally heard. I vividly remember my dad at one time always taught me to recognize even the smallest life’s achievement and celebrate it.

The ambience felt exclusive for those who do not try to understand. But it felt very open and inclusive for those who were willing to share the burden of nation building exercise.

Unfortunately Indonesia ’s nation building is now hindered by stage building ventures of the elites and the opportunists. Too many compromises have been made among too many parties. This can be seen from the mushrooming number of newly established state and social apparatus, most with ad hoc or special assignments whose operations compete – if not contradict and undermine –the long-established state institutions. Surely the reform in 1998 did require such a new social consensus whereby ad hoc institutions were the vehicle for people’s aspirations to be fulfilled and carried out into the new and better way of living.

But Indonesians reformists seem to forget to prepare the importance of exit strategy from the reform mode in order to initiate a normal development autopilot. If this continues Indonesia will end up a stateless nation or a state without a national identity and purpose.

Reform can not be forever. There needs to be a time when Indonesians quit from reforming and get into developing. There needs to be time for ad hoc institutions and special apparatus to take a bullet and gracefully pass their power back to the official state institutions they initially meant to reform – and not to replace. A close friend, an investment banker, reminds me of a speech made by a top economist in the late 90s that Indonesia is a country of the future – but risk itself to remain always as the country of the future.

There needs to be a time when we decide who we are 10 years after the reform. I never apologize for repeating how important a national brand is. But maybe we can start with a national dream. That is the one dream that I, you and all the reformists can be proud of to dream as one.

by Andika Mongilala – Ketua Umum Senat Mahasiswa FE Unsrat