The Role of Youth In Developing Indonesia (An English Speech)

The Honorable Jury,

The Respectable Chairman,

And all my beloved audiences,

All praises be to Alloh SWT, the most merciful, the most beneficent, who created the world belong to the mankind. Shalawat and Salam may always be given to our prophet, Muhammad SAW along with his family, his friends, and his followers.

And I don't forget to thank particularly to the committee who has given me an opportunity to deliver a speech in front of you all. I am standing here I would like to deliver my speech under the title: The Role of Youth in Developing Indonesia.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Do you know that our first President, Mr. Soekarno, has ever said ‘give me ten youth, then I will make them rock the world’? And why did he say that? Of course, there is a meaning behind it. Do you still remember, before the freedom of Indonesia, there were some Youth Organizations like Budi Utomo, Jong Celebes, Jong Sumatera and many others? They were united in the Youth Oath on October 28, 1928 to proclaim the freedom of Indonesia from the colonialism. Their struggles finally reached the best result in August 17, 1945. The freedom of Indonesia was announced to the whole of the world. It was really hard working of our heroes. They had to give their time, money and even their life to this country.

My beloved audiences,

It is contrary with the current condition I have seen in the television and the Internet, as well as what  I heard in the Radio. How worried our young generation is. They do what they want to do, they enjoy their life freely, and more ironically, they do negative things such as juvenile delinquency, drugs abuse, free sex. Let’s take a look at an example, a few months ago, the police in Jakarta found that there was a health centre used for abortion. Do you know who the patients were? Yes, YOUTH. In addition, In Yogyakarta, there was a survey about the Youth Virginity and do you know the result? More than 80%, they had done free sex before marriage. It is absolutely clear that our young generation is in a terrible moral degradation. But I believe that all the audiences here do not belong to it.

Ladies and gentlemen,

If we pay attention to the facts above. Then, what can we give to our country? It is impossible we can reach our goals and develop our country with all those conditions. I can't imagine that. Perhaps, our country will be recolonized by the other country.

So, what can we give to develop our country? I have three answers. They are:

First, obey and respect our parents and our teachers. Why must we do it? Remember, when we were babies, there was nothing we could do except our parents. Now, we have grown and become a student at school. Our teachers teach us from zero to million.

Second, study hard. If we study hard whatever we want, we will get it by the knowledge. Remember, Many Indonesian students have shown their ability in International Science Olympic Exhibition and they got it. Of course it will make our country more popular among countries in the world.

Third, stay away from the negative things like what I said previously. Drug abuse, free sex and other negative things are the main factors which can make our country fall down. Remember, if we are the students with those problems, it means no future at all because we can do nothing.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me conclude my speech that we as the young generation must aware deep in our heart to develop our country. Why? Because as Imam Syafi'i said that "the young generation today is a Leader in the future." So, keep our spirit to respect our parents and our teachers. And don't forget to study hard in order to develop our own country, Indonesia.

Thank you very much.