The symbol you see on the picture is the symbol of protest in silence showing that how priceless the precious thing in this country is, while the other nations are competing to develop this sector, yes as you can see, it’s a car but not just a car, it’s an electrical car, the ones who can make and develop electrical car is not only Elon Musk who owns the tesla, we in Indonesia also have the brilliant talented person named Ricky Elso who owns Selo, Tucuxi, dan Gendhis and who’s been abandoned by his own Government, yes Indonesian government.
He used to work in Japan and willingly to come home in hope to be able to develop his country in the electrical and renewable energy development. His electrical cars invention once have been used to be displayed in KTT APEC 2013 in Bali as the model of electrical cars made in Indonesia and developed by Indonesian but after that event finished, we never heard the updates from the government about the progress of Mr. Ricky Elson’s invention, there’s no such serious further action and actualization by government, the do not show serious intention to empower the talents like Ricky Elson. Ricky Elson has invented 14 theories in electrical development that have been patented by Japanese government on behalf of his name.
With the spirit of developing Indonesia despite of having lack of support from our own government, he never gives up and keeps moving on with his renewable energy development by founding new company called Lentera Bumi Nusantara which moves in various essential industrial sectors based around technology and community development. All the research, development and trading conducted by Lentera Bumi Nusantara company is focused on the enhancing and fulfilling the needs of energy, food and water, since those three sectors are the three crucial necessities of the world.
He once ever said “ Let’s open up, open horizons, continue to explore science and information. Don not fear of failure. O youth fate of this nation in the hands of all of us. Let’s rise up together to build Indonesia.”
I quote what he has said at the National Seminar titled Harmony Work by Young Based on Local Energy and Environmental towards Global Competition, he recounted his struggle to create electric cars and wrestle with windmills as one of the efforts for the advancement of the nation. “I am most afraid of the word OUT. Because when knowing something, then the seconds that responsibility will shift to our shoulders,” he explained at the beginning of the event.
“Many people ask me why I returned to this country after 8 years in Japan. What I am looking for in this country? The answer is KNOW it earlier. This nation has a lot of natural resources. This nation has the potential for unparalleled from any country. But look what is happening today. There are still many people are troubled school because they live in isolated areas. There are still many people who do not have electricity. There are still a lot of homework to be completed in this nation.” To me personally this is what you call “the unconditional love for your country.”
Having the same spirit as him which is to develop our nation, I do hope that somehow I can connect with him, get to know each other, exchange and brainstorm ideas which eventually can be realized into products and activities that can contribute to develop our nation, society and people for good and produce useful things. The spread of development in Indonesia is not equal due to the thousands of islands ( 17,000 + islands ) spread across the country. It’s indeed not an easy job to spread the development equally due to our geographic location but it’s still possible to spread the education, knowledge and using renewable energy development concept to empower people living in different islands. I personally believe that the world is going to pay more attention into renewable energy industry in the next 10 years more or less.
As an Indonesian and a global citizen, I do have a dream to make an institution of research to accommodate researchers mainly Indonesian talents to conduct researches related to science and technology even without being supported by the government, because this institution will be self-sufficient, independent, free of political interest and can produce useful products for the good and for the sake of human progress without damaging the environment. I also hope that Indonesia can be one of the leading countries in tech industry and renewable energy development, I hope this country can produce and export renewable energy based products to International market and become the leading in the domestic market.
It might sound too far to reach, but at least I have tried to make my first step towards this dream which is to come all the way to Jogja from Bali with an intention to meet Ricky Elson even though I haven’t been able to meet him in Jogja yet, just to see his symbol of work displayed on this café with the writing “ Semangat mobil listrik Indonesia, Maju terus pantang Mundur” which means the spirit of Indonesian electrical car, keep moving forward, never give up !” has made me in the fire again to continue the struggle in developing myself and my capability to execute all the ideas and keep hoping for the better change.
Having similar dreams and vision as him, I hope that God will show the way for us to meet each other in the near future somehow.
That’s it for now, will write and document my another journey to my dreams in the next post 🙂