The Second Flight of Garuda

Date: September 1993

📍Location: Aula Balai Kota Padang

📍Event: City Youth Forum – Regional Roundtable

The hall was made of marble and microphone feedback — the kind of echo-chamber where small voices were either ignored or amplified.

Dozens of chairs lined the rows in neat formations, each one marked with a printed placard:

"SMA 5 Padang – Ketua OSIS",

"Forum Pemuda Pesisir Selatan",

"Perwakilan Pramuka Regional".

Most of the delegates were seventeen. Some wore expensive batik. A few wore ties they didn't need. All of them stood tall — laughing, debating, checking their speeches. The air smelled of kopi tubruk, new paper, perfume, and nerves.

At the very back, a boy barely five feet tall adjusted the sleeves of his crisp white batik shirt, stiff with his mother's starch. His sandals were old, but clean. His eyes scanned everything:

– exits,

– ventilation fans,

– how many microphones,

– where the committee sat.

He was eleven.

"Name?" asked the staffer at the registration table, clearly not expecting much.

Rakha stepped forward calmly and spoke in a tone sharper than his size.

"Rakha Yudhistira Halim. Delegate from Matur District. Also from SMAN 1 Padang"

The pen paused. The staffer looked up — really looked, for the first time.

His eyebrows raised slightly.

"Matur? From Agam?"

Rakha nodded once.

"Small village," the man muttered, scribbling the name down. "Big name, lately."

Rakha bowed his head lightly, out of respect — not humility.

He could feel it already — the glances, the whispers.

Is that a middle schooler?

What's he doing here?

That must be a mistake—

But Rakha didn't shrink. He didn't explain. He didn't justify.

He simply stepped past the crowd, found his seat, and opened his notebook — filled not with doodles, but economic projections, irrigation reform models, and a quote from Tan Malaka scribbled across the margin:

"Idealisme adalah kemewahan terakhir yang dimiliki oleh pemuda."

Idealism is the final luxury of the young.

🎤 Panel Topic: Village-Centered Development in a Growing Economy

He sat quietly through two speeches.

One student from a private school spoke in buzzwords.

Another quoted English economists.

Then, it was Rakha's turn.

The moderator hesitated, clearly wondering if the youngest speaker was a mistake.

"Rakha… you have five minutes."

Rakha stepped to the mic, small hands gripping the edges of the podium.

He looked up.

"I come from a place where the rain is tracked by buckets, not satellites. Where sugar is boiled by fire, not factory. And where people work not because they love hardship — but because they don't know any other way."

The room fell still.

"Development should not mean pulling people into cities. It should mean making it so they don't have to leave. Bring irrigation. Bring literacy. Bring tools — not just taxes."

He raised his voice — not in anger, but with purpose.

"We don't need rescue. We need recognition. And policy that starts from our ground, not your office."

Silence.

Then applause — slow, then rising, then sustained.

Some delegates stared. Others scrambled to revise their notes.

In the front row, a man in a tailored batik suit — unknown to Rakha — tapped his pen three times and whispered to his aide.

"That one… keep an eye on him."

🧠 [SYSTEM NOTICE]

Milestone Achieved: First Public Policy Speech

Passive Skill Unlocked: "Microphone Presence – Tier I"

Influence Expanded: City Level

Hidden Trait Progress: Orator's Mind (10%)

Mentor Template Glimpsed: "Founding Thinker – Mohammad Hatta"

Status: Locked (Too Young)

📍 After the Forum – City Hall Steps

Tari waited outside with a bottled tea.

"You shook the room," she said, smiling.

Rakha nodded, but his expression was unreadable.

"What's wrong?"

He glanced back at the hall.

"When I speak… they listen. But when I try to talk to kids my age…"

He stopped.

"They either praise me too much. Or avoid me."

Tari was quiet for a moment.

"You're not one of them anymore."

"But I still want to be."

"That's the price, Rakha. They look up to you — because they don't know how to stand beside you."

📍 Later That Night – Rakha's Room

The oil lamp flickered gently, casting long shadows on the woven mat beneath him. His rain-stained white batik hung on a nail near the door. Beside him, the notebook lay open — not filled with grades, but questions.

Why are city budgets centralized?

What stops water sovereignty?

How can a system serve villages, not extract from them?

He stared at the ceiling, silent.

Part of him wanted to go outside. Maybe join the others — teenagers playing cards, laughing about things that didn't involve state policy.

But another part of him — deeper, older — stayed rooted.

"This is the path I chose," he whispered.

"I just didn't know how lonely it would be."

Then, without warning, a gentle chime rang in his mind.

🦅 [GARUDA SYSTEM – MAJOR MILESTONE REACHED]

You have delivered your first regional policy speech.

You have spoken not for yourself, but for those who could not.

You have shown initiative, integrity… and imagination.

🏅 Trait Strengthened: "Statesman's Composure" → Tier II

🧠 Orator's Mind: 26% Completion

📈 Civic Influence Tier: Upgraded to "Urban Emerging"

🔓 NEW MENTOR TEMPLATE UNLOCKED

Mohammad Hatta – The Architect of Economic Sovereignty

Role: Statesman, Economist, Vice President of the Republic

Traits:

– Strategic Idealism

– Frugal Governance

– Decentralization Pioneer

This template is locked, but proximity will begin.

Passive Learning Activated: "Civic Vision Mapping"

Rakha stared at the flickering words before him, not with surprise — but with quiet recognition.

Hatta…

He thought of the books he had read. The vision of cooperatives. The resistance to debt. The belief in Indonesia's future not through control, but through participation.

Rakha reached for his pencil, flipping to a new page.

He titled it:

Blueprint: Desa Mandiri 2030

(Self-Sufficient Villages Project)

He didn't know it yet — but that paper would one day become the backbone of his first gubernatorial campaign.