This year we are marking the 20th Oversees Mission Conference or OMC. It is a significant milestone and is a testament of its enduring value to the participants and ultimately to God redemptive plan. Indonesia was very different in 1994 when the first OMC was held in Madison Wisconsin. President Soeharto had just entered his 6th presidency term. The mood of the country was positive because of the continuous economic growth and the low rate of inflation. Everything was seemed affordable. For example, it cost almost the same amount of money to send children to study at local private university and at state university in United States (US). The salary of US graduates was higher back in Indonesia than in US.
However, there was a strong undercurrent that left the younger generation intellectuals felt unease. President Soeharto and his cronies were becoming more blatant in securing their grip on power. The regime released spies that kidnapped and killed anybody that challenged its power. Most of this human right violations occurred in the rural areas such as East Timor, Papua, and Aceh where independence movement were alive. East Timor was still part of Indonesia and was the hot bed of human right violations involving the many current ex-generals running for elected office.
Beside human right violations, the economic and judicial systems were manufactured to benefit Soeharto and his cronies. The economic system was very corrupt but was simple to navigate. Just gave 10% to Soeharto’s cronies and another 10% to Madam Tien (Soeharto’s wife), the project would be approved. Thus, the military, religious, and business elites would not complaint. However, the majority of the country was still poor.
These three issues, human right violations and KKN (corruption, collusion, and nepotism in businesses) in both business and law, were grossly under reported in the state controlled media in Indonesia. It was in this context FICA was called by God to hold the first OMC. FICA was called to set up a conference to broadcast the rotten truth about the regime. With this truth, FICA tried to influence the Indonesian Christian students and professionals to become an agent of transformation in Indonesia. Not only we should not participate in KKN but also we were to stand up against the injustice and for the poor.
Twenty years later, the function of OMC is still the same which is to broadcast the true situation in Indonesia. The message of the conference has endured that is to participate in God’s redemptive plan in Indonesia. However, the content of the broadcast was different because the issues had changed. Indonesia has passed the transformation and reformation era and has entered the restoration era. We are now tasked to restore the earth by developing the people and the land. The tasks in front of us are heavy. Let us continue to get together in this year OMC to pray, fellowship, and work together to finish the job well.