If Indonesia is a wealth and prosperous country, having many holidays probably will do no harm to the people and the development of the country. But realizing  that Indonesia is a country that can be categorized as developing country (not to say a poor country), I think we have to consider the fact that in our country there are too many public holidays !

 

These public holidays mostly related to religious events. In Moslem calender, beside having iedul fitri and Iedul adha, we also have “maulid” and “isra mi’raj” of the prophet (pbuh). Commemorating the prophet birthday and event of Isra mi’raj is fine, the thing is that is it necessary in commemorating those events that it has to be public holidays ?  I don’t think that’s important to make them as public holidays. The same case in christianity, it’s okay that we have public holiday at christmass day, but other events such as the death of Isa (pbuh) and good friday… does it need to be commemorated in public holidays ?

 

Beside those religious related events, some ordinary days can also become holidays if they are being “kejepit”  between two holidays, we call it “harpitnas’ (hari kejepit nasional). Those adds more public holidays in the country. I am afraid that too many holidays will do no good to the progress of development in Indonesia. What do you think ?