An Echelon I officer of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), Rochmadi Saptogiri (right), wore a detention vest at the building of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) after being questioned in Jakarta, Saturday (27/5). The KPK detained four suspects (two from BPK and two from the Ministry of Village, Disadvantaged Region Development and Transmigration) and confiscated cash amounting to Rp 1.14 billion and US$3,000 in a bribery case to get the Unqualified Opinion predicate for the finance reports of the ministry in 2016.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – A number of development indicators show an improved trend in the last 10 years. However, it does not mean that Indonesia has always been on the right track in carrying out its Pancasila-based development.
Indonesia’s development indicator improvement is indicated through its scores in the Human Development Index and Corruption Perception Index.
In 2016, Indonesia scored 37 in its CPI. Even though Indonesia is still ranked below Singapore and Malaysia, its CPI is above that of Thailand and the Philippines, which from 2012 until 2015 had always been above Indonesia.
However, at the same time, the income gap in Indonesia is still high. Indonesia’s Gini index in 2016 was lower than it was in 2015. But, if we look further back, the country’s Gini index in 2016 is still higher than that in the 2010 period.
The high income gap indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done related to the implementation of the fifth principle of Pancasila, which is social justice for all people in Indonesia.
Head of Malang State University’s Pancasila Study Center, Rosyid Al Atok, said on Monday (29/5) that in order to accelerate fair growth, the government must issue more policies that sided with the poor. Economic and social justice will not be achieved until there is protection for the groups of people that are economically disadvantaged.
Other than the matter of income inequality, there is also a problem in the political attitude and culture, especially among the elite, which do not reflect the values of Pancasila. “Pancasila has yet to become a political culture. Democracy in Indonesia has become more capitalistic and transactional,” said Massa Djafar, head of the Political Science Doctorate Program at the National University Postgraduate School.
State institutions
Head of Gadjah Mada University’s Pancasila Study Center, Heri Santoso, said the values of Pancasila should be manifested in the governance of the country. “Ideally, the first people to implement the values of Pancasila should be officials of state institutions and this should be reflected in the norms and policies. Looking at it from this point of view, it is difficult to say that we are on the right track,” he said.
The most obvious example of this condition is corruption in Indonesia, which seems to have become an institutionalized crime. Even though Indonesia’s CPI score has improved, the corruption in the country has involved people from various institutions such as the Constitutional Court, Supreme Audit Agency, Regional Representatives Council and the House of Representatives. This condition has caused corruption to no longer be an “odd case”, but a prevalent occurrence.
In such a condition, Pancasila is also facing a different challenge in the form of radicalism.
National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) head Comr. Gen. Suhardi Alius said the absence of Pancasila and ethics in schools had contributed to the easy spread of radical ideology.
Suhardi said he had coordinated with relevant ministries/institutions, such as the Education and Culture Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry, to bring back Pancasila education and national history into the school curriculum. “It is important for Pancasila education to be taught from an early age because instilling the values of nationalism is not an instant effort, but needs time,” he said.
At the same time, according to Widhasto Wasana Putra, head of Yogyakarta’s People of Pancasila Movement, Pancasila must also be integrated with the political and economic system in Indonesia. In the economic system, the implementation of Pancasila can be in the form of development of the people’s economy, for which the welfare of the underprivileged is its main concern. “The state must push for the people’s economic system with cooperatives as one of its pillars,” he said.
