A banner of the Regional Election Contol was introduced at a press conference in the General Elections Commission, Jakarta, Monday (19/11//2015). Ahead of the simultaneous regional elections on December 9, the people were invited to play an active role to carry out public supervision through the platform of #pilkadabersih and website www.kawalpilkada.id.
To make it more applicable, to implement it or to fully understand it are common phrases when talking about Pancasila. Amid the present situation, several civil society groups are attempting to define the concept of Pancasila through real action.
A movement called Kawal Pilkada is attempting to safeguard democracy as a manifestation of the fourth tenet of Pancasila by making use of information technology (IT).
The fourth tenet, “Democracy predicated on the inherent wisdom of unanimity arising from deliberation among popular representatives,” is interpreted as a direction to ensure the process of democracy in Indonesia is upheld.
Kawal Pilkada supports this tenet by helping the public make political decisions with sufficient information. “After realizing that our country has chosen democratic values, I was encouraged to make a contribution to ensure the transfer of power in regional administrations runs correctly,” said Khairul Anshar, the founder of Kawal Pilkada, when contacted in Singapore last weekend.
Kawal Pilkada emerged prior to the 2015 concurrent regional elections held in 269 regions. Khairul, in cooperation with several civil society groups, developed an online platform through the website, kawalpilkada.id. The website can be used by volunteers to upload data related to the vote count from each region. The data analyzed by the volunteers is taken from the General Elections Commission website that provides a scanned copy of the C1 form or vote tally from the polling stations (TPS). Additionally, the volunteers also uploaded information on the backgrounds of each political candidate on the Kawal Pilkada website.
The movement is connected with others such as Kawal Pemilu, which emerged during the 2014 Presidential Election and was initiated by Ainun Najib and some young IT practitioners working overseas. Khairul was also involved in Kawal Pemilu and his continued activity in Kawal Pilkada was spurred by the desire to safeguard the spirit of democratic contestation.
An institution that also tries to make Pancasila more applicable, particularly its first tenet, Belief in one God, is NU Online, a news site run by Nahdlatul Ulama, at nu.or.id. NU Online’s mission is to spread religious views of ahlusunah waljamaah, which serves as NU’s reference and contains the principles of respecting different faiths and different sects, tasamuh (tolerance) and tawasut (moderation). “NU Online also aims to connect nahdliyin with the NU executive board,” said NU Online director Savic Ali.
Meanwhile, Nia Sadjarwo and Hanny Kusumawati initiated the movement Coin of Change (CoC), which focuses on collecting coins in a bid to help children from poor families continue their studies.
CoC was initiated in 2008 with Bintang Gempur Anarki, a six-grade student from Pamulang, Tangerang, the first child to receive their assistance in the form of school fees, books and extra curricula activities. Nia and Hanny call the children little brother or little sister. Nia deals with the school administration and Hanny uses her blog to spread the movement and raise awareness and concern for their little brothers and sisters from the poor families.
Their movement has spread to several provinces and even been adopted in some other countries. So far, 85 children receive CoC assistance. CoC’s work is an illustration of the second tenet of Pancasila, a just and civilized humanity.
Raising awareness
Through a messenger group, more than a hundred NU Online contributors across Indonesia as well as seven editors in Jakarta communicate and consolidate. They not only discuss content, but also the importance of the presence of NU and Muslims in the unitary republic. For NU Online, love for the country is mandatory.
NU Online maintains this principle by continually innovating to find ways to sustain its growth and development. This is because the spirit of nationhood is not something, which emerges instantly or on its own, but must be nurtured.
Kawal Pilkada also makes innovations for its data collection. Khairul developed a smartphone application that can be used by volunteers in the field to photograph vote tallies at polling stations. Currently, Khairul and the volunteers are making similar preparations ahead of the 2018 concurrent regional elections and 2019 general elections.
Building bridges
For Savic, civil society must be active in building and maintaining bridges between religions, ethnicities and communities in order to strengthen national brotherhood. This is especially important given the presence of groups that disrupt these bridges and create a “Berlin Wall,” which separates people based on religion, ethnicity and community. An imagination and methodology is needed to make Pancasila applicable, as so far such efforts have, according to Indonesian Academy of Sciences member Yudi Latif, simply been ceremonial.
Pancasila, which Yudi Latif refers to as Indonesia’s inclusive and pluralist ideology, cannot be learned through ceremony. Instead it requires a long process, which, according to Kuntowijoyo, must engage three ideological dimensions, faith or myth, logic or logos and struggle or ethos. Regarding ethos, the radicalization of Pancasila aims to cultivate self-confidence and striving so that Pancasila can be consistent with laws and legislations, have coherence between its five tenets and correspond with the social reality.
According to Savic, the country still talks about the rhetoric of nationhood without being able to develop a nation-building program that strengthens Pancasila values and national brotherhood. State building is progressing, for example, with the establishment of institutions like the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), as well as bureaucratic reform, which are part of the effort to create a better government. However, the state will be stronger if state building and nation building advance together.
