The Practice of Pancasila

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Yogyakartans take pictures in front of an effigy of the Garuda Pancasila coat of arms during the Pancasila Day commemoration at Alun-alun Utara (North Square) on Thursday (1/6/2017). The commemorative event was designed to encourage people to participate in the unifying spirit of Pancasila as manifested in everyday life.

The commemoration of the anniversary of Pancasila on June 1, 2017, was colored with various activities. Born is a new awareness on the part of the community about Pancasila.

After the end of the New Order era, Pancasila seemed nothing more than a distant memory. Discourse on Pancasila disappeared from the media. News about Pancasila only appeared on the anniversary of Pancasila and Pancasila\'s Sanctity Day on October 1.

According to the Kompas information center, between the year 2000 and 2016, discourse with "Pancasila" diction in its various contexts appeared in an average 362 news pieces every year. However, from January 1 to May 31, 2017, in line with the strengthening of identity politics, within six months, 358 stories could be found containing "Pancasila" diction.

The government of President Joko Widodo, whose motto is “work, work and work” set June 1 as Pancasila Day. The spirit of the  celebration of the anniversary of Pancasila is to recall the struggles in the effort to establish the Pancasila state. The government conducted a Pancasila Week campaign. On social media, discourse took place over the history of Pancasila and when it was actually established, whether on June 1, 1945, June 22, 1945, or August 18, 1945, when the 1945 Constitution was endorsed?

It is a social reality, the commemoration of the anniversary of Pancasila on June 1 has revived a critical public discourse on Pancasila.  The discourse on Pancasila as a collective memory of the nation has disappeared after reform. It also cannot be separated from the strategy of the New Order to use Pancasila to lengthen its power. Actually, Pancasila as the foundation of the state does not belong to any particular government regime. Pancasila belongs to the Indonesian nation, which should become the spirit of  the management of the government and nation.

The commemoration of Pancasila’s anniversary on June 1, 2017 was marked by the establishment of a Presidential Working Unit on Pancasila Ideology Development. The agency reminds us of the Board for Developing  Education and  Implementation of the Guidelines for Instilling and Practicing Pancasila in the New Order era.

The working unit on the establishment of Pancasila ideology is important to revitalize Pancasila. How the unit runs should move within the constitutional and democratic corridors.