Revitalizing Pancasila

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

The students show books entitled Cahaya Bineka, Taman Bangsa: Pancasila Value in Education (The Light of Diversity, Garden of the Nation: Pancasila Value in Education) in during the familiarization of the four pillars of the People\'s Consultative Assembly (MPR) of the Republic of Indonesia and Declaration of Pancasila Education Practice at Schools at Nusantara IV Building, The House of Representatives Complex, Senayan , Jakarta, Wednesday (2/5/2018). The event was initiated by the MPR RI in cooperation with the Pancasila Ideology Development Board (BPIP), House of Representatives Pancasila Caucus, and the Cahaya Guru Foundation.

On the occasion of the anniversary of Pancasila on June 1, 2018, it is highly relevant to reflect on the various challenges of revitalizing Pancasila in the life of the nation and the state in the current era of globalization.

As has been widely acknowledged, the challenges of our future nationhood are very complex. According to People\'s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Decree No. VI/MPR/2001 on Ethics of the Life of the Nation, there are two primary types of challenges, internal and external. The internal challenges include: (1) poor religious comprehension and practices and the emergence of an incorrect understanding and narrow-minded religious teachings; (2) neglect of regional interests and the rise of regional fanaticism; (3) lack of understanding and appreciation for diversity and plurality; (4) lack of exemplary attitudes and behaviors among the nation’s leadership and leading figures; and (5) ineffective enforcement of the law.

Meanwhile, the external challenges include: (1) the increasingly widespread influence of globalization in society and increasingly sharp competition among nations; and (2) the strengthening intensity of global power in the formulation of national policy.

However, during the Reform of about 20 years ago, there was a kind of “de-Pancasilazation” movement. At that time, the MPR revoked MPR Decree No. II/MPR/1978 on Guidance on the Practice and Application of Pancasila (Ekaprasetia Pancakarsa). The policy was contained in MPR Decree No. XVIII/MPR/1998 on the Revocation of MPR Decree No. II/MPR/1978 on Guidance on the Practice and Application of Pancasila and Stipulation on Affirming Pancasila as the Basis of the State.

As stated in MPR Decree No. XVIII/MPR/1998, one of the reasons for revoking MPR Decree No. II/MPR/1978 was that its content and its implementation were not in accordance with state development. Moreover, MPR Decree No. XVIII/MPR/1998 also stipulated that Pancasila, as intended in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, was the ideological basis of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), which must be implemented consistently in the life of the state.

End of an ideology

Based on the Minutes/Explanatory Notes that are an inseparable part of the provision, the phrase “basis of the state” here refers to the national ideology as the ideals and goals of the state.

The enactment of MPR Decree No. XVIII/MPR/1998 was followed by the dissolution of the Agency for the Propagation of Pancasila (BP7) through Presidential Decree No. 27/1999 on the Revocation of Presidential Decree No. 10/1979 on the BP7, which President BJ Habibie signed on Mar. 31, 1999. Influenced by the thinking of one of the great American intellectuals, Daniel Bell, when MPR Decree No. XVIII/ MPR/1998 was adopted, subsequently followed by the dissolution of the BP7, this writer felt that the moment was a kind of "the end of ideology” of Pancasila.

As is known, about 58 years ago, Bell published his famous The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties (1960). Among other things, Bell argued in his book that the great ideologies that had dominated intellectual life since the Victorian era – Marxism, liberalism and conservatism – had lost their power to maintain society’s intelligence and control their emotions.

A small part of the liberal circle no longer believed in the great activities of social engineering while a small part of the conservatives believed that the concept of the welfare state was the second-to-last stop on "the road to slavery". The future was in the hand of the technocrats rather than the ideologies, with the pragmatists being more inclined toward very small ideas to thick blueprints.

The Economist in its review noticed that Bell’s book might not benefit over the progression of time. If the 1950s were a kind of grave for ideologies, then the 1960s proved to be a nursery. President John F Kennedy and especially Lyndon B Johnson revived "big-government liberalism". If the New Left movement incorporated Karl Marx’s unsupportive criticisms on capitalism (except with more emphasis on the eccentric aspects of counter-culturalism than the proletarian revolution); the New Right movement left room for cowboy capitalism and a return to moral values.

The years since the publication of Bell\'s book saw an interplay between the three ideologies: big-government liberals introduced an American version of welfare state concepts and affirmative measures; the New Left activists later took over the universities – first through protests in which the demonstrators occupied office and then through the control of an office. However, this still raised the question: Had the American people ultimately taken on enough ideologies?

In the same year as the publication of Bell\'s book, President Soekarno delivered his speech titled “To Build the World Anew” at the 15th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) on Sept. 30, 1960. In his speech, Bung Karno claimed that when the world wanted peace, only Pancasila – and no other concepts such as colonialism or imperialism and their outdated derivatives that had continued to cause destruction on earth for centuries – could be realized.

Therefore, Pancasila became a source of universal truth that every nation could accept. Bung Karno\'s statement, which asserted the role of Pancasila as an ideology in the midst of the destruction of the great ideologies as Bell pointed out in his book, and the emergence of the question as to whether the American people had finally gained enough ideologies, was a very strategic effort to accentuate the position of Pancasila as a great ideology that could become an alternative world ideology.

Revitalization efforts

Today, 58 years after the publication of Bell\'s book and President Soekarno’s speech, what efforts are being organized to revitalize and turn Pancasila into a great world ideology as Soekarno once expressed?

At the government level, deeming that the tasks and functions of the Presidential Working Unit on the Pancasila Ideology Development (UKP PIP) – which has been in charge of implementing the Pancasila ideology – need polishing and revitalization, President Joko Widodo on Feb. 28, 2018, signed Presidential Regulation No. 7/2018 on the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP). The BPIP falls under the President’s direct responsibility.

This writer feels that to revitalize Pancasila, one of the main focuses of the BPIP’s activities should be on how to constantly echo Pancasila and instill it into the heart of every Indonesian.

The recent actions of radical elements indicate that the perpetrators had experienced a kind of "ideological vacuum". Promoting Pancasila can also be done through, among others, the path of character-developing education and the revitalization of Scout Movement activities, which used to be a kind of deterrent to radicalism and an effective means of channeling national values.

Through the BPIP’s activities, it is expected that various challenges – both internal and external as stated in the aforementioned MPR Decree No. VI/MPR/2001 on the Ethics of National Life – can be addressed and overcome. If this is not done, Pancasila may be displaced and removed, and the basic values that was generated and extracted from Indonesian soil will eventually disappear, to be replaced by other ideologies that may provide more interesting choices in the future.

It can only be hoped an "end of ideology" to Pancasila will not occur as Daniel Bell once wrote.

Satya Arinanto, Professor and Former Chairman, Postgraduate Program, the University of Indonesia Law School