Pancasila and Religion

KOMPAS/DIDIE SW

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Of course, Pancasila is not a religion and was not meant to replace religious formalism. The state ideology Pancasila was born, among other things, to be adhered to by people of all religions. Therefore, they can practice their beliefs according to their respective religions with calm and full appreciation.

Bung Karno said, "The Indonesian people do not only have God but each Indonesian should have his God. His own God [...] Indonesia should be a country where each person can worship his God in a free way. All people should worship God culturally, with no \'religious egoism\'."

Therefore, if we pay close attention, none of its five principles are against religion. All religions have a basis for theological legitimacy to establish the metaphysical and sociological vision of each principle.

All of the principles even symbolize the effort to ground religious values in the life of the state coherently and simultaneously. One principle and the others mutually reinforce and intertwine, without being able to be separated partially-fragmentarily. If we have ideals, such as to apply Islamic teachings for example, then the Pancasila is grounded in a kafah (the whole side) way.

Universal values

Pancasila values are universal. They are crossing the boundaries of formal religion and even accommodating all wisdom that can be found along the equator so that its presence is accepted by all circles. Pancasila provides satisfying answers for both secular and religious groups, for socialists or nationalists.

If we examine the miracle diction, I must say that Pancasila is the greatest ideological miracle that God sends down to the Indonesian people as a gift of independence. It is only Pancasila that has the ability to adhere to ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, as well as the most likely to prove the claim of rahmatan lil alamin and the peace of love that is the main mode of birth of every religion.

Pancasila is the middle way for various ideologies. And, an ideology like this – to be recognized or not -- is not owned by the Middle East Muslim community so that almost every time there is always a bloody clash, both among countries and within one country itself: between the people and their rulers. They are in dispute due to the economic disparity, which is also afflicted by the issue of state ideology, the form of which is still being sought -- not to mention religious interpretations that seem to have not found its meeting point -- which has not yet finished obtaining its ideal format for the relations between religion and the state. They claim to be the most righteous and consider others as wrong, to be infidels and misleading.

It is Pancasila that gives certainty to come forward reminding the mistake of the radical right and the extreme left, who want to impose their stand, which in reality is not rooted in the cultural heart of Indonesian society. Both Islamism (Darul Islam/NII) and communism (Indonesian Communist Party) failed miserably not because their movement did not only use violence, but also the ideology they offered was not rooted at all and could not give an adequate explanation of the concept of the state in its relations with the multicultural society. One imagined the medieval Islamic archaeological-utopian fantasies living in the Middle East desert, the other referred to Stalin-Lenin\'s Soviet Union state without creative interpretation. Today the Soviet Union actually has broken down with balkanization, and the Middle East also endures a prolonged "spring" conflict.

Activating the memory

Of course Pancasila is not born from a cultural vacuum. It did not suddenly descend from heaven like  when the Prophet received God\'s revelation. It is precisely the advantage of Pancasila because it was excavated from the folds of the history of its people, from the cultural wells of its people. In the term "excavated", as introduced by Bung Karno himself, a fact emerged that the Pancasila values had grown alive in the behavior and the mind and consciousness of the Archipelago (Nusantara) people long before Indonesia was proclaimed.

In the phrase "excavated" there is an honest acknowledgment as well as noble respect for the ancestors. There is an effort to show that the Indonesian nation has a long history, has fields of perennial wisdom, both derived from the teachings of God and from local traditions that live in the midst of society. Sukarno said, Pancasila was taken from the process of acculturation of Indian culture (Hindu-Buddhist), Western (Christian), and Arabic (Islam). Moreover, in Bung Karno\'s proposal on June 1, 1945, it was said, "Believe in God in a cultural way". God, when He is spoken in the earth of humanity, will manifest in a cultural movement. A kind of culture that refers to the divine spirit and divinity. Between the mystic and the technique -- borrowing the term of Van Peursen – it is united. The transformation from the understanding of culture and religion of "ashes" into "fire".

The tough debate at the Konstituente Building in from June 1 to August 18, 1945, concerning the basic form of the state was actually a way of activating the memory of all of them. After the memory is activated, then by the founders of the nation they were formulated in five principles. There was those who called Pancasila philosophische grondslag (philosophical basis) and weltsanchauung (global view), the deepest thoughts on which the building of "Independent Indonesia which is eternal and everlasting" is built. Muhammad Yamin in the Proclamation and Constitution (1951) said, "Pancasila is a permanent spiritual object and has not changed since the Jakarta Charter up to the present."

Today

If today in the midst of Indonesian citizens there are those who reject Pancasila and or secretly undermine the state ideology, they are not only blind to the journey of their nation, but they also never want to learn from other nations which never stop to be in dispute. There is no doubt, la raiba fih: they are myopic in both religion and state. Not getting cultural and religious guidance, or national disposition. They are still huddled in unusual paths while endlessly inheriting an unclear and ahistorical caliphate system.

We do not turn a blind eye that the Pancasila in the history of the nation had been deflected only to serve the interests of the authorities, its interpretation was monopolized simply to serve a regime of an order. However, this bitter experience did not necessarily become a reason to jointly bury Pancasila, but instead it becomes its own challenge how the rulers today and in the future will be able in a democratic system prove that Pancasila is truly "powerful" and every principle is effective to cure Indonesian problems. Pancasila becomes a truth not only verbally, but provides inspiration for the authorities to immediately prove our objectives in the nation and state.

An institution such as the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency is not just preaching Pancasila and increasing ceremonial activities, but can instill Pancasila values into the oxygen of life. It becomes hemoglobin which circulates red blood cells that spread to all citizens. Giving birth to Pancasila leaders who deserve to become examples in all things, so that when someone asks for an example of who are  actually Pancasila people, we easily appoint those people. And, isn\'t education through exemplary the most effective way? Leading by example is the noble path of prophethood.

Asep Salahudin, Expert Staff of the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency; Vice Rector for Academic Affairs of IAILM Suryalaya, Tasikmalaya