Politics of Triviality

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

People of different faiths chat at the Garuda Pancasila Statue at the Jakarta Cathedral, where they are gathered for a breaking-of-the-fast event under the theme "Strengthening Tolerance, Brotherhood and Solidarity of Humanity" on Friday (1/6/2018). The gathering on Pancasila Day reflects the strength of interfaith harmony in Indonesia, which is important to strengthen the unity and cohesion of the nation.

Our politics is headed toward political decay. Problems and solutions no longer connect. This nation is tormented by many fundamental issues that require continuous and substantive answers. However, our political activities are becoming ever more trapped in uproars over trivialities that hold sustainable destructive power during the five-yearly ritual of the elections.

The critical point of our political world can be seen through the three main factors that determine the survival of a state-nation (civilization): the mental-spiritual, the institutional-political and the material-technological factors. The first is commonly considered the cultural domain, while the second and third are commonly considered to belong to the domain of civilization.

We can borrow from Arnold Toynbee and Oswald Spengler to explain the mental-spiritual factor. In studying the factors that led to the rise and fall of around 20 civilizations, Toynbee attributed the fall of a civilization to that society’s weakening spiritual vision. Spengler said the same thing. The decline of Western civilization was due to that culture’s diminishing "soul" (spirit, ethics and mindset), a vital element of any civilization.

Daren Acemoglu and James A Robinson provided an explanation for the institutional-political realm, in their jointly authored Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012). They say that the main cause of a failed state-nation is not a decline in power or shortage of resources, but mismanagement – or an erroneous design for institutionalization and governance.

Many thinkers have posed explanations on the material-technological realm. According to Karl Marx, the ideas and society of the group that possesses economic and technological dominance will strongly affect the ideas and societies of other groups. For Toynbee, even though the spiritual vision presents the greatest defense for a civilization to endure, only those civilizations that possess advanced technologies can influence other cultures. Furthermore, utilitarian thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham emphasized the importance of “the greatest happiness of the greatest number” as the basis for social unity and public virtue.

Pancasila has envisioned these three realms. The core of the mental-spiritual (cultural) realm is contained in its first, second and third principles. The core of the political-political realm is its fourth principle, and the core of the material-technological realm is its fifth principle.

Pancasila directs mental-spiritual development toward becoming a nation that is characterized by a spiritual force that is humane, egalitarian, independent, responsible and free from hedonistic materialism, and is able to establish unity (mutual cooperation) in the spirit of public service (sacrifice).

It directs the development of sociopolitical institutions toward becoming a sovereign nation established upon the ideals of a populist democracy, consensual deliberation and wisdom through democratic institutions designed to strengthen unity (unitary state) and social justice (welfare state).

The material-technological development is directed toward becoming an independent and prosperous nation through the creation of an independent economy based on mutual assistance with state control over the "bounty of the commonwealth", while adding value to the bounty through knowledge and technology.

Developing these three realms relies on three social agents: education and knowledge, politics and policymaking, the economy and production. In the context of Indonesia\'s problems today, these three agents carry out the following priority tasks.

The priority of education and knowledge is to improve the mental-spiritual realm by revitalizing character education, especially at the level of basic education. Character education strives to unite the human thoughts, feelings and wills that encourage the energy to produce good, correct and beautiful objects and actions. Character education is expected to foster a new generation of Indonesians that possesses character and creativity.

The priority of politics-policymaking is to organize the democratic system of governance within the framework of strengthening national unity and social justice. Democratic capitalism must be stopped, regional autonomy must be restructured, the representative system must be more inclusive by restoring a consultative assembly that accommodates liberal-individual rights (the House of Representatives, DPR), community rights (community representatives) and territorial rights (regional representatives), while strengthening the state welfare system to promote mutual cooperation.

The economy-production priority is to develop an economic spirit of mutual assistance (cooperatives). Do not allow upstream to downstream production to be concentrated in one hand. Inclusive growth can also be enhanced through encouraging technological mastery according to Indonesian potentials and characteristics. To realize this, technological developments must move from state research institutions to industry and corporations, and be integrated with the manufacturing industry.

Attending to these three factors and three social agencies is betting on the future of the nation-state. Unfortunately, these have all escaped the attention of the campaign agendas that have buried them under a mountain of lies and petty disputes. (YUDI LATIF, Executive, National Alliance)