Finding Consensus on Indonesia, Again

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

A release of pigeons opens the cultural campaign “Show your Indonesian-ness”, which involves 2,000 dancers wearing traditional clothes on Jl. Jenderal Sudirman in Senayan, Jakarta, during the car-free hours on Sunday (12/8/2018). The event was initiated by the Belantara Budaya Indonesia Foundation to commemorate Indonesia’s 73rd anniversary and welcome the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — In facing increasingly difficult global challenges, the nation-state identity of Indonesia must be reformulated in order to reaffirm the nation’s collective visions and goals. Without the active engagement and collaboration of all of its citizens, Indonesia will never truly be a collective home for everyone. It is the strong bond between citizens that will help the country make it through various global challenges.

Climate change, limited natural resources, economic imbalances and the rise of protectionism among major political powers are just some of the problems that reaffirm the need to strengthen Indonesian identity. “Who and what is Indonesia? How do we answer this? There is no single draft that can comprehensively and authoritatively answer this,” cultural observer Radhar Panca Dahana said in his opening speech at the 3^rd Indonesian Cultural Consensus (MBI) General Assembly 2018 in Jakarta on Friday (23/11/2018). The event will end on Nov. 25.

The general assembly is the culmination of a series of events held since September this year in collaboration between MBI, Kompas, Media Indonesia, Gatra, the University of Indonesia and the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN).

Attending the event were a number of national figures, writers and cultural observers, including Meutia Hatta, Sri-Edi Swasono, Anhar Gonggong, Putu Wijaya, Acil Bimbo, Hawe Setiawan and Jean Couteau. Participants were divided into five commissions, namely on culture, nationalism, ideology, constitution and state affairs.

Radhar said efforts to affirm the Indonesian identity would be important as contemporary thinkers often espoused new ideas based on founding fathers’ concepts without any attempt to reassess and recontextualize them. The formulation of the state ideology Pancasila is often sanctified and seen as sacred, making people take it for granted and reluctant to dig deeper into its philosophy.

Unfinished

Radhar said the process of becoming Indonesia remained unfinished. What the founding fathers had built was merely the canopy or umbrella that covered people from hundreds of different ethnicities. This unfinished process is prone to problems if the subsequent generations do not continue building the structure into a collective home, complete with its various parts.

“So far, we have not been building this home. We are just happy to be together under the same umbrella called Indonesia, hoping that the umbrella will be strong enough to protect us from rain and other problems. Sadly, we have yet to build the home. Therefore, the ontological question on what Indonesia is becomes important. All questions lead to culture. Only a nation with a strong bond can survive anything,” Radhar said.

Senior historian Anhar Gonggong said courage and freedom of thought would be necessary for a nation to reopen discussions on nation-state concepts, including state ideology and goals. Unclear goals will only confuse everyone and lead to aimless development programs.

“What do we want to achieve and where do we want to go in moving forward? This has been unclear as we are too afraid to talk about it. This is despite the preamble of the 1945 Constitution clearly stating that Indonesia gained its independence in order to become a just and prosperous society. Now, after 73 years of independence, no administration has ever succeeded in defining this ‘just and prosperous society’,” Anhar said.

Respect differences

From a different perspective, senior poet and playwright Putu Wijaya said Indonesia was an extraordinary miracle. The opportunity the founding fathers snatched to declare independence must be respected and appreciated as, otherwise, the Indonesian nation-state will never exist. Therefore, efforts to sharpen differences that lead to endless debates on Indonesian identity should be avoided. “People can have different opinions. However, as a union of different people, it is impossible to come up with a general definition on what Indonesia is. There is only one Indonesia, within which there are differences that everyone must respect,” he said.

The core ideas of the 3^rd MBI General Assembly 2018 will be formulated from the recommendations based on discussions of the five commissions, namely culture, nationalism, ideology, constitution and state affairs. The constitution commission, for instance, will determine whether or not any amendment on the constitution is actually necessary.

“There are three general streams. First is the wish to amend the constitution further with improvements, reorganization and a fifth amendment. Second is status quo with the current version of the constitution but with improvements in laws. Third is the possibility of reinstating the original 1945 Constitution,” said MBI constitution commission head Refly Harun.

(REK)