Understanding the State Policy Guidelines

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Yudi Latif

The discourse on reinstating the State Policy Guidelines (GBHN) has reemerged to cause widespread controversy. Debates have ensued around the vague understanding of the term “guideline”. People interpret this term as they like without any attempt to dig into the term’s original meaning as intended by our founding fathers.Prior to the Constitutional amendment, Article 3 of the 1945 Constitution stipulated: “The People’s Consultative Assembly [MPR] establishes the Constitution and the State Policy Guidelines”. Therefore, “State Policy Guideline” is defined as different than the Constitution. It must also be contrasted from laws, as lawmaking does not fall under the authority of the MPR, but instead under the authority of the President and the House of Representatives (DPR).

In the minds of our founding fathers, the efforts to achieve Indonesia’s national goals as stipulated in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution must be based on three fundamental consensus: Pancasila as the basic ideology, the Constitution as the legal norm and the GBHN as the fundamental policy.

If Pancasila contains philosophical principles and the Constitution contains normative principles, then the GBHN contains instructional principles. Pancasila’s philosophical values are abstract. The Constitution’s articles are also mostly fundamental norms without any instructions on how to institutionalize them.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

President Joko Widodo (center, in blue suit) takes a group selfie as Vice President Jusuf Kalla peers over his shoulder on Friday (16/8/2019) at the Nusantara Building of the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. The President was departing the House of Representatives (DPR) 2019-2020 opening session, wherehe submitted the 2020 Draft State Budget.

Therefore, a guideline containing basic instructions on how to institutionalize the values of Pancasila and the Constitution is necessary so various public institutions can guide state administrators in formulating and carrying out development policies in a directed, well-planned and integrated way. As an instructional principle, the GBHN must be used as guide for making laws.

Several countries include these instructional principles in their constitutions. Examples include the current versions of the Indian and Filipino constitutions, which are inspired by articles in the 1937 Irish Constitution on instructional principles for social policies. The Irish Constitution existed before the founding fathers compiled the 1945 Constitution. Almost certainly, people of the caliber of Soepomo and Muhammad Yamin, with their expansive erudition and in-depth studies of constitutional matters, were familiar with it. If the 1945 Constitution does not include instructional principles in its articles, there must be a reason for this.

First, it is about the lack of time, which led Soepomo to later include the explanatory chapter in the 1945 Constitution that contains instructional principles. Second, the scope of the GBHN is more expansive and elaborate than instructional principles that the Constitution can accommodate. Third, the contents of the GBHN are more dynamic in responding to developments than the Constitution. In his statement in the Grand Assembly of the Agency for the Preparatory Works for Indonesian Independence (BPUPKI) on 15 July 1945, Soepomo said, “Considering social dynamics, the People’s Consultative Assembly observes everything that is happening and all streams of ideas once every five years, and [then] determines what guidelines must be used in moving forward.”

KOMPAS/HARIS FIRDAUS

A mass choir involving 1,211 members of 37 choir groups sing during the National Oration and Aubade Pancasila on Wednesday (14/8/2019) at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta. Dozens of schools, universities, government agencies and community organizations participated in the event, which aimed to foster patriotism and instill the values of Pancasila among the public.

The existence of the GBHN derives from the idea that the designs of institutionalized democracy and state governance must be in line with an intentional social transformation agenda. The direction of social transformation as intended by the Pancasila political system is transforming the colonialist-capitalist social structure, filled with injustices and inequalities, into a just and prosperous society.

The political efforts to establish a just society are carried out through the legislature. Through the strategic alliance of all representatives in the legislature, fundamental policy frameworks that contain instructional guidelines of resource allocation are created. In a capitalist system, the function of economic allocation is left to the market mechanism; in a statist system, this function is left to dictatorial command. In a Pancasila system, the function is ensured through public deliberation and consensus, which is then compiled in the GBHN.

By delving into the original intended meaning and the practices of state governance of our founding fathers, we can conclude that the State Policy Guidelines comprises two types of guides: an ideological one and a strategic-technocratic one. The ideological guideline (below the Constitution, but above other laws) contains fundamental guides in translating the state philosophy and constitutional articles into laws and development policies at all tiers. The strategic guideline contains incremental and continuous development plans that are thorough, integrated and long-term within spatial priorities.

The plan to reinstate the GBHN is gaining support, but this does not mean that the format and content of the State Guidelines must be the same as the old GBHNs.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

The national Garuda emblem takes center stage during the “Unity in Diversity” dance on Monday (19/8/2019) at the Grand Sahid Jaya Hotel in Jakarta. The performance enlivened the national leadership gathering and dialogue, themed "Pancasila Our Bond: One Island, One Nation".

The GBHN can be compiled in a combined deductive and inductive approach. The deductive approach is needed in compiling the instructional principles that are ideological. The inductive approach is needed to compile instructional principles that are more strategic-technocratic, by way of absorbing grassroots aspirations through the development planning forums (Musrenbang) of the post-Reform era. This way, the development plans can be streamlined to the guiding values and at the same time, remain relevant to the people’s concrete needs.

YUDI LATIF, Director of Pancasila School