Is Indonesia Pancasila (?)

Garuda as the national emblem and core values of Indonesia

        

On 6 and 9 August 1945, the two atomic bombs dropped in two cities of Japan Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A few days later, the unconditional Japan surrender to the Allied Forces leaded Indonesian people to make use of this opportunity to proclaim their independence from Japan’s colonialism on 17 August 1945. Along with this patriotic event, it also signified the creation of Garuda, the national emblem of Indonesia. The main part of this emblem is the existence of the national motto ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ translated as “Unity in Diversity”, along with the five principles represented as 5 symbols of Indonesia’s national ideology, which is called Pancasila. Pancasila consists of two words, "panca" meaning five, and "sila" meaning value. According to Barnes (2007) the five principle of Pancasila can be loosely translated as ‘belief in one God, nationalism, humanitarianism, social justice and democracy’.

1.   BELIEF IN ONE GOD

2.   JUST AND CIVILIZED HUMANITY

3.   THE NATIONAL UNITY OF INDONESIA

4.   DEMOCRACY GUIDED BY THE INNER WISDOM IN THE UNANIMITYARISING FROM DELIBERATIONS AMONG REPRESENTATIVES

5.   SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR ALL INDONESIANS

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world with more than 18,000 islands. These make Indonesia rich with various cultures, ethnics, and races. As the world’s 4th largest country in the world, with a population of 261.1 million (World Bank, 2016), it is necessary to hold these five core values of toleration among diversity to unify the country.

Disintegration of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika

On the morning of 1 June 2016, Jokowi as the current president of Indonesia signed the Presidential Decree No. 24 of 2016 established ‘Pancasila Day’ in order to commemorate the father of Pancasila’s famous speech back on 1 June 1945. Sadly, this celebration moment also followed by various events that are related to the intolerance issues among Indonesians.
Starting from the lack of intolerance among people with different religions during the local governor election, the lack of strict regulation from the government against radical tending organizations, fanaticism against certain ethnics, until propaganda efforts by certain groups to divide the unity of Indonesia.

The creation of the five principles which represented the ideology of Indonesia, along with the strong statement of unity in diversity as the national motto, supposed to hold Indonesia to become one unify country regardless the difference among the people’s culture an background. Most of the citizen just know what is Pancasila without further understanding inside the values of Pancasila. According to Beetham (1991) Legitimacy requires the demonstration of common interest that unites the dominant and subordinate. The understanding values inside the five principles are no longer applied to several groups such as Indonesian far right-wing Sunni Islamist organizations. They would like to pursue alternative values and beliefs with no tolerance with non-islamist leader no matter what. Therefore, reflecting on what has been happened these days, and reflecting on the fact that the common interest between the current ruling elites and the citizens has no longer exist, the legitimacy of Pancasila in these days needs to be questioned.

Does the current elites apply the value of Pancasila enough?

Have the power to rule a country through certain process to become either a head of state or a head of government, become a prime minister or become a president, become a sovereign prince or become a minister of state like in Monaco, become a federal president or become a federal chancellor like in Austria do not assure legitimation. According to Beetham (1991) power is not necessary legitimate, so in order for any regime to be legitimate, there must be some ‘core values and beliefs’ that unite the governing (elites) and the governed (common persons). 

Most current elites in Indonesia who represent the dominant failed to gain its legitimacy by simply did not fully receive trust from the citizen who represent the subordinate based on Beetham’s theory of dominant and subordinate roles. Some may argue that there are elites who actually act accordingly. For instance, the case of the former Mayor of the capital city Jakarta which known for his honesty and his firm character, or the case of Bandung city with its famous mayor who favored by the people, and the case of the current ruling royal house The Sultan Hamengkoeboewono of the Yogyakarta Special Region of Indonesia which has their own kingdom and “president”.

Ruling elites in other regions of Indonesia show the opposite pattern such as irresponsible leader with its shameless corruption records. During the election period for example, citizen are promised and given money by certain candidates to win the election over another. Of course this is against the fourth principle of Pancasila. The principle of elections that are supposed to be direct, public, free, secret, honest, and fair are also not yet being practiced in Indonesia. According to Jones (2005), for applying democratic Pancasila religious freedom and ethnicity tolerance need to be run effectively in order to support social stability. However, what is happening right now are instead of focus on their own quality, candidate usually attack others by emphasis race and ethnics difference, and by saying that the same ethnic should not choose the candidate who is from other ethnic or believe in other faiths. Of course, it is an advantage for the candidate those from the majority ethnic, which does not necessarily mean that they are more qualified, compared to the other candidate that may come from the minority ethnics.

The fourth principle of Pancasila, which talks about how democracy should have work based on the concept of government of the people by the people and for the people must be done properly. In fact, the Indonesian people have not yet fully understood what the actual value inside the five principles are, so that people who are not responsible for their voting rights take this advantage. Ironically, the latest occurring trend issues in Indonesia are actually the one that contrary to the value of Pancasila itself. Therefore, to make Indonesia a place where all faiths can flourish in peace the value of Pancasila must be rediscovered and reapplied to revive the true democratic pancasila.

Reference

Barnes, R. H. (2007). 'Public Religion' and the Pancasila-Based State of Indonesia: An Ethnical and Sociological Analysis. Journal Of Islamic Studies, 18(2), 278-281.

Beetham, D. (1991). The legitimation of power. London, UK: Macmillan.

Jones, N. (2005). REDISCOVERING PANCASILA : RELIGION IN INDONESIA'S PUBLIC SQUARE. Brandywine Review Of Faith & International Affairs, 3(1), 23-30.

World Bank. (2016). Indonesia. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/country/indonesia