Civic education mandatory for all citizens: Bill
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Ministry of Defense is drafting a bill on civic education -- a program which would be introduced to all Indonesian citizens as early as kindergarten.
According to the draft, all civil servants and employees working with state and private institutions, as well as members of mass organizations and political parties, are also required to join the program.
The draft also stipulates criminal sanctions to be imposed on individuals who try to avoid the program or for the management or officials of institutions who fail to introduce the program in their workplaces.
Each individual who undergoes the program is expected to understand the principles of nationalism, from the basic knowledge of the state ideology Pancasila and the form of the unitary Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), to the spirit of patriotism, democracy and moral values.
"Indonesia has found its identity in diversity ever since our founding fathers proclaimed independence on Aug. 17, 1945.
"We have never defined ourselves by a specific religion, race or ethnic group," Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said on Wednesday in a speech marking the opening of a one-day seminar to discuss the draft of the civic education bill.
Several noted academicians, including Indria Samego from the National Institute of Science (LIPI) and Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra who heads Jakarta-based Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic Institute, participated in the seminar to share ideas on the concept of civic education.
"The main goals of the civic education program are to create a civilized society which promotes peace and tolerance; a sense of honesty, justice and compassion; and upholds the supremacy of the law," the draft says.
"In our country's public domain, there has never been one interest group that dominates another. We are not like Malaysia or Brunei, which officially are Islamic states with the majority of their citizens being Malay.
"Neither are we the former Yugoslavia, whose largest ethnic group, the Serbs, had a dominant role in all sectors, nor the former Soviet Union, whose ethnic group, the Russians, became the most influential group there," he added.
The draft is one of the proposed pieces of legislation on a defense and security system, which is currently being defined by the ministry.
Besides the draft on civic education, there are also draft laws on military tribunals, state defense and security, civilian reserve and intelligence -- on which the ministry has promised to formulate "a more humane law on intelligence".