Pancasila principles neglected
Pancasila principles neglected
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has not fully implemented Pancasila,
50 years after the state ideology was formulated, former home
affairs minister Gen. (ret.) Rudini said on Saturday.
This is despite elaborate attempts to understand and
conceptualize the ideology, Rudini told a seminar organized by a
youth organization to mark the "birth" of Pancasila.
"Our nation can be really strong if we truly live up to, and
implement, Pancasila. But 50 years since it was formulated, we
can sense that the principles contained therein have not been
fully observed," said Rudini, who now heads the Institute for
Strategic Studies of Indonesia, an independent think tank.
Rudini was one of several speakers who addressed the one-day
seminar. The event was organized by Indonesia Muda, a youth study
group on nation building issues, at Gedung Joang 45. Other
speakers included elderly statesmen Roeslan Abdulgani and
Solichin G.P. and economist Sri Edi Swasono.
In the 1950s and 1960s, June 1 was nationally commemorated as
the anniversary of Pancasila. It was widely accepted at the time
that Sukarno, then a young revolutionary leader, introduced the
ideology in a public speech on June 1, 1945.
However, in the 1970s, the tradition to mark the anniversary
ceased after some historians disputed that the ideology was
founded by Sukarno. They said Pancasila was the product of a
group of scholars before Sukarno incorporated it in his speech.
The discussion on Saturday, however, stayed away from the
controversy about the origins of Pancasila.
Rudini said Indonesia has not fully lived up to all the five
principles contained in Pancasila: belief in one God,
humanitarianism, national unity, democracy through consensus, and
social justice.
He pointed out that the first principle does not only refer to
people's rights to practice religion in accordance with their
faith, it also includes religious teachings and values.
Such values, he argued, appear to have been eroded. Many
people, including the elite members of society, "shamelessly"
conduct acts in denial of the Supreme Being, he said.
Collusion, corruption, greed, injustices and other deplorable
acts have become rampant at a time when the country is
proclaiming to become more religious, he said.
On the second principle, Rudini said Indonesia may become more
affluent, but it is culturally "poor" because of the many
injustices still found in society.
Indonesia's failure to involve all its citizens in the
national development process is undermining national unity, the
third principle in Pancasila, Rudini said. "The incidents in East
Timor, Timika in Irian Jaya and many others are a reflection of
this (failure)," he said.
On democracy, Rudini said there is a growing intolerance among
people to differences of opinion. These differences are not
settled through consensus as mandated under Pancasila, he added.
On the principle of social justice for all people of
Indonesia, he said the country appears to be moving away from
that goal. "More and more people are finding it difficult to
obtain justice in this country," he said.
The seminar was attended by about 200 people, including well-
known critics of the government and human rights activists and
students. Among the crowd were former Jakarta governor Ali
Sadikin, Soepeni of the New Indonesian Nationalist Party, Harjono
Tjitrosoebono of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, former
freedom fighter S.K. Trimurti and several retired generals. (16)