Indonesia cannot exist without Pancasila, say leaders

Indonesia cannot exist without Pancasila, say leaders

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 06/01/2011 5:58 PM

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Out of the closet: Student demonstrators carry the Indonesian coat of arms at a rally in Kediri, East Java, held in connection with the anniversary of Pancasila on Wednesday. The students demanded the government reeducate the public on the five ideological principles of the Pancasila in response to growing radicalism in Indonesia. (Antara/Arief Priyono)Three Indonesian leaders, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and two former presidents, delivered speeches on the need for a revitalization of Pancasila at a ceremony in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The third president of Indonesia, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, spoke first at the Pancasila Day ceremony at the House of Representatives. He said the tenets of Pancasila had been neglected during Indonesia's recent rapid growth.

"Pancasila lies in a quiet hallway and is forgotten while Indonesia is experiencing a growing development in democracy and politics," Habibie said.

The government had failed to implement the Pancasila principle on social and economic life.

"We face a new form of colonialism. We have failed to achieve  social justice for the entire Indonesian population," he said.

The fifth president of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri, said the nation should remember Sukarno's struggle to make Pancasila a state ideology.

She said no country would prevail unless it had a well-constructed ideology. Mega named Japan, China, German, France and the US as examples of countries with strong state ideologies.

"If we fail to incorporate Pancasila in our way of life and actions, we will become part of a new capitalism and imperialism," she said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono, who spoke for 10 minutes longer than Habibie and Mega, raised similar points to the two previous speakers.

"I agree that Pancasila has been forgotten about, although history shows us that it can survive in every situation," Yudhoyono said.

He also said the government had abused several Pancasila principles in terms of social justice.

"Starting from now, we must make sure new contracts in the economy will be made carefully so that they do not abuse social justice" he said.

Responding to Mega's concerns related to public perceptions of Sukarno, Yudhoyono said Indonesia would always remember the first's president's contribution to the formation of the republic.

"Pancasila is closely associated with Sukarno. Until today, his thoughts about nationality and ideology are still brilliant," he told Mega, his main rival on the last two presidential elections.

Yudhoyono said the entire nation should support the movement to revitalize Pancasila.

"Pancasila is our living ideology, our working ideology," the President said in English.

The ceremony marked as the first event at which the three leaders delivered speeches on the same theme.

The wife of the fourth Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, Sinta Nuriyah Wahid and the Wife of the third Indonesian vice president Umar Wirahadi Kusuma, Karlina Wirahadikusuma, also attended the ceremony.

Former vice presidents Jusuf Kalla and Try Sutrisno, former House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tanjung, Muhammadiyah Islamic organization chairman Din Syamsuddin, and Wahid Institute executive director Yenny Wahid were also among the hundreds of guests at the event. (lfr)