T

he government’s talk of declaring Pancasila Day on June 1 a national holiday seems to reveal a yawning gap between the past and today’s regime in terms of methods of instilling moral guidance in citizens and upholding a supreme source of law.

In the early period of the New Order the government banned commemoration of Pancasila Day and instead promoted Pancasila Sanctity Day every Oct. 1 to mark the defeat of communism. The same regime then forced school students to memorize 36 points of moral conduct prescribed by the People’s Consultative Assembly and all civil servants and new university students had to attend a course on Pancasila.

Gone is the era of brainwashing by an authoritarian state that exchanged freedom for stability. Back then Pancasila was misused by certain organizations only to secure legitimacy with which to practice thuggery.

But does the democracy that we regained following the fall of the New Order in 1998 change the way the nation understands and, more importantly, upholds the state ideology?

We are now witnessing a new wave of phobia against “communism”, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) freedoms, anti-mainstream Islam, and other movements. These phobias are aimed at forcing one’s will on others using the power of the mob, which obviously contravenes the five principles of Pancasila. The use of force and disrespect for human rights is as rampant as ever in Indonesia, a country that ironically claims to be a tolerant, friendly society.

The demands of the reformasi movement included a trial of former president Soeharto and his cronies for the corruption, collusion and nepotism that earned us the label as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. But corruption today is more massive, systematic and structured than it used to be, involving all three branches of power, regardless of the extraordinary measures in place for fighting graft.

Enforcement of the anticorruption law has been unable to ensnare the powerful or those who, due to their political clout, enjoy impunity. Nothing much has changed in the way we deal with the untouchables, although Pancasila promotes the rule of law and equality before the law.

There is still a missing link between the Pancasila that we and our children know from history and civics books and the reality that we face every day. The five principles of belief in God, humanity, national unity, democracy and social justice that our founding fathers approved as they were envisioning a nation called Indonesia 70 years ago have remained a set of unrealized ideals.

A Pancasila-guided Indonesia cannot be said to be a utopia either. That we accept the national song
“Garuda Pancasila” that was composed by the leftist Sudharnoto in honor of the state ideology, or that social volunteerism prevails whenever devastating natural disasters strike, are the evidence that Indonesia is a fertile ground for Pancasila values to grow.

When we commemorate Pancasila Day today, let us just recall the brave hearts and sacrifice of our forefathers in choosing Pancasila as the unifying ideal for a diverse Indonesia.