As the country confronts growing sectarian tension, the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is launching a movement aimed at promoting the country’s foundational ideology of Pancasila. To this end, Jokowi has declared June 1 a national holiday, or Pancasila Day.

Jokowi kicked off the celebration on Monday by broadcasting a message via a video blog, calling on the country’s citizens to embrace the values of Pancasila, arguing that it was the only ideology that could effectively bind the nation together.

“Pancasila is in our body and soul. It is in every drop of our blood and every beat of our heart. [It is] the cement of our national unity. I am Jokowi. I am Pancasila,” Jokowi said in a 34-second video posted by the State Secretariat on Jokowi’s official YouTube account.

Late last week, the State Secretariat distributed a circular ordering every state agency to hold a flag-hoisting ceremony on June 1 and mark what it calls Pekan Pancasila (Pancasila Week), starting on Monday.

On June 1 last year, President Jokowi signed a presidential decree declaring the date of birth of Pancasila a national holiday, effective this year.

The country’s first president, Sukarno, father of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri, delivered his first speech about Pancasila on June 1, 1945, before a session of a preparatory committee for the country’s independence, touting the five principles that he claimed were a distillation of the values written into the soul of Indonesia.

The New Order regime of president Soeharto declined to recognize June 1 as the birth date of Pancasila, and opted instead to celebrate Oct. 1, the day when Soeharto began leading a campaign to crack down on members and supporters of the Indonesia Communist Party (PKI), as Pancasila Sanctity Day.

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