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Weaponizing Pancasila
A few days before the country celebrated the 74th anniversary of its independence, the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister organized a curious event: a loyalty oath declaration by family members of the long-defunct Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) and Darul Islam/Indonesian Islamic Army (DI/TII) rebel groups
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span>A few days before the country celebrated the 74th anniversary of its independence, the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister organized a curious event: a loyalty oath declaration by family members of the long-defunct Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) and Darul Islam/Indonesian Islamic Army (DI/TII) rebel groups.
The participants, including Sarjono Kartosuwiryo, the son of former DI/TII leader Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwiryo, read out a pledge to the state ideology Pancasila and kissed the Indonesian flag, as witnessed by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto at his office in Central Jakarta.
The pledge was delivered in the midst of a government crackdown on groups and individuals accused of being anti-Pancasila, particularly those associated with Islamic radicalism.
Sarjono, who was only 5 years old when the rebellion ended in 1962, said that he was approached by the office about making the pledge about a month before the event.
He said that he had participated in the Children of the Nation Gathering Forum since its inception in 2003 and had even joined the National People’s Concern Party (PPRN) in 2012 before it eventually merged into Wiranto’s own Hanura Party.
“I asked [Wiranto]: What other loyalty oath do I need to give?” Sarjono told The Jakarta Post recently. “But Wiranto said that the oath was not just meant for my benefit but for others who claim to represent DI/TII.”
After the recitation of the pledge, Wiranto said that while the NII might have been disestablished decades ago, the embryo of the anti-Pancasila and anti-Republic of Indonesia movements still existed to this day.
“We hope that this move will be followed by those who are still dreaming of replacing Indonesia with another kind of nation, or replacing Pancasila with another ideology,” the former Army general said.
In the past, accusations of being anti-Pancasila have usually been leveled at leftist groups.
While security forces and vigilantes have continued to seize books and disrupt academic discussions deemed to promote communism, in recent years the government has also turned its eye toward right-wing Muslim groups such as the now-banned Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI).
Following a 2019 presidential election race fraught with identity politics, the government has seemingly amped up its efforts to target civil servants and military personnel suspected of embracing radical views.
A case in point is that of an 18-year-old Military Academy cadet of French descent named Enzo Zenz Allie, who initially gained popularity because of a viral video showing him conversing in French with Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto.
Enzo’s new-found fame soon turned sour, however, when a photograph allegedly depicting the cadet carrying a black flag bearing the Islamic creed, a symbol associated with HTI and other Islamist groups, made the rounds online.
A rights activist, Wahyudi Djafar of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), said that the government’s approach toward groups and individuals it alleges to be anti-Pancasila was heavy-handed and reminiscent of New Order methods.
Pancasila itself went through several iterations before it was codified into the form seen in government offices, heard in flag ceremonies and taught in schools today.
The ideology was first proposed by founding father Sukarno in a speech entitled “The Birth of Pancasila” on June 1, 1945.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) historian Asvi Warman Adam said that Pancasila was formulated in an effort to unite the various ethnicities and religions in nascent Indonesia.
“Since the beginning in 1945, Pancasila was devised as a uniting, centrist ideology that was neither at the extreme right nor extreme left of the political spectrum,” he said.
Asvi said that the removal of the Jakarta Charter’s “seven words” from the first verse of Pancasila was a very deliberate move in order to prevent non-Muslim-majority regions in eastern Indonesia from seceding.
However, over the years several Muslim groups have advocated for the restoration of the Jakarta Charter and, earlier this month, conservative ulemas grouped under the National Movement to Safeguard the Ulema Fatwa (GNPF) called for a Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) based on sharia.
Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko said that such an idea could not be implemented because the nation’s ideology was “final”.
