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State universities 'adopt' morning Pancasila readings per new ministerial rule
The education ministry has become the latest to impose a rule on celebrating Pancasila through regular ceremonial events to start the workday, as part of an ongoing bureaucratic trend to reinforce the civil service's commitment to upholding the state ideology.
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A craftsman makes the Garuda Pancasila national emblem out of fiberglass on June 7, 2021 at a workshop in Cipinang, East Jakarta. (JP/P.J. Leo)
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tate universities are to begin Wednesday and Friday mornings with a mandatory reading of the state ideology Pancasila, according to an instruction from the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry.
The rule, set out in a ministerial circular dated July 21, also applies to all civil servants at public institutions under the ministry’s authority, including the film censorship body, regardless of whether they are working from home or at the office.
The new provision also requires all relevant civil servants to raise the national flag on Mondays, accompanied by the national anthem and a reading of the Constitution. The national anthem must also be played on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These ceremonial activities are to be part of the morning assembly held at 10 a.m. on workdays.
The activities are not to disrupt public services and must follow the health protocols, so they are likely to be held virtually for the most part, as many civil servants are still working from home under the current COVID-19 mobility restrictions.
“The assembly [rituals] started at the ministry on July 21, [held] virtually,” Doddy Zulkifli Indra Atmaja, a spokesperson for the ministry’s higher education directorate general, told The Jakarta Post on Monday by text message.
The new rule from the education ministry follows an Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry regulation on June 14, which outlines a requirement for civil servants to honor Pancasila in an aim to spur nationalist sentiment and adherence to the state ideology and the 1945 Constitution.
Read also: Pancasila under threat of politicization
