VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

 
The Indonesian government announced to delay the discussion about the bill of Pancasila Ideology last week. Coordinating Minister for Political, legal, and security affairs, Mahfud MD said, the government also asked the House of Representatives -DPR as the initiator of the bill to further absorb the people’s aspirations.

The bill has brought about a public controversy. It contains Trisila and Ekasila clauses for one of its reasons. The concepts of Trisila and Ekasila are contained in article 7 with three verses. Paragraph 1 mentions the main characteristics of Pancasila which are justice and social welfare with the spirit of family is that there is a combination of the principle of deity, humanity, unity, societal/political democracy and economy in one unity. Verse 2 states that the main characteristic of Pancasila is Trisila, consisting of socio-nationalism, socio-democracy, and cultural deity. Verse 3, Trisila as referred to in the paragraph (2) are crystalized in the Ekasila, i.e. mutual cooperation/assistance. The discussion about this bill was judged to have no urgency and was vulnerable to ideological conflicts. Many circles argue that the concept of Pancasila to become Trisila and Ekasila is a form of betrayal of the nation and state ideology.

The government has a number of reasons for postponing the discussion about the bill; one of which relates to its substance aspect. President Joko Widodo affirmed that the decree of the People's Consultative Assembly No. XXV/1966 is still valid, binding and no need to be questioned. Such decree cannot be revoked by the State institution or the draft rules that are rolled out by the House of Representatives themselves. The government sees that the legitimate formulation of Pancasila is the one ratified by the Preparatory Committee of Indonesian Independence on 18 August 1945. This means that there is no need for any discussion about new ideological formulation outside Pancasila.