When I woke up yesterday, I saw my roommates rushing to down
stair. All dress up and ready for work by 07:00AM. I said to him, "What
makes you go so early?" Then he replied, "We got ceremony to
commemorate the 1st October."
We always pay our respect to the fallen "martyrs" every year in Indonesia since 1965. Commemoration of 1st October also known as "Hari Kesaktian Pancasila" which means Sacred Pancasila Day. Based on the New Order regime's claim, Sacred Pancasila Day is about commemoration to the alleged Communist coup attempt that began the day before, on September 30, 1965. Six generals and a lieutenant were killed by members of what became known as the G30S movement. It was supposedly aiming to take power and replace Pancasila with communism.
So what is about Pancasila? What make it so sacred? In 1945, President Soekarno promulgated Pancasila as philosophical foundation of the Indonesian state. Soekarno's political philosophy was mainly a fusion of elements of socialism, nationalism and monotheism. The founding fathers made Pancasila as state's ideology in order to embrace the multicultural and ethnicity in Indonesia. Pancasila consist of belief in almighty God, just and civilized humanity, unity of Indonesia, democracy guided by the inner wisdom of deliberations amongst representatives, and social justice for all of the people of Indonesia.
In my opinion, the true 'sacred' meaning of Pancasila has died that day since the Soekarno regime was overthrown. Then the meaning of Pancasila was distorted under the News Order regime. Since then, we actually celebrate Sacred Pancasila Day as the foundation of Soeharto’s militaristic and authoritarian regime and the triumph over his political enemies. Under the New Order, the vagueness of Pancasila was exploited by Suharto's government to justify their actions and to condemn their opponents as "anti-Pancasila". Just like how New Order regime address Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) as an enemy of the state and had became scapegoat to justifying New Order rule over Nationalist Socialism ideology that Soekarno had.
(You can read the history lesson about G30S on my friend's Facebook notes
through http://on.fb.me/18Ip7ft)We always pay our respect to the fallen "martyrs" every year in Indonesia since 1965. Commemoration of 1st October also known as "Hari Kesaktian Pancasila" which means Sacred Pancasila Day. Based on the New Order regime's claim, Sacred Pancasila Day is about commemoration to the alleged Communist coup attempt that began the day before, on September 30, 1965. Six generals and a lieutenant were killed by members of what became known as the G30S movement. It was supposedly aiming to take power and replace Pancasila with communism.
So what is about Pancasila? What make it so sacred? In 1945, President Soekarno promulgated Pancasila as philosophical foundation of the Indonesian state. Soekarno's political philosophy was mainly a fusion of elements of socialism, nationalism and monotheism. The founding fathers made Pancasila as state's ideology in order to embrace the multicultural and ethnicity in Indonesia. Pancasila consist of belief in almighty God, just and civilized humanity, unity of Indonesia, democracy guided by the inner wisdom of deliberations amongst representatives, and social justice for all of the people of Indonesia.
In my opinion, the true 'sacred' meaning of Pancasila has died that day since the Soekarno regime was overthrown. Then the meaning of Pancasila was distorted under the News Order regime. Since then, we actually celebrate Sacred Pancasila Day as the foundation of Soeharto’s militaristic and authoritarian regime and the triumph over his political enemies. Under the New Order, the vagueness of Pancasila was exploited by Suharto's government to justify their actions and to condemn their opponents as "anti-Pancasila". Just like how New Order regime address Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) as an enemy of the state and had became scapegoat to justifying New Order rule over Nationalist Socialism ideology that Soekarno had.
It has been 48 years passed and now we facing this new age of reformation. But
many Indonesian youth still prefer with the New Order story version. Pancasila
Sacred Day ought not to be interpreted as tool to condemn other party. We cannot
escaped the fact that G30S has become the greatest scandal happened in
Indonesia. It caused a lot of social turmoil, suspicions towards other,
bloodshed, massacres, and an overthrown regime. It produces a lot of debates
and speculation over what the truth lay behind that event. There is no certain
answer for that question until now.
But as a generation who lived in a reformation era, I encourage you to seek for the answers on your own. Educate yourself and do not simply fall to what government had told you. Just like what Foucault thought us to be aware the presence of this 'regime of truth'. We accepted G30S as a nation tragedy and we must not let it happen again. So what we could do? We ought to contemplate our purpose as a nation and implementing the true meaning of Pancasila, just like what our founding fathers wanted us to do. We have to make Pancasila as our politically and socially guidelines. Is it just to say Indonesia is believing in almighty God, according to one’s own religion and faith but in reality some churches were shut down and yet endured social resistance or how the Ahmadis, who have been killed, had their mosques and houses burned down, and have become refugees in their own country?
But as a generation who lived in a reformation era, I encourage you to seek for the answers on your own. Educate yourself and do not simply fall to what government had told you. Just like what Foucault thought us to be aware the presence of this 'regime of truth'. We accepted G30S as a nation tragedy and we must not let it happen again. So what we could do? We ought to contemplate our purpose as a nation and implementing the true meaning of Pancasila, just like what our founding fathers wanted us to do. We have to make Pancasila as our politically and socially guidelines. Is it just to say Indonesia is believing in almighty God, according to one’s own religion and faith but in reality some churches were shut down and yet endured social resistance or how the Ahmadis, who have been killed, had their mosques and houses burned down, and have become refugees in their own country?
How we can achieve a just and
civilized humanity if the state not give justice to Munir family and other murdered
human rights activists, the families of the hundreds of thousands killed in
1965, the many other victims of unsolved human rights violations in Indonesia.
We also facing a fragile sense of unity of Indonesia since the government were
not trying to embrace minority, such as Chinese or Arabs, or how the government
centralized its development in Java and left the people of Papua and Ambon out
of it. How can we say proudly that this nation is guided by democracy and by the inner
wisdom of deliberations amongst representatives when scandal and corruption
filled the House of Representatives? And the last one, how can Social justice
for all of the people of Indonesia achieved when those Sidoarjo families who
lost their homes, possessions and security as a result of the Lapindo mudflow
in 2006 still haven’t been properly compensated. In fact, the majority of the
poor still struggle with food and health security; let alone education and
housing.
This nation got a lot of housework to do and it's up to our generation to make things right and just. It is our task to embody the true spirit of Pancasila in our daily life. Personally I refused to commemorate 1st of October as the starting point from a series of movements that destroy all lines, destruction of the old era and the development of a new era, an era of massacres of old ways supporters and the creation of new order loyalist. We should make this day as a reflection for our self and ask for the sincerity to implement Pancasila philosophy in our nation, just like how it had been formulated by the founding fathers.
Reading source:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancasila_%28politics%29
- http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/10/01/pancasila-%E2%80%98sacred%E2%80%99-when-it%E2%80%99s-convenient.html
This nation got a lot of housework to do and it's up to our generation to make things right and just. It is our task to embody the true spirit of Pancasila in our daily life. Personally I refused to commemorate 1st of October as the starting point from a series of movements that destroy all lines, destruction of the old era and the development of a new era, an era of massacres of old ways supporters and the creation of new order loyalist. We should make this day as a reflection for our self and ask for the sincerity to implement Pancasila philosophy in our nation, just like how it had been formulated by the founding fathers.
Reading source:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancasila_%28politics%29
- http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/10/01/pancasila-%E2%80%98sacred%E2%80%99-when-it%E2%80%99s-convenient.html
No comments:
Post a Comment