Soekarno and the Social Centrism of Pancasila

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

Soekarno\'s mural adorns the wall in Larangan Selatan Village, Tangerang City, Banten, on Saturday (9/9/2017).

The response of Soekarno\'s eldest son, Guntur Soekarnoputra (Kompas, 15/9/2020), to the writing of Prof. Ariel Heryanto, who questioned the success of Sukarno\'s socialism (Kompas, 8/8/2020), is interesting to respond to.

In his piece, Prof. Ariel reflects on the discourse on Pancasila, which has heated up after the Reform era. Prof. Ariel may have written the piece as a criticism of the contemporary discourse on Pancasila, especially the controversy surrounding the Pancasila Ideology Guidelines Bill (RUU).

With a post-modernist perspective, Prof. Ariel doubts the various "revivals of Pancasila" which, according to him, could be absurd. "Is Pancasila an ideology? It depends on the conception of the person who give the answer. What is its character? Socialist? No, neither it is communist. Capitalist? No. Not even Islamist. I don\'t know,” he said skeptically. Then he concluded, "Sukarno tried with socialism. He failed.”

Reading Prof. Ariel\'s doubts, the writer (of this article) remembered a similar doubt expressed by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana. At a meeting of the Konstituante (Constitutional Assembly), he stated, "Pancasila is not a solid philosophical formula. It contains scattered values, even contradicting each other. Pancasila is therefore merely a compromise to please all members of the meeting.”

It was not semantic confusion, but a synthesis of the antithesis of big ideas.

Responding to this, Roeslan Abdulgani from the Indonesian National Party (PNI) denied the assertion. According to him, Pancasila was a unified view that was arranged in a balanced manner. It was not semantic confusion, but a synthesis of the antithesis of big ideas. In Pancasila there was a synthesis between the ideas of divinity, humanity, nationality, democracy and social justice, which formed a separate world view (Weltanschauung). While Prof. Ariel called Pancasila a "delusional" concept, in fact Pancasila transcends capitalism, communism and Islamism.

Then what is it like? Here is the importance of Sukarno\'s thinking as the originator of the Pancasila idea.

Sukarno\'s success

When Prof. Ariel mentioned that Soekarno had failed to make Pancasila more applicable through socialism, he ignored Soekarno\'s big role as the originator of the Pancasila idea. Why is Soekarno called the originator of Pancasila? wasn\'t he just someone who “dug up and recovered” Pancasila? Yes, Soekarno initiated the idea of Pancasila by exploring its basic tenet through intellectual exercises during the struggle against colonialism.

Read also: Pancasila

Then what was Soekarno\'s success? First, as the originator of the idea, he succeeded in guarding his idea in an agreement with the cofounders of the nation so that it was ratified and became the basis of the state after some improvements.

Read also: A Sense of Nationhood

If we look back, Soekarno\'s role existed in three stages. First, he introduced the idea of Pancasila on June 1, 1945. Second, he became chairman of the Panitia Sembilan (Committee of Nine) in charge of formulating the basis of the state based on his June 1 speech, on June 22, 1945. This committee was a result of Soekarno\'s improvisation to balance the composition of the nationalist and Islamic camps.

KOMPAS/ALIF ICHWAN

A woman observes a mural of the Garuda bird symbol in the Pasar Minggu area, Jakarta, Sunday (2/2/2020). This mural reminds us as Indonesian people to apply the values of Pancasila in the life of the nation and state.

Why? Because the original committee formed by the Agency for the Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence (BPUPKI), totaling eight people, was “lame” in term of its composition. The Islamic group was only represented by Kiai Wahid Hasyim of Nahdlatul Ulama and Ki Bagus Hadikusumo of Muhammadiyah. While the nationalist group had six representatives.

Third, Sukarno became chairman of the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (PPKI) which ratified the final formulation of Pancasila.

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Was there any substantial difference between the idea of the June 1 Pancasila and the official formulation of the Pancasila on Aug. 18, 1945? No. Sukarno\'s five tenets were accepted without criticism. What the Panitia Sembilan did was rearrange the position of those tenets. Divinity, which initially was the root (or fifth tenet of Pancasila), was made into the source (the first tenet). Nationality, which was originally the first tenet, was made into the third tenet. Meanwhile, Soekarno\'s idea of internationalism or humanity (the second tenet of the June 1 version) was reduced to humanity. This is not a problem, because Soekarno\'s internationalism is commensurate with the universalism of humanity. "My nationalism is humanity," said Soekarno, quoting Mahatma Gandhi.

Soekarno\'s second success was in presenting Pancasila as a sociocentric idea. What is that? It is the basic idea of the state and the ideology of the nation that focuses on the ideal of forming a just societal structure. This was the reason why Soekarno squeezed Pancasila into Trisila (three tenets), in the form of socionationalism, sociodemocracy and divinity. The word socio, according to Soekarno, referred to the meaning of society, which contained the concept of taking sides with the oppressed society and the desire to emancipate it towards social justice. This meant that nationalism had to be formed into an awareness that the society was oppressed and so must democracy.

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The placement of social justice or, in Soekarno\'s language, social welfare (sociale rechtvaardigheid) at the center of nationalism and democracy is what makes the Pancasila a sociocentric idea. What is left is nationalism and sociocentric democracy which is built on an ethical foundation of divinity. Therefore, the principle of nationalism plus humanity transforms into socionationalism. The tenets of democracy plus social welfare transform into sociodemocracy. Combined with the divine ethical foundation, Pancasila comes into being.

Not always. Because sociocentrism can be a criticism of the practice of state socialism, which, for example, had been tried by President Soekarno himself.

So, where is the synthesis of sociocentrism? It happened in Soekarno\'s success in synthesizing nationalism, democracy, socialism and theism into one solid view, namely Pancasila. Is sociocentrism the same as socialism? Not always. Because sociocentrism can be a criticism of the practice of state socialism, which, for example, had been tried by President Soekarno himself.

Sociocentrism, therefore, goes beyond the Manipol-USDEK socialistic interpretation of Pancasila. Sociocentrism is a unique perspective of Pancasila that makes the foundation of this country an anti-state-centrism idea. Why? Because the ethical area is in the public domain (res publica), where people always fight for social justice.

"De-Soekarnoization"

In line with the spirit of Mr. Guntur\'s response, the author of this article also regrets the generalist views of Prof. Ariel. Indeed, the experiment of socialism during the Guided Democracy era cannot be called successful. However, the sociocentric spirit of Soekarno\'s Pancasila idea cannot be ignored.

Read also: The State, Markets and Religions

Unfortunately, this sociocentric vision of Pancasila has long been buried as a result of the "de-Soekarnoization" project. Through this project, Sukarno\'s Pancasila thoughts were buried. There remain "ashes" that we have inherited, which are read full of incomprehension. For example, is Trisila different from Pancasila so that Article 7 Paragraph 2 of the draft law on HIP can replace Pancasila with these three principles? In fact, Trisila is not a different idea but a "conceptual feeling" from Pancasila. Has Soekarno "deconsecrated divinity" because he put this value as the fifth tenet? In fact, Soekarno actually made divinity the root (of Pancasila) by placing these values at the bottom.

Kompas

Syaiful Arif

Although President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo issued Presidential Decree No. 24/2016 on the birthday of Pancasila on June 1, the "de-Sokarnoization" idea of Pancasila has not been "corrected". In fact, when we recognize the June 1, 1945, speech as the womb of the birth of Pancasila, the thoughts in that speech should serve as a guideline for our understanding of Pancasila. Why has this understanding not developed in society? Everything depends on our willingness to honestly look at history and science.

Syaiful Arif, Director of the Center for the Study of Pancasila Thought; Expert for the Presidential Work Unit on the Development of Pancasila Ideology (2017-2018)