Pancasila’s Sanctity and a ‘Historical Accident’
Pancasila has a very strong position as the basis for and the ideology of the state. Those who try to oppose it are increasingly running out of breath. And then in 1967, Pancasila Sanctity Day was declared.
I tend to agree with the theory of Italian historian and thinker Benedetto Croce (1866-1952), who said that history was written for the living, not the dead.
The rationale behind this theory is rather logical. A person who has left this mortal plane is finished with their work, because their life has ended on its own. Therefore, this discussion about the Pancasila Sanctity Day, which is commemorated every 1 Oct., is written intentionally for our present-day interests, especially among the nation\'s elite. Who knows if this interpretation of mine will be taken into consideration when reading about the historical event that occurred on 27 Sept. 1967, the date when Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 153/1967 on Pancasila Sanctity Day was issued.The basis for considering the Keppres needs to quote points one and two, as it is done below, so that the historical events that led to the decree’s birth becomes clear.
They read as follows:
(1) That thanks to the vigilance and perseverance of the Indonesian people, the treachery of the G30S/PKI that attempted to destroy Pancasila could be crushed and foiled.
(2) That the date of 1 October 1965 consequently has special characteristics and features as a day to further strengthen and embrace a belief in the truth and sanctity of Pancasila as the only life perspective that can unite the entirety of the nation, the state and the people of Indonesia. This Presidential Decree is signed by Acting President Gen. Soeharto on 27 September 1967 in Jakarta.
Before this, the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) was dissolved on 12 March 1966 by Gen. Soeharto as the holder of the Supersemar (Soekarno’s mandate to Soeharto to restore peace and order in Indonesia, dated 11 March 1966).
Mysterious
The Supersemar is no less mysterious. Officially, it was President Soekarno who signed this document at Bogor Palace at the request of three Army generals acting on behalf of Gen. Soeharto: Muhammad Jusuf, Amir Machmud, and Basuki Rahmat. However, disbanding the PKI on the basis of the Supersemar was external to the will of President Soekarno. The political situation at that time was very complicated and dangerous.
People might question the period of time that passed between the black event on 1 Oct. 1965 and the issuance of Keppres No. 153 in September 1967, nearly two years later. This means that the new rulers of that era took months to realize that the sanctity of Pancasila was necessary to save the nation and the state.
Also read:
> Focus on the Application of Pancasila Values
If this awareness had surfaced on 1 Oct. 1965, or when the bodies of the victims were found in the old well at Lubang Buaya on 4 Oct. 1965, the sanctity of Pancasila would have echoed even more powerfully because the moment was still full of high emotion.
If the situation was not handled carefully, civil war could potentially erupt. At that time, attention was focused on the search for the G30S victims
However, the human memory does not recall all at once, let alone during the heated political situation at the beginning of October 1965 that was threatening to boil over. If the situation was not handled carefully, civil war could potentially erupt. At that time, attention was focused on the search for the G30S victims.
In order to understand the background to Pancasila Sanctity Day, its prologue must be read. As we know, the party that attempted a coup under the leadership of Lt. Col. Untung Syamsuri, by killing six generals and one officer of the Indonesian Army in Jakarta, called this movement the G30S (30 September Movement), without any ties to the PKI.
Based on MPRS Decree No. XIII/1966, President Soekarno assigned Lt. Gen. Suharto as the bearer of MPR Decree No. IX/1966 to form the Ampera Cabinet. Lieutenant General Suharto became Chairman of the Presidium of the cabinet. Bung Karno was announcing the composition of the cabinet on July 25, 1966. Lt. Gen. Suharto and Adam Malik sat listening.
This was added by the party that crushed the movement, namely the anti-coup forces led by Maj. Gen. Soeharto, who was the Commander of the Army Strategic Reserve (Pangkostrad) at that time. In Yogyakarta was another a plot to assassinate the Military Command Post (Korem) 072 commander and chief of staff (Kasrem) on 2 Oct. 1965.
Lt. Col. Untung also formed a Revolutionary Council by delegating the Dwikora Cabinet under the leadership of President Soekarno. For me, the event is still blanketed by a thick fog, because the Revolutionary Council, according to its official statement, was formed to save the Great Leader of the Revolution (PBR) Bung Karno from the coup d\'état of the Council of Generals, which still has no clear definition up to the present day.
Possibly what was meant by “Council of Generals” were the high-ranking officers who were killed on the morning of 1 Oct. 1965, their bodies then dragged to Lubang Buaya. The one target who survived was Gen. A.H. Nasution, but his daughter was shot and killed.
President Soekarno himself did not name the incident G30S/PKI, but as Gestok (1 October Movement) after the date it happened. The original name is the 30 September Movement, according to the documents of the perpetrators. What was more surprising was the fact that Untung, a field commander, suddenly emerged as a figure in politics, a sphere that was unfamiliar to him. So a question arises: Who was the real actor behind this tempest?
President Soekarno was in a very difficult position at that time. As a result, there have been fleeting allegations that President Soekarno knew about the incident in advance. These allegations do not make sense, because as the president, it was impossible for him to allow his cabinet to be delegated by Lt. Col. Untung, who hailed from the Cakrabirawa troop of the Presidential Palace guard.
Uncovering a ‘historical accident’
Due to the explosion of the national commotion, the political map of Indonesia changed dramatically. President Soekarno, as the creator of Pancasila, had been the target of the very hot political crisis. When Pancasila Sanctity Day was declared, the officially recognized president of Indonesia was still President Soekarno, but his powers had been taken over by the acting president who had issued that decree.
This is where the historical accident happened. I strongly believed that Bung Karno knew nothing about the plan to declare Pancasila Sanctity Day.
Visitors take pictures in front of the Pancasila Sakti Monument, Lubang Buaya Village, Cipayung District, East Jakarta, Tuesday (29/9/2020).
In the Guided Democracy era (1959-1965/1966), the center of political power in Indonesia resided in three places: President Soekarno, the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI, especially the Army), and the PKI. President Soekarno tried to stand in the middle to control the other two, as the Army leadership had long been suspicious of the PKI\'s maneuvers. Therefore, point one in the consideration of the Presidential Decree on Pancasila Sanctity Day must be placed within the framework of the center of political power.
In my reading, the PKI\'s movement was not carefully monitored by the TNI leadership, so some parties immediately believed in the issue of the Council of Generals. The negligence on the part of the TNI led to the brutal murders of the abovementioned generals.
The twisted thread of the transfer of power has not been fully unraveled to date, even though it happened 56 years ago. The controversy about the main actor of the incident has not been debated to the fullest extend. However, the view that the PKI was simply dragged into this bloody event is highly sought after, as is the case with the author of the “Cornell Paper” dated 10 Jan. 1966 and his supporters in Indonesia.
Why are we not willing to uncover this bloody event with a cool head? Not to reopen old wounds, but to make peace with the past, however bitter it may be, for the sake of complete national reconciliation.
Didie SW
The big names connected with the incident, such as Soekarno, A.H. Nasution, Soeharto, Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, and a number of others are all gone. Some of them left written notes that are important for us to look at in an effort to comprehend this national tragedy.
It is likewise for the CC PKI trio of D.N. Aidit, M.H. Lukman, and Njoto, who did not leave many meaningful testimonies about the incident. Therefore, to conduct a historical reconstruction of G30S, it is necessary to form an independent team consisting of historians, key witnesses (if any are still alive), and other relevant experts.
This job will definitely not be easy. The political and psychological obstacles have not entirely gone away, but the job can certainly be done. This nation must not be left in confusion for too long. The further we become from the incident, the more blurred the historical lens will become.
Back to Pancasila Sanctity Day, as based on Keppres No. 153/1967. Five years ago, Keppres No. 24 dated 1 June 2016 was issued on the Birthday of Pancasila, which was also made a national holiday. The decree was signed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. The two presidential decrees take the same position, even though Keppres No. 153/1967 was signed by acting President Gen. Soeharto. Despite the same stance, the two Keppres are set in very different historical situations. The first Keppres was issued during a situation of fear, while the second Presidential Decree was issued during a relatively normal situation.
Differences of opinion existed between President Soekarno and Soeharto.in their responses to the G30S movement.
There are some who think that Keppres No. 153/1967 aims to obscure Bung Karno\'s role in connection to Pancasila, something that is completely impossible because of the very strong historical facts. In Keppres No. 24 dated 1 June 2016, Bung Karno\'s position as Pancasila creator was reinstated 100 percent. The issue that still bothers me is that Keppres No. 153/1967 had apparently been passed without President Soekarno\'s approval. Differences of opinion existed between President Soekarno and Soeharto.in their responses to the G30S movement.
The New Order regime confirmed that the PKI was the initiator and main actor of this treachery.
Also read:
> The Paralyzed Pancasila Ideology
> Test of Pancasila Implementation
On the other hand, President Soekarno said in the supplementary section of the Nawaksara speech on 10 Jan. 1967, while also condemning the Gestok, that there were three main actors responsible for the incident, to quote:
"My careful investigation shows that the G30S incident was caused by a meeting of three reasons, namely: a) the blunder of the PKI leadership, b) Nekolim\'s subversive shrewdness, c) the fact that elements that were not right existed. (Soekarno, The Revolution Hasn\'t Finished, a collection of speeches by President Soekarno: 30 September 1965-Supplementary to Nawaksara. Yogyakarta: Ombak, 2005, p. 720)”
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Residents take pictures with the background of the faces of the Heroes of the Revolution after attending the Pancasila Sanctity Day Ceremony in front of the Grahadi State Building, Surabaya, East Java, Tuesday (10/1/2019).
However, President Soekarno did not explain these three reasons any further, particularly a point regarding the mistaken action by the PKI leadership of that era, led by top figure D.N. Aidit. At the time of the Nawaksara speech, Aidit had been arrested in Solo on 21 Nov. and then shot dead by Col. Yasir Hadibroto on 22 Nov. 1965 in Boyolali. Aidit repeatedly asked Col. Yasir to allow him to meet with President Soekarno, but his request was denied.
Indonesia’s future
Pancasila has a very strong position as the basis for and the ideology of the state. Those who try to oppose it are increasingly running out of breath. And then in 1967, Pancasila Sanctity Day was declared. As I wrote in the article “Lumpuhnya Pancasila” (Paralysis of Pancasila, Kompas, 31/5/2021), the toughest and greatest challenge to the basis and ideology of this country lies in its success or failure in overseeing the movement of modern Indonesian history.
As I have observed thus far, the noble values of Pancasila are still mostly verbal. The very urgent problem now is to uphold these noble values with concrete action in all walks of life: economic, political, social, legal, and moral.
If my idea is correct that President Soekarno was unaware of the plan to declare Pancasila Sanctity Day, this can be categorized as a minor accident in Indonesian history. However, it would be a big and terrible
accident if the state and nation still fails to implement Pancasila with action going towards the 100th anniversary of Indonesian independence, in the form of upholding social justice for all Indonesian people.
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Ahmad Syafii Maarif
It is likely that Indonesia will still exist then, but the structure of its sovereignty is fragile, undermined by foreign powers and their domestic agents who continue to keep an eye on the wealth of this archipelagic country. This is the message that I have always conveyed to the nation\'s elite, from the uppermost to the lowest levels. Pancasila is too noble to be trifled with!
Ahmad Syafii Maarif, General Chairman of Muhammadiyah 1998-2005
(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo).
