Soekarno's dream of Indonesia as a "gotong royong state" must be upheld by relying on the inseparable twin face of politics, the politics of humanity and the politics of compassion.
By
SUKIDI
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Sukidi
In the midst of uncertainty, social inequality, and suffering, politics is getting further away from its goal to promote the people's welfare. Instead of fulfilling universal human needs, politics has given rise to social conflicts and sharpened social polarization. Consequently, individuals in our society are not only separated and alienated from one another, but also deeply involved in hatred and enmity among their fellow children of the nation.
In fact, "the Indonesian state that we have established is negara gotong royong [a state based on mutual cooperation]", former president Soekarno said in his speech on 1 June 1945. During his speech, he also advised that "we should first complete this task, effort and deed together" and secondly, practice “the principle of mutual cooperation between the rich and the not rich, between Muslims and Christians, between non-Indonesians and peranakan [people of mixed ethnicity] who became the Indonesian nation”.
As the main character of the nation’s identity, gotong royong, which reflects authentic social virtues, is inclusive and universal beyond religious, racial, ethnic, and even national boundaries.
When social ties are torn apart and the suffering of many people become the nation’s main concern, the spirit of gotong royong binds us, one citizen with another, to join hands and work together in realizing one, equal, just and prosperous humanity for the progress of Indonesia.
With full awareness of the interdependence of human beings and nations, the principle of gotong royong requires every citizen to be actively involved together in assuming humanitarian responsibility for the misery and suffering of other citizens.
The spirit of gotong royong, which Soekarno aspired to instill as a social ethic for the Indonesian people, was also the cause of the moral and intellectual anxiety of Scottish-born philosopher, political economy pioneer and a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, Adam Smith (1723-1790), when reflecting on the social virtues that shaped the moral character of British society. However, Smith is better known to the public as the “father of modern economics” through his magnum opus, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776).
Smith was a moral and social philosopher par excellence who took a serious interest in human problems by regarding our capacity to involve ourselves in the suffering and hopes of others through generosity and compassion.
HERYUNANTO
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Smith's vision of humanity, as reflected in his deep sympathy for the suffering of others, is documented in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, published in 1759. Smith described the importance of compassion as the basic and natural quality that leads humans to be morally and emotionally sensitive to the suffering of others.
“Compassion,” Smith writes in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, reflects “the emotion we feel for the suffering of other people when we see them [in person] or to simply imagine them in a very lively way”.
In this context, the key words “compassion”, “pity”, “sympathy”, and “generosity” in The Theory of Moral Sentiments reflect some of the natural qualities of the human character that lead us to moral sensitivity and sublime humanity towards the misery and suffering of others.
According to Gertrude Himmelfarb in The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments (2005), a number of social virtues became the main character of the English enlightenment, typically binding human beings to one another in a bond of social virtues that were essential to foster mutual and collective sensitivity towards the misery and suffering of others. Humanity and compassion put us in the same position as others who are suffering through life, so we can feel the same bitterness of life.
“By imagination,” writes Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, “we put ourselves in his situation and we conceive ourselves to endure all the same suffering and as we enter, as it were, into his body and, in some ways, become the same person as him.”
Finally, Soekarno's dream of Indonesia as a "gotong royong state" must be upheld by relying on the inseparable twin face of politics, the politics of humanity and the politics of compassion, so that the state and power will not be present in society in a repressive and inhuman form against its own citizens.
Sukidi,thinker on diversity
This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.
