Chief Executive of UKP Pancasila, Yudi Latif delivering material to participants of the International Short Course on the Constitution 2017, Wednesday (15/11) at Ayana Mid Plaza Hotel. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

On the third day of the short course for delegates of foreign constitutional courts, the Constitutional Court (MK) deliver lectures by several Indonesian Constitutional experts in the Jasmine Room of the Ayana Midplaza Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday (15/11). First, Chairman of Presidential Working Unit on Pancasila Ideological Training (UKP-PIP) Yudi Latif delivered a paper entitled "Pancasila as a Unifying Ideology: Background and History."

In his presentation, Yudi said Indonesia is a plural society in an archipelago that stretches almost 5,000 kilometers from west to east and consists of more than 16,000 islands, 6,000 among which are inhabited. With such a vast territory, Yudi compared traveling across the archipelago with a trip from London to Moscow. The territory has 240 million inhabitants, as well as ethnic and cultural diversity of more than 500 different ethnic groups and 600 different languages, ​​leading to the various characteristics of the Indonesia people. Quoting Denys Lombard, "There is no place but Central Asia such as Nusantara/Indonesia that hosts and is home to the presence of all great civilizations that coexist and/or converge into a single course." Yudi described Denys’ insight of a socio-cultural nebula that formed the civilization of the Nusantara (particularly Java), namely Indianization, Islam and China, and other western schools of thought. This, according to Yudi, is what led Indonesia to grow in the cross-culture that enriched the Indonesian nation.

Yudi asserted, behind the diversity and resources, Indonesia is faced with challenges in connectivity and integration. In the presentation presented in front of 20 short course participants from several countries, Yudi stressed that all problems or challenges have been mediated by Pancasila as a unifying principle of the pluralistic Indonesian nation.

Yudi added that if the five precepts in the Pancasila were converted, just as Soekarno had said, "If I reach the core of those principles, five to three, three to one, then I will come to a native Indonesian word of gotong royong [mutual cooperation]. So on that basis, it is clear that Indonesia is a country that instills the spirit of gotong-royong," said Yudi, accompanied by MK researcher Bisariyadi as moderator.

In addition, Yudi also explained that the principle of mutual assistance should be able to develop unity in diversity. "It means that through the motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, Indonesia is not a nation that eliminates differences and diversity or rejects unity," Yudi explained. In relation to democracy, Yudi explained that the democratic principle existing in Indonesia must also contain the principle of gotong royong, which is expected to develop deliberation process and not democracy dictated by the majority or only by some elites of certain groups. Furthermore, Yudi also explained related to the principle of social welfare, gotong royongshould be able to develop broader participation and emancipation in the economic field with a spirit of brotherhood, not with the vision of welfare based on individualism-capitalism, and not that which oppresses the individual or human\\'s freedom. (Sri Pujianti/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)