Chief Justice Anwar Usman giving a keynote speech at a national seminar by the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP) of the Muhammadiyah University of Mataram and the Constitutional Court, Thursday (12/30/2021) at the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.
Thursday, December 30, 2021 | 10:43 WIB
MATARAM, Public Relations—Since the colonial era, the youth and students have been playing their roles in the nation. On October 28, 1928, the Second Youth Congress led to the declaration of the Youth Pledge, which not only marked the unity of all of the nation’s youth but also a milestone in the nation’s history toward the Independence on August 17, 1945.
“A beginning for the formation of a national identity, Pancasila, authentically extracted from the experience of living together,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman at a national seminar on “Developing Characteristics of Pancasila Students” on Thursday, December 30, 2021 at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP) of the Muhammadiyah University of Mataram (UMM), in which the faculty collaborated with the Constitutional Court.
National Identity
Justice Anwar said that, despite the change of generations, the youth’s spirit to unite the nation and homeland has remained and must continue. Without it, Indonesia would lose a crucial element—national identity. Experts have reminded of the importance of national identity, including Francis Fukuyama in his book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018). National Identity, Fukuyama states, plays an important role in the unity of a nation. Without it, a nation potentially experiences chaos and social disintegration. For this reason, Indonesia must strengthen its identity, as the basic building and unifying ideology of the state—Pancasila.
Among the functions of national identity proposed by Fukuyama, physical security, trust, and reinforcing democracy are three important functions required for active and effective democracy. A strong national identity is needed to improve national stability and to prevent disintegration. It also leads to high public trust, which in the end will result in political participation of the citizens.
“This means, the democratic state that we are currently fighting for, requires a complete national identity. Fortunately, God Almighty has bestowed on us all Pancasila, an ideology that is able to survive, binds a great and diverse nation, and is able to become the basic values and guidelines for the communal life of all citizens,” Justice Anwar stressed.
Islamic Culture
The chief justice added that the fact that Indonesia’s population is mostly Muslims, the society’s culture and customs are inseparable from Islamic culture. Although Indonesia is not an Islamic country or a country based on religion, Islamic values are inseparable from the life of the nation and state and from the Constitution.
For example, he said, Pancasila as the nation’s view of life formed by the founders was formulated amid the views of life of other nations, including that of Islam. At that time, even today, global life cannot be separated from secularism, capitalism, liberalism, and religion, which dominate the majority of views on life in various countries. The influence of various nations’ views of life was reflected in Bung Karno’s speech on June 1, 1945, where he said that every country had its own national view of life that the state was founded on.
Indonesia’s founders tried to formulate values that were in accordance with the philosophy and way of life of the Indonesian people—Pancasila. It is not just a state philosophy, but one whose values are enshrined in all of the norms of the 1945 Constitution. It is the results of ijtihad of Muslim leaders during the struggle for independence. In fact, many figures and scholars have stated that Pancasila is the greatest gift from Muslims and Islamic leaders to this republic.
“We certainly still remember the history of the formation of Pancasila, originally called the Jakarta Charter. The first principle read ‘One Supreme God with the obligation to carry out Islamic law for its adherents.’ The formulation of the first precept of Pancasila ultimately eliminated the seven words ‘with the obligation to carry out Islamic law for its adherents’ in order to maintain national unity and respect for other Indonesian citizens from non-Muslim religious groups. This generosity of Muslims was considered by many to be of a very high national value,” Justice Anwar said.
Moreover, he added, the Pancasila precepts on which the norms of the Constitution are based bear similarities to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah at the time of Prophet Muhammad. The treaty was drafted in 628 CE when the Medina Muslims wanted to make haj pilgrimage in Mecca. The Quraysh, who were non-Muslims, initially saw the pilgrimage as an attack against them. The two parties then resolved the issue by drawing up a treaty. The Medina Muslims led by Prophet Muhammad SAW and the Quraysh of Mecca led by Suhayl ibn Amr had a long discussion.
“In the discussion, Prophet Muhammad SAW was gentle and wise, which his companions even deemed too yielding. At the time, with the high number of trained Muslim soldiers it would not have been hard for the Medina Muslims to defeat the Quraysh in a short period by force. However, the prophet preferred gentleness and patience,” Justice Anwar said.
The Muslims’ proposal of the phrase bismillahirrahmanirrahim (in the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful) was rejected by Suhayl, who reasoned that rahman and rahim did not exist in his culture. Then, it was changed to bismikallahuma (in the name of God). Next, Suhayl rejected the phrase ‘Muhammad Rasulullah’ because the Quraysh did not acknowledge Muhammad as a prophet. It was then changed to ‘Muhammad bin Abdullah.’
The prophet’s gentleness and patience, Justice Anwar added, brought great results, one of them being the spread of Islam throughout the Arabs. If force had been used in the treaty instead of diplomacy, it would have negatively impacted the spread of Islam.
This echoed the discussion on Pancasila by Muslim leaders at the time. Despite being a majority, the Muslim leaders yielded for the sake of unity and nationalism.
Writer : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 01/06/2022 11:20 WIB
Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.
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