Seventy-nine years old of the Republic of Indonesia. Nusantara (Ancient Indonesia) was born from a 350 year long historical struggle against European colonialism.
Six European countries that have colonized Indonesia include; Portuguese (1509-1595), Spanish (1521-1529), Dutch (1602-1942), French (1806-1811), English (1811-1816), and Japanese (1942-1945).
Indonesia became a nation since the youth congress on 27-28 October 1928, and became a formal country since it was proclaimed on 17 August 1945, by Sukarno and Hatta.
Indonesia blossomed into a nation and state along with the struggle between liberal ideologies, communism and fascism.
Sukarno, Hatta and the country’s founding fathers agreed to create the basis of the state, Pancasila, which had a spirit out of liberal ideas (capitalism), socialism (communism) and fascism.
In its development, since the old order, the new order, the reform order, until now, Pancasila has experienced various interpretations. Sukarno interpreted Pancasila as an ideology (tool) of unity to fight imperialism and capitalism. Suharto interpreted it as a tool to unite the nation and state against Communism and as the basis for the spirit of development.
Since 1998, Pancasila has been interpreted as the basis for organizing a state based on a liberal interpretation. Along with the rise and popularity of the conservative political Islamic movement, Pancasila was managed into a body equivalent to a ministry called the Pancasila Development Ideology Agency (Badan Pembina Ideologi Pancasila-BPIP). Even though it has experienced various interpretations, the birth of Pancasila came from the accumulated history of the suffering of the Indonesian people. This is what Pancasila is called the Mandate of People’s Suffering (Amanah Penderitaan Rakyat-APR) as result of colonialism.
This book was written in order to document various interpretations of Pancasila and rewrite the history of the dynamics of Pancasila’s development.
May, 2024
Writer
Muhammad Ma’ruf