Sukarno had the thesis that Indonesia’s independence can only be gained by way of revolution, and revolution would only succeed if supported by nationalism. So, independence without nationalism is not possible, and the other way around.
“Sukarno is not only a great politician, but also our founding father, persistent fighter, and former President. During his life, Sukarno was always actively thinking. Sukarno gave the legacy in the form of great thinkings that are useful for this nation up to this day,” said Head of Bung Karno Library, Suyatno, during his open doctoral exam at Faculty of Philosophy, Universitas Gadjah Mada.
According to Suyatno, the state of Indonesia was facing a very serious problem, which is the weakening characters of the nation. These can be seen in almost all elements of society life.
“If these are tracked down, what might be the cause of the problem, one of those is the unpreparedness of the nation in addressing and responding to globalisation. While in terms of internal perspective, the weakening characters are due to the many violations of Pancasila values by the Indonesian people,” he said.
The discussion on Pancasila had drastically dropped since the reform in 1998. In the New Order, Pancasila was overly raised with counter-productive effects, while in the reform era Pancasila was very rarely discussed as an effect of the excessive discourses of that era.
Pancasila is the culmination of Sukarno’s thoughts that always tried to unite all ideas emerging among society into a new, higher idea that is acceptable to all. Amidst these decadence, his thoughts on Indonesian nasionalism can contribute to the enhancement of nation characters education, especially Pancasila values that in essence are the characters of Indonesian nation that need to be understood and implemented again through the process of nation character education.
“In order to grow the spirit of nationalism of Indonesia which eventually leads to the strengthening of nation character education, nationalism, particularly Sukarno’s teachings, need to be taught to all levels of education,” he concluded.