State Secretary, Prof. Dr. Pratikno, M.Soc.Sc., asked religious leaders, cultural experts and academics to find effective method to diseminate the values of Pancasila and the spirit of nationhood as well as re-explore the theological, philosophical, historical, political and juridical foundations of Pancasila amidst the millenial generation.
“The majority of our population is young people. So, we need to find an effective method in the millenium era, different from before,” said Minister Pratikno, becoming keynote speaker in the dialogue that was themed Pancasila as State Unifier: Interfaith Review, on Saturday (19/8) in the Senate Hall UGM.
Instilling the values of Pancasila, in his opinion, is not only enough done through education, course, and mass media because the amount of information coming to the young people is massive in the digital era. “The amount of information is much more than the human cognitive capacities,” he said.
The introduction of Pancasila values by educators and religious figures has to be orientated towards the young people, hence effective method. The millenial generation, said the Minister, is the generation that does not like long texts but short texts, image and video. He emphasised it was important to prevent that the information coming to the young generation is negative, radical, threatening pluralism. So, positive information that builds nationhood needs to be spread instead. Academics and religious leaders need to play role in that direction.
Furthermore he said that the biggest internet users in Indonesia are mostly aged 10 - 34 years old. Only 2% of users are 55 years old. Internet users at university reaches 89.7 percent, secondary education students 69,8 percent and workers 58,4 percent.
Chairman of Nurul Ummahat Islamic boarding school in Kotagede Yogyakarta, Abdul Muhaimin, said the effort of Indonesia to grow the spirit of nationhoold faces three challenges: nationalism, religiosity and ethnicity. “Currently, these three elements are being contradicted against each other,” he said.
He viewed that it was important to revitalise Pancasila in the global era. He added the relations between religion and Pancasila have been resolved because the state ideology of Pancasila and Islam are two things that can go hand in hand and support each other. Both do not and cannot be contradicted against each other. “People cannot opt for one only because there is not one principle in Pancasila that contradicts Islam,” he said.
The value in Pancasila, according to Rev. Wahyu Nugroho, is in line with Christian values. Pancasila, the Reverend said, is the basic awareness of the founding fathers that Indonesia is not a country based on religion. It also reaffirms the pluralistic characteristics of the country that has to be protected under the Pancasila. “As the basic values of Indonesia, Pancasila ought to be lived up by anyone that identifies themselves as Indonesian,” he said.