There is a request to temporarily postpone the draft Pancasila Ideology Bill (RUU HIP) discussion that is currently discussed by the government and the Commission I of the RI House of Representatives. It postponed until there is an open, comprehensive and transparent study at the public level. The government and the Commission I of the RI House of Representatives need to reconsider the substance of the content; in other words, they need to strengthen its content in terms of philosophical, ideological and sociological studies.
Those are things discussed in the webinar entitled HIP Bill on How to Reason People and the State on Monday (6/22). The event organized by the Pancasila Study Center of Universitas Gadjah Mada, together with the Pancasila Study / Study Center located in various universities in Indonesia, gathered various thoughts from academics related to the dynamics of discussion of the HIP Bill that developed in the community,
UGM Head of Pancasila Study Center (PSP), Agus Wahyudi, Ph.D., said that the current Pancasila webinar was designed to accommodate various ideas from academics in tertiary institutions, especially Pancasila study/study centres in some universities. This event is not only responding to the Pancasila Ideology Bills Bill (HIP Bill) but brought together various thinkers, observers, researchers, and educators, as well as research institutions in the field of Pancasila to share their ideas and thoughts.
Bayu Dwi Anggono from the Pancasila Study Center and the Constitution of the University of Jember said that the understanding of communism, as well as the ideology of khilafat, became a severe threat to Pancasila. According to him, the HIP Bill is a strategy to instil and maintain the values of Pancasila so that all state and community organizers applied this bill.
Andreas from PSP Parahyangan Catholic University has another view that the government should temporarily stop releasing the HIP bill considering it is still in the Covid-19 Pandemic situation. “This gap period must be carried out in a comprehensive study because we are still in the ineffective condition,” he said.
The Center for Pancasila Studies of Malang State University, Slamet Sujud Purnawanjat, stated that Pancasila as the basis of the state as a way of life and as an ideology of the Indonesian state is something that cannot be changed and needs no debate. He also emphasized that a good and right understanding needs to be nurtured continuously given the nation’s character, which still causes problems. Based on the aspects of urgency, the procedures and substance contained in several articles of the HIP Bill need to be examined, revised, and criticized and reformulated by putting Pancasila according to its function and position. “Then the Commission I of the RI House of Representatives needs to involve academics including the Pancasila Study Center, religious leaders, community leaders to formulate in the ideology of Pancasila,” he emphasized.
Prof. Dr. Aholiab Watloly from the Pancasila Study Center at Pattimura University explained that the fundamental problem of nationality and statehood today is that there is an ideological vacuum, the state is absent from issues of social justice and social and community conflicts. He believes that the HIP Bill, according to him, does not reduce Pancasila but strengthens Pancasila in organizing social life while strengthening religious education and citizenship. Even so, he proposed that the discussion of the bill not be continued until there was an open and in-depth study process.
Author: Gusti Grehenson
Translator: Natasa A