INDONESIA still faces major challenges in aligning ethics, ideology, and social development. Former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD said that ethical fragility has long been a problem in Indonesia.
According to him, the fragile ethics since the New Order era have given birth to the practice of corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN) which still continues today. Although, reform is expected to bring change through TAP MPR RI No. 6 of 2021 concerning the Ethics of National Life, ethical challenges remain.
“There is flexing, showing off luxury, liking to lie, extraordinary wastefulness so that what happens is the dullness of Trisakti. Political sovereignty is not substantially implemented, sometimes dictated by personal ambition,” said Mahfud in a Focus Group Discussion/FGD entitled Fragility of State Administrators’ Ethics: Social and Educational Ethics held by the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP) in Malang, East Java, Monday (2/9).
One of the efforts to eliminate the ethical problem is through strengthening Pancasila. The Professor of Constitutional Law at the Islamic University of Indonesia explained that Pancasila has 2 (two) functions, the first is to function as the basis of the state and a function other than the basis of the state.
Functioning as the basis of the state, Pancasila is a source of legal formation in Indonesia. While Pancasila functions as a medium for unifying the nation, a guideline for the nation’s life, and a view of the nation’s life.
“The function of Pancasila besides the foundation of the state is moral and ethical values. Its binding power is moral awareness, fear, and uneasiness so that the sanctions are autonomous. What is happening now, people are only afraid of Pancasila as the foundation of the state, so that it can be changed at any time by state administrators,” he said.
Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid said that Pancasila must be re-established as an ideology based on historical awareness.
“That ideology was born from various thoughts, Islamism, nationalism, humanism, democracy, and Marxism,” he said.
Through historical awareness of Pancasila, the democratization process in Indonesia must be ensured not to serve only a handful of people but to serve the interests of the people.
“The power relations system tends to be oligarchic, as proven during the New Order era, it was not beneficial for the interests of the community, it only gave rise to social inequality,” he said.
On the other hand, cultural figure, Garin Nugroho highlighted the internet which was once considered a democratic public space has now turned into a manipulative mass political arena. The director of several films noted that almost 80% of young people use the internet, but many of them are trapped in market politics that prioritize economic interests and power, not community productivity.
“There needs to be a clear ethical strategy to address this phenomenon and ensure that digital space can be used constructively,” he said, stressing that cyberspace is currently devoid of national value guidance.
Meanwhile, Siti Musdah Mulia from the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICPR), said that it is important to reform culture and laws to overcome discrimination and intolerance. Musdah also emphasized the need to reinterpret religious teachings to be in accordance with the values of Pancasila which prioritize equality, love, and respect for the environment.
“Reform a number of existing laws/regulations, namely a number of laws and regulations that are still discriminatory. ICRP has recorded that there are 147 laws/regulations that contain discriminatory and intolerant elements,” he concluded. (Z-8)
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