PANCASILA

Pancasila (pronounced [pantʃaˈsila]) is the official philosophical foundation of the Indonesian state. Pancasila consists of two Old Javanese words, "pañca" meaning five, and "sīla" meaning principles. It comprises five principles held to be inseparable and interrelated:

1. Belief in the one and only God, (in Indonesian, Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa).

2. Just and civilized humanity, (in Indonesian, Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab).

3. The unity of Indonesia, (in Indonesian, Persatuan Indonesia).

4. Democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst representatives (in Indonesian, Kerakyatan Yang Dipimpin oleh Hikmat Kebijaksanaan, Dalam Permusyawaratan dan Perwakilan)

5. Social justice for all of the people of Indonesia (in Indonesian, Keadilan Sosial bagi seluruh Rakyat Indonesia)

_ West and East are two different worlds having different visions of idealism. A question arises : Is it possible that two dimensions meet and unite ? Or, is it possible to materialize the mutual understanding, a harmonization of vision and perception, so that can establish The Universal Future Human Culture ?

UNDERSTANDING THE VISIONS OF WEST AND EAST IDEALISM

West and East are two different worlds having different visions of idealism. Such a difference concerns with the basic outlooks on values, culture and psychology. This difference is caused by several factors concerning with the historical aspects from their spiritual dimension as well as the factor deriving from their geographical environmental condition.

Geographical environment of Western countries generally provide harder challenges of life in the forms of the presence of four seasons, one of them is Winter / Snow Season, less fertile land for agriculture, and relatively less amount of mining product.

Their sea natural condition is also heavier. For example, the regions located in between 30 - 60 degree Nort Latitude, such as European waters is known as having the sea condition reaching the Sea State-11 of Beaufort Scale. Compare it with the sea condition in Eastern countries commonly located at the waters around equator, its highest sea condition is Sea State-7.

In Indonesian waters for example, the sea condition of Sea State-7 has already been referred to as having huge wave. So, it can be imagined how tremendously huge the wave is at the Sea State-11.

The so heavy natural challenges have forced the western people to work and think harder to find their solutions. On the contrary, in the eastern countries, their natural challenges are relatively lighter, the land for agriculture is fertile, rich in mineral resources, and their sea condition is also more friendly. So that the eastern people are not compelled to work and think hard in fulfilling their life needs. Even, they spend more time to think about what lies behind all of this real life.

In this way, the West and East idealism become different. The Western world is relatively oriented more to the material dimensions, whereas the Eastern world is more oriented to the spiritual dimension.

Due to having the material dimension, the Western world tends to choose to control the earth, leading to the real visible world. On the other way around, due to having the spiritual dimension, the Eastern world chooses to control the spirit or the super nature, meaning it leads to the invisible world of nothingness.

Since the Western world chooses to control the earth, the real nature, it means they struggle to conquer the nature, to look for power, wealth, and honor. In order to achieve such a circumstance, the Western people must redeem it by working and thinking hard, always active and never feel satisfied, dynamic, and always creative. Outputs they achieve are : mastering the science and technology, getting the power, wealth and honor.

While the risks they bear are : tension, anxiety / worry, permanent irregularity, egoism and individualism.

Meanwhile, the Eastern world chooses to master the mind. It means they struggle to fight against the worldly influences, to master the passion, to control the desire, and to look for the inner peace in mind by means of having harmonious relation among human beings and creatures, with the universe and with their Creator. In order to achieve the aforesaid subjects, the Eastern people undergo their lives by developing the patience, not demanding too much for the rights and willing to loose the rights, high sense of belonging / togetherness, and relax.

The results possibly obtained are : harmonious with the nature, peaceful, cool, happy, and wise.

Whereas the risks that they might have are : slow, poverty, hunger, and going backwards.

PANCASILA AS WAY OF LIFE

As already been known, the Western and Eastern worlds for some decades as if had already been separated by strong “Berlin Wall”, so that between both parties there are always prejudice, unknowingness, and misunderstanding. In addition, people are frequently trapped in shallow generalization.

For majority of the Western people, the Eastern world is deemed as the world of backwardness, indolence, poverty, over-population, natural disaster and famine. On the contrary, for most of the Eastern people or Orientals, the Western world means the world of advancement of technology, state of being established, freedom, imperialism and capitalism. Starting from this contradiction, the meeting between the West and the East so far is more in the forms of suspecting, competing, conflicting, and having a war to each other rather than having good mutual understanding, knowing, cooperating, and respecting each other.

Due to heavy current of modernization, commencing from the end of decade in 1980s, the “Berlin Wall” between the West and the East can be considered as having been collapsed. “Accidentally” the actual Berlin Wall itself had collapsed as well due to the same reason. Isn’t this a kind of indication, symbolism, signal, or whatever it is, for the educated people in Western and Eastern worlds to be prepared to enter into a stage in history, in which each party can mutually know, understand, cooperate and respect each other ?

All forms of competitions and conflicts between the West and the East can be deemed as belonging to the past time when the world was not yet transparent, when the information was not yet running smoothly, so that it could be easily covered up or deviated. The materialization of community having awareness for information, logically the meeting between the West and the East can provide better outputs for mankind in the future.

Moreover, all of us have understood that the advanced technology, state of being established, and freedom certainly do not always guarantee the welfare as expected. The occurrence of endless conflict in Balkan territory, the unsettled terror in Ireland, and also various kinds of natural disasters, Tsunami and Tornado etc, and various types of new diseases such as AIDS and cancer, indicate that there is still a weakness in the Western Idealism being idolized, whose solution is possibly the need to use “wisdom” owned by the Orientals.

SYNTHESIS ON IDEALISM VISION OF THE WEST AND THE EAST

The idealism vision of the West and the East can be further understood by comparing the polarity symptoms found in universe: the existence of night and day, dark and bright, hot and cold, positive and negative, male and female, Yang and Yin (Chinese philosophy in I-ching book), 1 and 0 (basic principle in digital technical / computer technical calculation). Law of universe is determined and derives from the aforesaid two polarity principle, each cannot stand alone or mutually nullify. And so do the West and the East, each cannot stand alone or mutually nullify. Both mutually need and complete each other. The superiority of the Western world in the forms of technology, ambition, and creativity can be used to improve the condition in Eastern world. On the contrary, the superiority of the Eastern world in the forms of self control, wisdom, and discretion is also needed to cure the disease of the Western world

.

The thing required is the effort to find a way of life constituting a synthesis of both idealism visions. And as a matter of fact, the debate on the Western and Eastern ways of life has already begun since the period of national movement. The most well-known debate is the one occurring around the year 1930 between Sutan Takdir Alisyahbana and Ki Hadjar Dewantara. Such debate yielded and a climax was established on June 1, 1945 when Bung Karno presented his opinion about way of life (weltanschauung) that should be taken by the free Indonesian nation, namely Pancasila ( The Five Prinsiples).

Bung Karno stated that he dug up Pancasila from the noble values of the Indonesian people. Upon his statement Bung Karno as if sided to Ki Hadjar Dewantara. However, by inserting into Pancasila the values actually not yet been available in life of the Indonesian people in the past, namely Nationalism which was then changed into Indonesian Unity) and Democracy (then called Populist / Proletarian), he also viewed the Western people who had developed Nationalism and Democracy since the 18th century.

Based on the above discussion, an emphasis needs to be given to the opinion that the national ideology of the Indonesian people, Pancasila, basically is the synthesis of two great idealism in the world, namely the Western idealism and the Eastern idealism. As a synthesis of two great idealism in the world, Pancasila as if would like to unite and synchronize all philosophical values of life deriving either from the religious values or beliefs of human being in universe.

Pancasila as the synthesis of two great idealism in the world, it means that Pancasila is The Noah's Ark.

1. Belief in the one and only God.

2. Just and civilized humanity.

3. The unity of the world.

4. Democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst representatives.

5. Social justice for all of the people of the world.

Therefore, the principal content of Pancasila lies in its very close relation with the aforesaid religious values and beliefs. The late Professor DR. Hamka, a great Indonesian Islamic teacher, known as having tender-heartedness, in his presentation in Islamic Seminar held in Kebangsaan University Kualalumpur, on March 11, 1981 among other stated as follows:

“The aim of Pancasila is to suggest to each religion follower to practice his religion seriously, because the progress of each religion itself will be the one bringing Pancasila to life. If there is no religion, Pancasila itself will be valueless.”

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Penjelasan :

Kisah tentang Bahtera Nabi Nuh yang diberitakan di Kitap Suci, merupakan simbolisme yang menggambarkan suatu keadaan zaman. Terjadinya banjir besar disebutkan karena air yang tercurah dari langit, dan air yang memancar dari bumi.

- Air yang tercurah dari langit, bermakna nilai-nilai ajaran dan filosofi yang berasal dari Wahyu Illahi / Agama.

- Air yang memancar dari bumi, bermakna nilai-nilai ajaran dan filosofi yang berasal dari hasil pemikiran manusia, contohnya antara lain seperti ajaran Deisme, Pantheisme Spinoza, Kapitalisme, Liberalisme, Komunisme, Sosialisme, dsbnya, termasuk perkembangan yang menakjubkan dari ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi modern pada abad-20 yang lalu sampai sekarang ini.

Dan mengapa dikatakan sebagai suatu " banjir besar " yang berkonotasi bencana bagi hidup kemanusiaan ?

- Pertama, bahwa banyaknya nilai-nilai ajaran dari langit pada satu sisi menimbulkan banyak sekali perbedaan pendapat. Dan tidak jarang dari perbedaan-perbedaan pendapat itu menimbulkan perkelahian, bahkan juga perang.

Antara lain, penggolongan agama-agama besar di dunia menjadi dua golongan besar : agama samawi dan agama bukan samawi, adalah suatu penyesatan, tidak ada dasar / dalilnya di agama. Semua agama itu berdasarkan Wahyu Illahi, yang satu wahyu yang berupa firman-firmanNya langsung, dan lainnya berasal dari penjabaran firman-firmanNya berupa ayat-ayat yang tergelar di alam semesta ( The Language of God ). Ayat-ayat yang tergelar di alam semesta dapat dipahami dengan baik oleh manusia yang telah mendapat ' pencerahan ' ( Akalnya telah tercerahkan oleh CahayaNya ). Keduanya, yang langsung maupun yang tidak langsung, diterima ( dan dipahami ) oleh para UtusanNya untuk diajarkan kepada umat manusia. Semua ajaran agama besar di dunia, yang dikatakan sebagai agama samawi dan bukan samawi, bersumber dari satu mata air yang sama, hanya cara penyampaian firman-firmanNya itu yang berbeda-beda.__ Oleh karenanya semua agama-agama besar itu memiliki Kitab Suci, dan cara-cara peribadatan yang berbeda.__Lain halnya dengan kepercayaan Deisme dan Pantheisme Spinoza, misalnya. Para penganutnya tidak punya Kitab Suci maupun cara peribadatan tertentu yang diwajibkan, karena kepercayaan mereka terhadap adanya Supreme Intelligence adalah berdasarkan akal fikiran semata.

- Kedua, perkembangan sains dan teknologi yang menakjubkan telah mewarnai seluruh bidang-bidang kehidupan manusia modern, dan dominasi dari sains dan teknologi modern tersebut seolah-olah telah menenggelamkan nilai-nilai moral hidup kemanusiaan, terutama yang diajarkan dalam agama-agama besar di dunia.

" For as man is the best of all animals when he has reached his full development, so he is the worst of all when divorced from law and justice " ( Aristotle, 384 - 322 BC ).

GS, 5 Oktober 2008 


Source:http://trnta.blogspot.com/