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Protests against Pancasila ideology

Source
Agence France Presse - October 26, 1998

Jakarta – A group of some 80 people Monday protested at the gates of the parliament, demanding that political parties be freed from the obligation to adhere to the state ideology "Pancasila".

"Under a new political law currently being discussed (by the parliament), all political parties and mass organisation be allowed the freedom to choose their own principle," the Front for the Reform of the Sole Principle demanded in a statement distributed during the protest.

Under Suharto-era laws, all political parties and mass organisations are obliged to pledge adherance to the state ideology Pancasila – a loose set of five tennets – belief in one God, humanitarianism, national unity, decision-making by deliberation between people's representatives, and social justice for all.

"As a state ideology, Pancasila has become blown out of proportion because of engineering by those in power in the past who strove only to unjustly maintain their power and the status quo," the statement said. It has also been used in the past by those in power to supress criticism and to prevent Islam from turning into a strong force on the country's political scene.

The government of president Suharto, who resigned in May, had used Pancasila to quash anti-government movements, including those wanting to enforce a single religion on others.

The political law, currently being debated at the parliament, will replace a Suharto-era law, which limits the number of political parties to three – the ruling Golkar, the Moslem-oriented United Development Party and the Indonesian Democracy Party. All three parties have been obliged to adopt Pancasila as their sole guiding principle.

More than 80 political parties have emerged since Suharto's fall, but they will not be legitimised until the new laws are passed. The group, which was predominanly Moslem, demonstrated in front of the closed gates of the parliament building, even though the house was in recess until next month.

Sitting on the ground, they displayed scores of posters, including some which read "The sole principle – a strategy of the minority against the majority," "The Sole Principle is wrecking the moral fibre of the nation and the state," and "Religious parties do not mean disintegration." They disbanded peacefully after less than two hours, some 40 anti-riot police standing by but not intervening.

Another group of about 40 students from three private Islamic universities rallied in front of the parliament Monday to condemn the violence in East Java, where a series of mysterious killings in the past few months have left 178 dead, including 96 Moslem scholars and teachers.

The group held a joint prayer and also disbanded peacefully, but only after each protestor shook the hands of the police assuring security at the parliament's gate.

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