BPIP to Use Religious Approaches to Cement Support for Pancasila

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The head of the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP), Yudian Wahyudi, said he would amplify support for Pancasila through religious approaches.

“What I meant yesterday was I want to strengthen through those [approaches], I mean the strengthening will be done through religions. But many seemed to interpret it differently,” he told Tempo at the BPIP office in Jakarta, Thursday, February 13, 2020.

Yudian said this matter had become his agency’s concern following the continued decline in support for Pancasila in the past 13 years. According to an LSI Denny JA survey in 2018, the percentage of people who were in favor of Pancasila reached 85.2 percent in 2005, and the figure tumbled to 81.7 percent in 2010. In 2015, the number slipped again to 79.4 percent and was down to 75.3 percent in 2018. ‘

Yudian said the recent public response towards his statement on religions and Pancasila had signaled a much-needed brainstorming to solicit input on this matter. He added many had failed to grasp the context of his statement.

The rector of the Sunan Kalijaga Islamic University (UIN Sunan Kalijaga) said religions were not the enemy of Pancasila, but the real enemy of Pancasila was the attitude of people with extreme thoughts who politicized religions while viewing themselves as the majority.

“Religions are reduced to a minor point that they prefer while refusing others. These people are in fact just a minority in the public, but they claimed to be the majority,” the BPIP chief said.

Reporter: Friski Riana | Translator: Galuh Kurnia Ramadhani (Intern Translator)