Pancasila in the Midst of Consensus on Freedoms of Religion and the Expression of Public Rights

Pancasila as the basis of the state must be able to guarantee an inclusive life for citizens in expressing their beliefs. The problem of the place and role of religion within the context of the Indonesian state is as old as the republic itself. This problem has arisen primarily because of conflicting ideas among the nation’s founding fathers regarding which ideals should shape the independent state of Indonesia. The main issue was whether the state should be ‘Islamic’ or ‘secular’ in character. Given the holistic nature of Islam and the fact that the majority of the population is Islamic, some insisted that Islam should be adopted as the ideological basis of the state. However, on the ground that Indonesia is socio- religiously heterogeneous, others argued for a secular state for the sake of the country’s unity. Such vastly different views between these two groups inevitably threaten the peace of the country. This dispute along ideological lines has been manifested not only in the legal form of intellectual and constitutional debate, but also in the illegal means of inter-religious conflicts.