Ir. Soekarno, the founding father of Indonesia, opposed the first concept of Five Principles (Pancasila) in Jakarta Charter in The Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence’s meeting. Soekarno believed Indonesia should not stand of one race, one religion, or one ethnic, but the concept of diversity should stand from many races, religions, and ethnics that can be united as a nation.
Soekarno said, “Not only Indonesian people believe in God, but every Indonesian people should believe in their God. People should believe in god culturally, without religious egoism. Let us run the civilized religion, mutual respect. Divinity is in noble character.” Soekarno fought the divinity concept that Indonesia is majority of Moslem people, so the divinity concept should be based on Islamic law. Soekarno said the tolerance in Indonesia should be established, Five Principles is the basic ideology to create it. Although Soekarno got many struggles from Islamic figures in this meeting, Soekarno had still stood in his conviction. Continue reading How expensive is tolerance? – Diversity in Unity