As a national ideology, Pancasila determines the basis of the meaning underlying the legal system and confirms whether the law applied in the country is just. Pancasila is an ideal legal method for Indonesia because it can specifically address problems relevant to the multicultural context of the country. However, the law in Indonesia today tends to adopt politicians’ rationality rather than living up to Pancasila values. Conflicts of interest are entering the legislative and regulatory instruments. This condition increasingly marginalizes Pancasila within the country’s legal system, thus risking weakening law enforcement functions to protect the community.
As such, efforts to strengthen and monitor how Pancasila is or should be implemented are necessary, especially in today’s political legislation. CPS has been leading progressive efforts to restore the values of Pancasila to all legal instruments through a web-based Regulation Examination Forum (REF), which can be accessed here. In this forum, our team collaborating with legal experts and others from different disciplines assesses existing local, national, and various government regulations or laws in terms of their compatibility with the values of Pancasila. Being academic in nature, REF also serves as a platform that gives a chance for the community to speak up if any regulation is deemed unsuitable with Pancasila or undermines the rights of the citizens.