Against Direct Presidential Election

• Date: 01 July 2019

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2019 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

against dirECt prEsidEntial

ElECtion

Pranoto Iskandar

e Institute for Migrant Rights

E-mail: pranotoi@imr.or.id

Since we are being told over and over, it should be clear by now that

we are all know and took it by heart that we are Bhinneka Tunggal

Ika. Meaning, no matter how likely, we are “out of one”.1 According to

(again) what we are told, this national motto that was taken from an an-

cient poem is the closest, if not the perfect, allusion to our fact of mod-

ern life.2 While the poem used it to refer to the reconcilability of two

versions of truth that were embraced by Buddhism and Hinduism that

destined to be in perpetual rivalry, none of us never questioned this

misleading attribution.3 Perhaps, deep down we know that it’s better to

err rather than risking our “societal harmony”. Naturally, we are happy

to leave it being constantly misconstrued. at is probably the reason

that makes it still compulsory for the elementary students to chant it

1. See e.g., Dea Oktaga, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika: Indonesia’s Source of E xcel-

lence, J G (Mar. 14, 2017), https://jakartaglobe.id/context/bhin-

neka-tunggal-ika-indonesias-source-of-excellence/.

2. See also Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, W, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Bhinneka_Tunggal_Ika.

3 See e.g., A. H. Aghababian, e Kakawin Sutasoma: A Look at Bhinneka Tung-

gal Ika and Perceptions of the Text’s Religious Implications, 7 I J.: S.

S., A, H. (2015), http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1142/3/

the-kakawin-sutasoma-a-look-at-bhinneka-tunggal-ika-and-perceptions-of-

the-texts-religious-implications; Hana Aghababian, e Kakawin Sutasoma:

A Look at ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ & Perceptions of the Text’s Religious Im-

plications (2015), https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?refer-

er=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3252&context=isp_col-

lection.