President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the heads of seven key state institutions agreed to “strengthen” the state ideology Pancasila amid fears of rising radicalism among the nation’s youth.

Pancasila is the official philosophical foundation of the Indonesian state

“All state institutions are committed to actively strengthening Pancasila as the nation’s ideology according to each institution’s role, position and authority,” Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD said in a joint statement following a meeting attended by the President, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie, Regional Representatives Council Speaker Irman Gusman, Supreme Court chief justice Harifin Tumpa, Judicial Commission chief Eman Suparman, State Audit Agency chief Hadi Purnomo and People’s Consultative Assembly Speaker Taufik Kiemas.

The meeting comes on the heels of several alleged attempts to “degrade” the values of Pancasila by hard-line Islamic groups campaigning for the creation of an Islamic state. Read more