scholarly journals Constructing Modern Indonesia Based on Pancasila in Dialogue with the Political Concepts Underlying the Idea of Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Otto Gusti Ndegong Madung ◽  
Winibaldus Stefanus Mere

This article aims to describe the role of Pancasila as an ideological basis and collective identity for the multicultural society of Indonesia. Pancasila has historically been proven to be able to unite Indonesia’s diverse peoples and cultures. Pancasila means five principles that construct the ethical basis for one common home, i.e. Indonesia. The principles are belief in one God, humanity, Indonesia’s national unity, representative democracy, and social justice for all Indonesian citizens. This article argues that in the midst of democratisation and the openness to globalisation, Pancasila needs to be re-interpreted and given a place in contemporary political discourse. It proposes that Pancasila should be read in the light of the contemporary political discourse between communitarianism and liberalism. Such a dialogue is fundamental to coping with the dogmatisation of Pancasila, which can result in the loss of its political relevance as a collective identity. Furthermore, liberalism and communitarianism are the two fundamental philosophical pillars beside socialism upon which the concept of human rights is developed. Therefore, combining Pancasila with the two philosophical concepts is very important to strengthen the role of Pancasila in promoting the idea and practices of human rights politics in Indonesia.

Author(s):  
A. FREDDIE

The article examines the place and role of democracy and human rights in South Africas foreign policy. The author analyzes the process of South Africas foreign policy change after the fall of the apartheid regime and transition to democracy. He gives characteristics of the foreign policy under different presidents of South Africa from 1994 to 2018 and analyzes the political activities of South Africa in the area of peacekeeping and human rights on the African continent.


Author(s):  
Hugh Starkey

This article comments on keynote speeches given by Keith Ajegbo and Audrey Osler. The programme of study for citizenship derived from the Crick report and did not emphasise race equality and national unity for security. Osler argues that the Ajegbo review addressed teaching of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity but did not confront the inadequacies of British democracy or reassert social justice, a sense of shared humanity and a commitment to human rights. Proposing, let alone imposing, a definition of Britishness is futile, but it is possible to promote cosmopolitan patriotism supported by explicit principles, concepts and values.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hou Yuxin

Abstract The Wukan Incident attracted extensive attention both in China and around the world, and has been interpreted from many different perspectives. In both the media and academia, the focus has very much been on the temporal level of the Incident. The political and legal dimensions, as well as the implications of the Incident in terms of human rights have all been pored over. However, what all of these discussions have overlooked is the role played by religious force during the Incident. The village of Wukan has a history of over four hundred years, and is deeply influenced by the religious beliefs of its people. Within both the system of religious beliefs and in everyday life in the village, the divine immortal Zhenxiu Xianweng and the religious rite of casting shengbei have a powerful influence. In times of peace, Xianweng and casting shengbei work to bestow good fortune, wealth and longevity on both the village itself, and the individuals who live there. During the Wukan Incident, they had a harmonizing influence, and helped to unify and protect the people. Looking at the specific roles played by religion throughout the Wukan Incident will not only enable us to develop a more meaningful understanding of the cultural nature and the complexity of the Incident itself, it will also enrich our understanding, on a divine level, of innovations in social management.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-151
Author(s):  
N. A. Baranov ◽  
Sevgi Kok

Kazakhstan, like most of the multi-ethnic post-Soviet states, in the course of state building, faced the problem of rallying the peoples living in the Republic. Two interrelated projects were being implemented on the political agenda of Kazakhstan: the construction of state institutions and the formation of a civil nation. In a multi-ethnic state, the project of a civil nation is difficult due to the attempts of the titular ethnic group to obtain additional advantages, which causes tension in interethnic relations. The identification of the population, often, occurs by ethnicity, therefore, the policy of civic identity in Kazakhstan is opposed to the “Kazakhization” of language, culture, and social practices. Nevertheless, the process of unification of the nation is successfully developing in the Republic, initiated by the political elite of Kazakhstan. Achievement of national unity was declared a strategic priority in the development of the country. The article analyzes the factors affecting collective identity in the Republic of Kazakhstan: demographic diversity, language policy, state symbols. The article concludes that Kazakhstan is building its statehood based on the domination of the Kazakh ethnic elite, while pursuing a policy of uniting different ethnic groups into a single Kazakh nation.


Author(s):  
Helen Fenwick

This chapter considers proposals for changes that might be made by a British Bill of Rights, as compared with the Human Rights Act, under the Coalition government, or a future Conservative government. It considers views expressed by Conservative spokespersons prior to and after the 2010 general election, and answers given by members of the Bill of Rights Commission to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee in 2011. This chapter also touches on the second aspect of the Commission's remit — its advisory role on reform of the European Court of Human Rights. It questions whether adopting a Bill of Rights on the lines favoured by the Conservative leadership, combined with the Strasbourg reforms recently determined on, would be likely to realise Conservative aims of creating divergence from Strasbourg and enhancing parliamentary autonomy.


City, State ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 17-50
Author(s):  
Ran Hirschl

This chapter examines four introductory dimensions of the political and constitutional discourse around cities. The first is the tremendous interest in cities throughout much of the human sciences as contrasted with the silence of public law in general, and of comparative constitutional law in particular. Next, the chapter takes a look at the dominant statist stance embedded in constitutional law, in particular as it addresses sovereignty and spatial governance of the polity. A brief account of what national constitutions actually say about cities, and more significantly what they do not is then given. Finally, the chapter turns to the tendency in political discourse on collective identity to understand the “local” almost exclusively at the national or regional levels, rather than distinguishing urban interests from those of the state. Taken together, the four angles of city constitutional (non)status examined here highlight the bewildering silence of contemporary constitutional discourse with respect to cities and urbanization, as well as the strong statist outlook embedded in national constitutional orders, effectively rendering the metropolis a constitutionally non-tenable entity.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5969
Author(s):  
Kateryna Yakovenko ◽  
Matúš Mišík

The COVID-19 pandemic appeared in the midst of developing the European Green Deal, the most ambitious project to decarbonise the EU’s economy to date. Among other issues, the project highlighted the challenges connected to the long-term role of natural gas as a fossil fuel in the European economy. Moreover, the changes to the gas architecture caused by the development of new import infrastructure (especially Nord Stream and its extension, which is currently under construction) put additional pressure on the transit countries, mainly of which are linked to the Brotherhood pipeline. These have been strong supporters of natural gas utilisation and harsh critics of new pipelines that circumvent their territories, as they consider energy transit to be an important part of their energy sectors. This research examines the political discourse on gas transit in Slovakia and Ukraine in order to identify the main arguments connected to these positions. The paper examines a total of 233 textual units from both countries for the period 2014–2018. It concludes that, while Ukraine sees transit predominantly through the lens of cooperation with the EU and other actors, the Slovak political discourse considers gas transit in terms of energy security and the availability of gas for the national economy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1162-1185
Author(s):  
Livia Johannesson

Courts are influential actors during the implementation of immigration policies in liberal democracies. The “liberal paradox” thesis stipulates that courts are driven by logics that hamper restrictionist immigration policies. This study contributes to this theory by exploring the norm construction of impartiality among judicial workers in Swedish migration courts when deciding asylum appeals. Its findings contradict the liberal paradox assumption that courts act according to inner logics that benefit immigrants’ rights. At Sweden’s migration courts, judicial workers show impartiality by using a skeptical approach to asylum applicants and do so to distance themselves from the political discourse of generosity that has dominated Swedish political debate for decades. The broader implications of these findings are that immigration policy theories can benefit from qualitative research exploring informal norm constructions in courts, as such work can offer new insights about the role of courts in the implementation of immigration policies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Afroza Anwary

This article, based on event history and a narrative analysis of reports produced by human rights groups, reveals that the genocide of Rohingyas of the Rakhine state of Myanmar is the result of the Myanmar military government’s deliberate policies and unpremeditated consequences that have led to the higher level of conflict among groups in Myanmar. It examines the processes by which the Myanmar government has constructed the collective identity of Rohingya as illegal immigrants. It focuses on the role of the sustained historical and conflictual relationships among the Myanmar government, Rohingyas, and the Rakhine Buddhists that contributed to the Rohingya genocide.


1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-296
Author(s):  
C. Wilfred Jenks

Throughout the developing world today the accent is upon economic growth. No reasonable man can question this emphasis while inequalities among nations, and inequalities within nations, remain so glaring. Inevitable and healthy as this may be, it raises one fundamental question, Growth for what? Growth for growth's sake? Growth for those astute enough to profit from it? Or growth as an essential concomitant of political stability and social justice for the whole community? There are other searching questions. Is democracy compatible with economic growth? Are human rights and civil liberties, free enterprise and free trade unionism, compatible with growth? Where they conflict, which comes first? or what reasonable compromise can be made?


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