Pancasila and Ujamaa: Philosophies of Unity for Promoting Tolerance in a (Global) Society Which is Multi-Cultural and Multi-Religious

Pancasila and Ujamaa are two philosophies of unity. Pancasila comes from Indonesia, an Asian country with a complex geographical setup, composed of a scatter of islands and a multi-cultural population of Muslim majority with Buddhism, Hinduism and Christian minorities. Ujamaa is practiced in Tanzania, in East Africa. Tanzania has more than one hundred and twenty ethnic groups. Despite the different contexts in which the two philosophies have operated, the end results have been the same; in each country, the respective philosophy has exhibited unity which has played an important role in maintaining tolerance and stability in the respective nations, despite the tensions which exist throughout history between the different groups in the two nations. This chapter attempts to examine the potential of the two philosophies of unity to maintain the spirit of tolerance in a global multi-cultural and multi-religious society. To reach this goal, the author engages in conceptual analysis and comparison of the social-political circumstances of Pancasila and Ujamaa at their formation and practice stages. This work has discovered a host of existential values in the philosophies of unity. The values, if maintained properly and shared through digital methods, may help to maintain the spirit of tolerance within the contemporary digital and multi–cultural world. It is the conviction of this chapter that the application of values present in Ujamaa and Pancasila is important nowadays due to the tendency present in society of regarding philosophies of unity as belonging to the past, while their impact can influence contemporary life and understanding can promise a better future.