[ppi] [ppiindia] Post-Suharto Muslim engagements with civil society and democratisation
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**http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Post_Suharto_Islam_and_civil_society.htm
Martin van Bruinessen, "Post-Suharto Muslim engagements with civil society and
democracy", paper presented at the Third International Conference and Workshop
"Indonesia in Transition", organised by the KNAW and Labsosio, Universitas
Indonesia, August 24-28, 2003. Universitas Indonesia, Depok.
Post-Suharto Muslim engagements with civil society and democratisation
Martin van Bruinessen
ISIM / Utrecht University
Does Islam as a system of beliefs or as a political force have something
positive to contribute to the hoped-for democratisation of Indonesia, or will
it largely be an impediment and a threat to the emergence of an open society?
Many participants in the political process have strong opinions on these
questions. There are those who argue - and not without some justification -
that reformist political Islam represents the only significant alternative to
the patrimonial, authoritarian and corrupt political culture pervading almost
all parties and thereby is the country's only hope for democracy. Others - and
these include many committed Muslims besides secular nationalists and
non-Muslims - fear that the Muslim ambition of turning Indonesia into an
Islamic state is perhaps the most serious threat the country is presently
facing, the more so since radical Muslim groups appear to be courted by
power-greedy military and civilian elite factions. There is a widespread and
understandable fear of resurgent political Islam - but this resurgent political
Islam is itself in large measure a response to another perceived threat, the
fear that Islam's very presence in Indonesia is being threatened.
Islam under threat?
Many Muslims, and not just the radical, believe in the existence of an
international conspiracy, involving the assorted enemies of Islam - Zionists,
Christian missionaries, imperialist politicians, and their various local allies
- aiming to destroy or weaken Islam in Indonesia. Considering Islam as harmful
to their interests, these conspirators not only fight it by force of arms where
this is possible, but they also try to subvert it from within through sex,
drugs and rock-and-roll or, more dangerously, through spreading deviant
teachings of various kinds ranging from Shi`ism and heterodox mysticism to what
is broadly subsumed under the label of "liberal Islam".[1]
Many of the Muslim NGO-type activities about which I shall speak shortly are
perceived by some of the radicals to be part of a concerted assault on real
Islam, with the intent of either turning Muslims into Christians or defenders
of Christian interests, or of spreading heresies that will tap the strength of
the umma. If Islam is to survive in Indonesia, in this view, the true Muslims
will need to get their act together and mobilise themselves against the new
Jewish-Christian Crusade. Besides the Christian militias in the Moluccas and
the Christian missionaries who are attempting to effect mass conversions, some
of the most visible actors in this Crusade are institutions like USAID, The
Asia Foundation, and The Ford Foundation, which between them are sponsoring
most of the Muslim NGO activities and do so quite explicitly in order to combat
the spread of fundamentalist and anti-Western Islamic trends.
The obsession with anti-Islamic conspiracies has deep historical roots, in part
going back to apprehensions about missionary intentions in colonial times and
much strengthened by the perception of mass conversions to Christianity in the
aftermath of the violent events of 1965-66. Many Muslim leaders feared that,
parallel to the Western efforts of those years to "roll back" communism (in
which the overthrow of Sukarno was one of the more successful episodes), there
was a similar drive to destroy the political strength of Islam in Indonesia.
Kristenisasi, "Christianisation", through the spread of Christian institutions
and proselytisation among Muslims, was a key element in this perceived
strategy.[2] Another aspect was the forced depoliticisation of Islam and
de-Islamisation of the state apparatus in the early New Order, a policy widely
attributed to Ali Murtopo and the Chinese Catholic intellectuals manning the
influential think tank CSIS.[3] Some believed the controversial ideas of
Nurcholish Madjid and his circle, which received much press coverage in the
1970s, to be deliberately sponsored by the regime in order to subvert "real"
Islam.[4]
Apprehensions about Kristenisasi were strongest among the activists of the
Indonesian Council for Islamic Predication (Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia,
or DDII), a body that had been established in 1967 by Muhammad Natsir and other
former leaders of the Masyumi party. The party had been a principled opponent
of Sukarno's Guided Democracy and had been obliged to dissolve itself in 1960;
its leaders had been jailed by Sukarno. Although released from jail after
Suharto's takeover, they were not allowed to establish a new party, which no
doubt contributed to their devoting themselves entirely to dakwah. The DDII
established close contacts with the Saudi-sponsored and financed Islamic World
League (Rabitat al-`Alam al-Islami or briefly Rabita) and through its Rabita
connections increasingly came under the influence of Middle Eastern currents of
Islamic thought, of both the Muslim Brotherhood and the "Wahhabi"
(Saudi-Salafi) varieties.[5] Due to these contacts, DDII activists began to
perceive the issue of Kristenisasi in global terms, as part of a wider
Jewish-Christian conspiracy against Islam.[6] They became increasingly
interested in the confrontations between Muslims and superior enemies that
appeared to be taking place across the globe: in Afghanistan, Palestine,
Kashmir, the southern Philippines, and later Bosnia and Chechnya. Assertive
demonstrations by the Indonesian Committee for Solidarity with the Islamic
World (KISDI), which was established towards 1990 by DDII activists, became a
prominent presence in the streets of Jakarta during the 1990s. By the end of
the decade, KISDI and various other, ideologically similar groups were speaking
of world-wide Jewish-Christian conspiracies involving Indonesian Chinese
businessmen, liberal Muslim thinkers and the left-leaning student opposition.
This sort of discourse was strongly supported by certain elements of the
regime, most notably generals Prabowo Subianto and Z.A. Maulani. In spite of
their strong support of Suharto until the very end, these groups survived quite
successfully into the "Reformasi" period.[7]
Some of the developments following the fall of Suharto appeared to confirm the
predictions of the various peddlers of conspiracy theories. East Timor gained
independence, which was seen as a victory for Catholicism. Indonesian Muslim
settlers, mostly traders, poor workers and civil servants from Sulawesi and
Java, had to leave. Clashes between (Christian) locals and (Muslim) immigrants
in other parts of East Indonesia could easily be interpreted as evidence of a
concerted effort to purge East Indonesia of Muslims and, perhaps, to 'roll
back' Islam throughout Indonesia. In fact, the fall of Suharto also appeared to
corroborate the conspiracy theories: hadn't the West always supported him as
long as his policies were anti-Islamic? Could it be a coincidence that he was
brought down after he had been drawing ever closer to Islam and no longer
privileged the Christian minority? Similarly, the 'war on terror' that was
unleashed worldwide after September 11, 2001 could only too easily be
interpreted as a war of the West against Islam, confirming the pattern
predicted by the conspiracy theories and contributing to a siege mentality
among many of Indonesia's Muslims. The obsession with anti-Muslim conspiracies
until recently was a relatively marginal phenomenon, more at home on the
disaffected fringes of Indonesia's Muslim community than in the mainstream. One
of the most disquieting developments is that is has gradually been taking hold
of sections of the moderate centre as well, and that ambitious young
politicians find it expedient to stake their careers on appealing to these
fears.[8]
The threat of the Islamic state
The paranoia on the Muslim side is mirrored by similar anxieties among the
non-Muslim minorities concerning Muslim intentions: is Indonesia gradually
being turned into an Islamic state, with shari`a regulations replacing secular
legislation? What will this mean for the position of Christian, Hindu and
Buddhist citizens, or for secular-minded Muslims? A selective perception of
recent developments can make for a very worrisome perspective. The anxieties
are as old as the Republic and go back to the debates on the Jakarta
Charter.[9] The physical destruction of the Communist Party in 1965-66 left
political Islam (well, in fact only the NU) in the position of the only
significant surviving grassroots movement, making it potentially more
threatening. Political Islam was forced onto the defensive during the first two
decades of the New Order, but a string of violent incidents - associated with
Komando Jihad in the late 1970s, the Imran group in the early 1980s, and the
underground 'Islamic State and Army of Indonesia' (NII/TII) - kept minority
fears alive.
Those fears were seriously exacerbated during Suharto's last decade, when
reformist Islam appeared significantly empowered through an alliance of
convenience with Suharto. The status of Islamic courts was elevated to the same
level as that of ordinary state courts, and the government had a 'compilation'
of Islamic law made that was in fact a codification - which was seen by many
Muslims as well as non-Muslims as a step towards the integration of the shari`a
in Indonesia's legal system. The establishment of ICMI and its successful
campaign for 'proporsionalitas', which amounted to replacing many Christians in
leading positions by Muslims, the intimidating demonstrations by KISDI and
others against Christian media struck fear into many Christian hearts.
Suharto's final years saw a dramatic increase in anti-Christian and
anti-Chinese violence.[10]
In the post-Suharto years, the emergence of Muslim militias, with their
apparent military and other elite support and more than adequate funding,
further added to Christian fears, especially when these began participating in
local and regional inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts. Jihad and
shari`a became prominent terms in Muslim public discourse. In several provinces
and kabupaten vocal movements calling for enactment of the shari`a emerged.
Some of the militant movements, such as the Majelis Mujahidin (established in
2000) openly advocated jihad in the Moluccas and the struggle, if necessary
violent, for the establishment of an Islamic state.[11] Several of the Muslim
parties in the freely elected parliament advocated the adoption of the Jakarta
Charter; many of the younger radicals believed that not only Muslims but also
non-Muslims should be subjected to the shari`a.
The Jakarta Charter was discussed extensively in the 2001 and 2002 MPR
sessions, and the matter was resolved once again by shelving the famous seven
words, for there was no majority supporting it. The two largest Muslim
organisations, NU and Muhammadiyah, had resolutely made a clear stand against
this attempt to enshrine the shari`a in the Constitution. This is not the end
of efforts to give the shari`a force of law in Indonesia, however. Attempts
have been made to use the enhanced authority of regional parliaments under the
regional autonomy law to get elements of the shari`a adopted into regional
regulation. Islamist bureaucrats in the Ministry of Justice are reportedly
preparing a large number of legal changes that will amount to a significant
degree of Islamisation. Non-Muslims also perceive a deliberate effort at
sneaking Islamisation in other new legislation, such as the new bill on
national education, which obliges schools to provide pupils with education in
their own religion - so that all Christian schools will become centres of
Muslim education. (Many Muslims, on the other hand, perceived the better
quality of Christian schools to constitute danger to their religion and feared
Muslim children would be drawn away from their native religion towards
Christianity.)
It is not only the radical militias and the politicians agitating for
Islamisation of the legal system, incidentally, who are causes of Christian
anxieties. There is also a widespread suspicion of the intentions of more
moderate Muslims. Some believe that Muhammadiyah and /or the alumni of the
Muslim student organisation HMI are carrying out a well-planned strategy for
getting control of key institutions and decision-making positions. Whatever
Muslim politicians and activists are doing, and whatever their real intentions,
it can only too easily be perceived as part of a wider anti-Christian
conspiracy. Conspiratorial worldviews are widespread among Christians as well
as Muslims in Indonesia. Both sides find apparent confirmation of conspiracy
theories in many recent developments, which can only have a negative impact on
the already low levels of social trust.
Who wants the shari`a and why?
The perception that not just radical Islamists but perhaps a majority of
mainstream Muslims want the state to be more Islamic appeared to receive
confirmation in an opinion survey carried out in 2002 by the research institute
PPIM. The most surprising finding of this survey, which was widely reported in
the press, was that no less than two thirds of Indonesian Muslims all over the
country stated that they believed Islamic governance to be best for the nation;
an even slightly higher percentage answered that the state should enforce the
obligation for all Muslims to live by the shari`a.[12] This is a finding that
calls for some comments.
The first question that imposes itself is, what happened to the abangan and the
secular Muslims who do not desire an Islamic state? Have their numbers really
been reduced to less than a third now? Or does the stated preference for
Islamic governance and the shari`a perhaps reflect other concerns? An even
higher percentage of Muslim respondents, 88%, claimed that they 'very
frequently' or 'quite frequently' performed the daily prayers and no less than
94% claimed to regularly fast in Ramadan. Both strike me as very high
percentages, which may reflect a wish to please the interviewer rather than an
effort to be perfectly candid. As long as the shari`a remains an abstract term,
it may be difficult for a Muslim to say she or he does not support it. Once
concrete implications are mentioned, the degree of commitment to the shari`a
may prove to be considerably less. This is borne out by the response to the
question whether one would vote for representatives who vow to struggle for
implementation of the shari`a. Not more than 46% of the respondents said yes,
and we know that those who actually voted for Islamist parties in the 1999
elections constitute a mere 16% of the Muslims (14% of all Indonesians).
However, an amazing 53% voiced support for the various radical Islamic groups
and militias.
Support for various practices associated with the shari`a differed
considerably. Almost a quarter of the Muslim respondents spoke out in favour of
Islamic punishments such as cutting off the hands of thieves, and 36% agree
that the state should oblige women to wear a veil. Women's participation in
social and political life is, however, endorsed by a large majority; 7% think a
woman should not be a member of parliament, 26% that she cannot be the
president of the country. On inheritance, long an issue on which Indonesian
tradition (adat) and the shari`a were at odds, about half said to favour the
shari`a's unequal division between sons and daughters.
There are no comparable quantitative data for the 1950s or the 1970s, but most
observers would agree that these figures appear to represent a considerable
change and would be inclined to attribute this change primarily to the rise of
Middle Eastern-style Islamic activism. However, detailed analysis of the survey
data shows that strong pro-shari`a attitudes (as measured by the above
questions) correlate with rural background, low education and low
socio-economic status.[13] This seems to point to a rather different social
category than that commonly associated with Islamic radicalism. Radical
Islamists everywhere tend to be relatively well-educated, lower middle class
and socially climbing. Indonesia too has such Islamists, most typically
represented by the Partai Keadilan (Sejahtera), but their numbers are too small
to make a noticeable mark in a nation-wide survey. The high percentage of
pro-shari`a responses appears to reflect a general rural conservatism rather
than support for an Islamic revolution. This conservative attitude is perhaps
most prominently embodied in the vice-president, Hamzah Haz. Mujani found no
correlation (neither positive nor negative) between this pro-shari`a attitude
and membership of NU or Muhammadiyah, but a negative correlation with
participation in social activities outside one's own narrow group. The
conservative Islamists, he concludes, tend to isolate themselves from the
larger society. They remain a minority everywhere in the country but are
significantly more numerous in Banten, West Java, South Sulawesi and West
Sumatra than in Yogyakarta or Jakarta.[14]
Not surprisingly, the four mentioned provinces are, besides Aceh, exactly those
where there has been a strong demand to implement the shari`a at the local
level. Apart from West Sumatra, these are the provinces where the Darul Islam
movement has its strongest historical roots and is still very active
underground. In none of these regions does the demand for the shari`a appear to
be associated with a clear conceptual model of the Islamic state, such as have
been developed in the Middle East and South Asia and widely discussed in
Indonesian student circles since the 1980s. To the best of my knowledge, the
only practical measures proposed (and partly and irregularly put into practice)
concern veiling in public and other restrictions of women's freedom of
movement.[15]
NU and Muhammadiyah as pillars of civil society
Another surprising finding of the PPIM survey mentioned above is the high
percentage of respondents who identify themselves to some extent with NU or
Muhammadiyah, 42 and 12 percent respectively. Those who strongly identify
themselves with these associations constitute 17 and 4 percent. This confirms
the position of these organisations as the stable and moderate centre of the
Indonesian ummah and makes especially NU appear as even more formidable than
its claims of representing thirty million followers. Even more significant is
the finding that strong identification with NU or Muhammadiyah correlates with
active involvement in various other, non-religious civil society activities
(such as arisan, voluntary activities in village or ward, sports, cultural
clubs, co-operatives, labour unions and professional organisations). In Mujani
and Liddle's words, these respondents "tend to be attracted to, and involved
in, matters connected to the public interest. (.) they are politically active,
they discuss political problems with friends and neighbours, read political
news in newspapers, follow political news on television, and support political
parties."[16]
This sounds almost too good to be true, like a textbook illustration of the
belief (inspired by Putnam's influential study on Italy) that social trust
generated in one sphere of life is almost automatically transferred other
spheres and ultimately society in general. If Mujani and Liddle are correct in
drawing their conclusion (which seems however more clear-cut than the data
warrant[17]), this would make these two Muslim mass organisations essential
vehicles of a democratic climate, the pillars of civil society and, as they
say, 'bulwarks against Islamism.' More cautious analysts, and those more
suspicious of the validity of the data compiled by such questionnaires, will
have to concede that the authors do point to an important and rather neglected
aspect of the political process, the role of NU and Muhammadiyah in inculcating
civic values in their members. And, as observed above, these associations did
take a clear stand against the recent attempts to reinstate the Jakarta Charter
(even though parts of their constituencies are strongly in favour of enacting
the shari`a).
In discussions on and studies of civil society in Indonesia, during the 1990s
and early 2000s, relatively little attention has been shown to these large
associations. In the growing volume of studies on Islam and civil society, they
may be mentioned in passing but seldom appear to be thought of as part of civil
society themselves, unlike say students' associations, ICMI and issue-oriented
NGOs. Although there are quite a few recent studies of Muhammadiyah and
especially of NU, most of these focus on their religious discourse and system
of religious education or on their role in national politics. There has hardly
been any sociological research on the role these associations play in the daily
lives of their members and followers.[18] The PPIM survey constitutes a useful
reminder that these unspectacular mainstream associations deserve more
appreciation and attention than they have been receiving.
NGO-type activities in Muslim circles
Since Suharto's fall, numerous international agencies have attempted to
stimulate the democratic process by supporting a wide range of NGOs. Great
hopes for the democratic potential of NGOs of course predates Indonesia's
Reformasi period (Eldridge 1995; Uhlins 1997; cf. Setiawan 2000), and
internationally supported NGO work in fact goes back to the early years of the
New Order period.
LP3ES, a national-level NGO established by activists of the 'generation of
1966' with Masyumi or PSI backgrounds, was the first to attempt to reach out to
Muslim rural communities. Supported by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (a
foundation allied with the German Liberal Party), it initiated in the early
1970s a program of studies and pilot projects that intended to raise the
potential of the pesantren as a medium and motor of rural and human resource
development. LP3ES teamed up with Abdurrahman Wahid, who had recently returned
from studies in the Middle East and who could provide easy access to pesantren
as well as advise on the selection of pesantren to work with, and around 1980
with a community of former student activists from ITB, who were interested in
the concept of appropriate technology (AT) and carried out a number of AT
projects in selected pesantren and surrounding communities. Various other types
of grassroots activities took place, prominent among them training of pesantren
youth and discussions on societal and religious topics. A second generation of
NGO activists was trained, who in the 1980s and 1990s spawned a new wave of
NGOs. By the mid-1980s pesantren-based development efforts shifted to a new NGO
named P3M (Centre for the Study and Developent of Pesantren and Society). The
most significant contribution of P3M was however in challenging and developing
traditionalist Muslim discourse. Over the past 17 years, P3M initiated
important debates on religion and societal affairs including land conflicts,
gender relations, parliamentary democracy, and corruption.
In urban environments another early NGO, LSP, carried out numerous projects
(with a variety of international sponsors), concentrating on the informal
sector and co-operatives. Like LP3ES and its pesantren program, LSP was a
breeding ground for the next generation of activists. LSP's leading activist,
Adi Sasono, had a strong Masyumi background and was much concerned with the
relative backwardness and weak representation of Muslims in the country's
economy and political life. He was also more of a political strategist than
most NGO activists. Not surprisingly he came to play an important role in ICMI
in the 1990s and became minister of co-operatives under Habibie (presently he
is the general chairman of ICMI). He has remained a pivotal figure in civil
society-type activities of Indonesia's 'modernist' Muslims.
In the 1990s, various new NGOs emerged, many of them established by persons who
had previous experience in programs set up by LP3ES or LSP. Most of these new
NGOs emerged in response to the programs of foreign sponsors, who were in need
of Indonesian counterparts. The Ford Foundation and The Asia Foundation (and
less visibly USAID and a range of other foreign agencies) between them are
responsible for most of Indonesia's booming NGO industry, including the Muslim
NGOs, and for to a considerable extent setting their agendas. Most of the
Muslim NGOs working at the grassroots have some personal or ideological
affiliation with NU (see also Wajidi in this volume). Activists of Muhammadiyah
and similar reformist backgrounds tend to get involved in a different type of
efforts than the typical NGO: discussion groups and other forms of adult
education, some charitable work, and co-operatives. They tend to be less
dependent on sponsoring by foreign agencies (although there may be some Middle
Eastern money around).
Some influential Muslim NGOs take pains not to appear too closely associated
with either NU or Muhammadiyah, such as Rahima, which is specifically taking on
gender issues, organises training for girls and young women mostly but not
exclusively of pesantren background, and attempts to develop an Islamic
feminist discourse, critically engaging with established views and current
teachings that place women in a subservient position. A more recent phenomenon,
but not an NGO proper, is the Liberal Islam Network (JIL), which is trying to
win back the initiative in setting the terms of debates on Islam and society
from the Islamists. The network started out as with a mailing list and website,
soon adding a radio program, relayed by local stations in many Indonesian
cities, and a syndicated newspaper column. Its core members have deliberately
sought a high profile in the media because they feel that Muslim intellectuals
have too long been involved in arcane discussions and left the production of
simple and accessible texts on Islam for large audiences to the Islamists. More
than any other group, the Liberal Islam Network sees the struggle against
narrow and intolerant interpretations of Islam as its chief mission.
Unsurprisingly, Islamists of various stripes soon identified JIL as one of
their own chief enemies.[19]
Most of the Muslim NGOs that flourished since the 1990s have shown themselves
very open-minded towards non-Muslims and eager to engage in inter-religious
dialogue and joint activities. Most Muslim NGO activists feel more at ease with
their counterparts of Christian background than with fellow Muslims active in
Islamist associations. The relaxed relations with non-Muslims distinguish the
NGOs sharply from the Islamist groups, whether conservative or reform-minded.
Fostering or avoiding inter-religious relations have become matters of
principle for both.
Another type of civil society organisation: usrah and jama`ah
It is common to consider the various types of NGOs in Indonesia as constituent
elements of civil society. Mass organisations such as NU and Muhammadiyah
constitute a distinct types of voluntary association but it will be obvious to
most observers that they play an important role in fostering a vibrant civic
life and constitute perhaps the very core of Muslim civil society. There is a
third type of association, however, that is rarely if ever mentioned in
overviews of civil society, except perhaps as a threat to it. I shall call
these associations jama`ah, a term that many of them use to describe their own
distinct form of organisation and solidarity.
The term jama`ah became a household word in 2001 with the arrest of a group
that had planned terrorist attacks against American targets in Singapore and
that allegedly was part of a transnational terrorist network named Jama`ah
Islamiyah.[20] The latter is a special case, and its very existence has been
doubted by many Indonesians precisely because they understand a jama`ah to be
something different. The term literally means congregation; each mosque has its
jama`ah, both in the concrete sense of the people actually present at any
particular prayer and in the more general sense of those regularly praying
there. More recently, by those who wish to find in Islam authentically Islamic
concepts of social, economic and political thought, the term has also come to
be used to designate a specifically Islamic form of organisation. This usage of
the term is associated with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun)
and South Asia's Jama`at-i Islami, and it was adopted by their Indonesian
emulators.
The ideas of the Brotherhood and the Jama`at-i Islami were in Indonesia
mediated by the DDII and spread to various mosque-based networks. Somewhat
simplifying, we may distinguish university-based networks and networks
connecting non-campus mosques, which developed independently although they were
aware of one another. The major non-campus network was the semi-official Badan
Kontak Pemuda dan Remaja Masjid Indonesia (Contact Organ of Indonesian Mosque
Youth, BKPRMI or shorter BKPM). Apparently unknown to the authorities, the most
radical ideas and plans were communicated in this network, and several of the
most radical jama`ah emerged here, such as the jama`ah of the radical preacher
Imran in Bandung, whose followers assaulted a police station to acquire
firearms and later hijacked a Garuda airplane.[21] The radical teachers
Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, of Jama`ah Islamiyah fame, recruited
their followers in this same network. They had linked up with the underground
Darul Islam but set about organising and training their following in a more
systematic way, in small, closely-knit groups known as usrah ('family') that
were connected in a hierarchical structure in which most members knew no other
members apart from those in their own usrah. This pattern of organisation,
copied from the Muslim Brotherhood, was called an Islamic jama`ah or jama`ah
islamiyah; in reports from the early 1980s it is not entirely clear whether the
name only refers to this type of organisation or is also refers specifically to
Sungkar and Ba'asyir's network of usrah.
The emergence of similar groups and networks around the campus mosques was to
some extent also a response to the suppression of student political activism
and the legal ban of activities by 'extraneous' student movements such as HMI
on the campus from the early 1980s on (the so-called 'Normalisasi Kampus').
Most student dissent became interiorised; many students turned to religion and
appeared preoccupied with efforts to be good Muslims. Two DDII-affiliated
activists with international contacts (with Malaysia's Islamic youth movement
ABIM and the Saudi-sponsored World Association of Muslim Youth, WAMY),
Imaduddin Abdurrahman and Endang Saifuddin Anshari, organised a new type of
training courses for students in Bandung, based on the training, tarbiyah,
developed by the Muslim Brotherhood. This was a very different type of course
from the 'basic training' that HMI members received in their organisation,
which consisted mostly of debating, public speaking and simple management
tasks. The new tarbiyah was more systematic, a proper disciplining and
indoctrination, and many students felt strongly attracted by it. The most
highly motivated participants in these tarbiyah sessions organised themselves
into usrah, which were really a sort of study groups. Members of an usrah, who
might number five to ten, met a few times a week, one of them acting as a
trainer (murabbi), occasionally meeting with a more senior member of the
movement.
Like Sungkar and Ba'asyir's usrah movement, the groups on the campus were
underground and even today not much is known about their internal structure,
recruitment and initiation, nor about the exact relations between the usrah and
the more public study circles, halqah, on the campuses, which appeared to be
more loosely connected to each other.[22] The former movement was more overtly
political, and was especially fiercely opposed to the regime's curtailment of
political Islam and its imposition of Pancasila as the sole accepted ideology.
This group saw the objective could not be attained without armed struggle.
Establishing a jama`ah islamiyah, a disciplined hierarchical organisation, was
a first step in preparing for the necessary social, political and military
struggle. From the 1980s until today, members of this network have been
involved in numerous violent incidents. The campus-based network, also known as
the Tarbiyah movement, was less directly political and did not prepare for
armed struggle. Disciplining the self, developing an Islamic personality
(syakhsiyah islamiyah), took priority over the more distant aims of an Islamic
society and an Islamic state.
Sungkar and Ba'asyir fled Indonesia and settled in Malaysia in 1985. Dozens,
altogether perhaps a few hundred, of their followers travelled to Afghanistan
to take part in the jihad against the Russians and to get training in guerrilla
tactics and the use of firearms and explosives. After the Russian retreat from
Afghanistan, the southern Philippines became the favourite training ground. By
the late 1990s, there was a network of local groups covering Malaysia,
Singapore, parts of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and the southern Philippines. The
network had, at least on paper, a tight hierarchical structure resembling a
military organisation, with a commander (amir) and a governing council at the
top and four regional commands (mantiqi) each consisting of smaller units
called, by decreasing level, wakalah, khatibah, qirdas and fi'ah.[23] In
practice, the organisation may well be less rigid than this formal structure
suggests. In 2000, members of the network founded a legal front organisation,
the Majelis Mujahidin, of which Ba'asyir - Sungkar had died in 1999 - became
the amir.
The Tarbiyah movement, which considered itself as the Indonesian sister
organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood, was strongest in the secular
universities, especially in the science and technology faculties. Members
remained active in the movement after their graduation. Many of the alumni made
careers in the bureaucracy, in education or in business, and collectively they
experienced a similar vertical mobility as a quarter century earlier HMI alumni
of the generation of 1966. Towards the end of the Suharto regime, student
groups of the Tarbiyah background established the Islamic student movement
KAMMI (which took active part in anti-Suharto demonstrations but supported
Habibie). Soon after Suharto's demise, in August 1998, their elders established
the Partai Keadilan (Justice Party, PK), arguably the only political party with
a clear program and transparent structure.
The Jama`ah Islamiyah and the Tarbiyah movement are not the only bodies with a
jama`ah structure in Indonesia. A third one that has recently been quite
visible is the Hizb ut-Tahrir, a transnational movement that strives for the
establishment of a world caliphate, an Islamic state encompassing all
Muslim-majority regions. The Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democratic politics and the
nation state as incompatible with divine sovereignty and therefore does not
take part in Indonesian politics and boycotts elections - but it did take part
in demonstrations at the People's Consultative Assembly in favour of the
Jakarta Charter.
These three jama`ah share a number of characteristics:
- they are highly critical of the secular state and believe only a state
based on the shari`a can be just;
- they consist of relatively closed groups that avoid contact with outsiders;
- they assert that Islam is a 'total' way of life and demand their members
to conform to Islamic norms in all aspects of life;
- they exercise a strict social control of their members and demand high
standards of Islamic morality.
Typical of their structure is their hierarchical organisation, the cell
structure (the usrah being the smallest unit) and the absence of transparancy:
the information flows within the organisation are vertical, not horizontal.
One of the texts used as training material in the Tarbiyah movement (and also
known by members of the other jama`ah) is the book Towards the Congregation of
Muslims, which purports to derive principles for Islamic organisation from the
life and deeds of the Prophet and describes a number of contemporary
jama`ah.[24] This text emphasises that the jama`ah is a means of disciplining
individual and society, to shape the Islamic personality, the Islamic family
(usra), an Islamic society and ultimately to unite the entire Muslim ummah. The
book also details the characteristics of the jama`ah, among them secretiveness
(sirriyah), which is an essential aspect of the cell structure.[25]
Not all jama`ah are equally closed groups. All insist that it is better to
associate with good Muslims than with non-Muslims or not-so-good Muslims, but
Sungkar and Ba'asyir made this distinction into a principal element of their
teaching. The book that was obligatory reading for their better students,
Al-walâ' wa'l-barâ' by the Saudi author al-Qahtani, focuses entirely on the
obligation of loyalty towards fellow Muslims and of avoiding relations with
non-Muslims.[26] The Partai Keadilan is much less radical in this respect and
is willing to work together with all segments of the Indonesian population in
the political arena, although its members in their personal lives tend to avoid
non-Muslims and other outsiders, and to subscribe to theories of
Christian-Jewish conspiracies against Islam.
'Bonding' and 'bridging' social capital
Such jama`ah-type organisations constitute a form of social capital, providing
the individual with a secure environment, social and psychological support,
useful contacts, a sense of purpose and a sense of dignity. To some extent they
thereby empower the individual but they also encapsulate and isolate their
members from the world outside. This is a fortiori the case for their female
members, though there is a great difference in the degree of isolation between
the Jama`ah Islamiyah and the Tarbiyah networks: the latter explicitly endorses
women's playing a public role and the former insists on their remaining
secluded. Does it make sense to consider these organisations as part of civil
society? They are to the extent that they are voluntary associations and that
their members join in activities for societal ends and - in their own view -
for the purpose of creating a better society. The activities of the Jama`ah
Islamiyah are not exactly characterised by 'democratic civility,' but such
civility does not always accompany the activities of all organisations that are
more widely accepted as part of civil society either. It is inherent in the
nature of civil society that the common good may have to give way to group
interests.
A distinction that Putnam makes in his more recent book, Bowling alone (2000),
between two types of social capital will be very useful to our analysis.
Whereas his earlier work has contributed much to the belief that all forms of
social capital are basically good because they create social trust in some
spheres, that will ultimately raise the level of social trust in society as a
whole, his more recent work is sensitive to the disruptive potential of certain
forms of social capital. He contrasts 'bridging' and 'bonding' forms of social
capital. The former, 'bonding' social capital, consists of social ties between
members of the same segment of society, for example ethnic, class, religious or
ideological subgroups. It makes for greater internal cohesion and solidarity of
the subgroup and may be of very great value to the individual members. However,
strong 'bonding' social capital generates trust in one's own group but may at
the same time increase distrust of the rest of the world (although it does not
necessarily do so). 'Bridging' social capital, on the other hand, consists of
social ties between members of different subgroups in society; it is the cement
that keeps society as a whole together. It is probably the case that sustained
ethnic and inter-religious conflict will only occur where there is a sufficient
amount of 'bonding' social capital. The absence of social capital may in fact
be less threatening to society than strong 'bonding' social capital that is not
balanced by 'bridging' social capital. Conflict resolution will in most cases
require an investment in 'bridging' capital, quite apart from the material
concessions to be made by the conflicting parties.
All of this appears quite self-evident, and it yields a useful yardstick for
measuring the performance of civil society organisations. At one extreme we
find those exclusivist groups that, like the Jama`ah Islamiyah, consider all
'bridging' ties with groups and ideas outside their own circle as sinful. Who
joins such a jama`ah may even have to break off old ties with friends and
relatives; bonding creates a sense of belonging but also dependence on the
group.[27] The thrust of the key text Al-walâ' wa'l-barâ' may be adequately
summarised in the slogan 'bonding yes, bridging no!'
Muslim mass organisations such as NU and Muhammadiyah also constitute a
significant 'bonding' capital; participation in them is a major aspect of the
members' identity and considerably colours their worldview. One remarkable
finding of the PPIM survey that was highlighted above was, however, that this
'bonding' capital is in the case of active members balanced by their also
stronger than average 'bridging' capital.
Muslim NGOs too engage in bonding as well as bridging, and it is significant
that there continues to exist some uneasiness if not distrust between NGO
activists of NU and Muhammadiyah backgrounds. Many young NGO activists of NU
background find it easier to work together with their Catholic or secular peers
than with those of Muhammadiyah background - clearly not all cultural divides
are equally easily bridged.
The deepest cultural and political divide in Indonesian society, and the one
invested with most emotion and mistrust, is that between Islam and
Communism.[28] The most challenging task in civil society building in Indonesia
is no doubt that of bringing these two extremes together and having them embark
on a process of dialogue, healing traumas, and where possible undoing past
injustice. The most valiant effort at creating bridging social capital that I
am aware of is that of a small Muslim NGO, Syarikat, that has taken on this
challenge and has been organising meetings of perpetrators and victims of the
1965-66 massacres, in a modest emulation of the work of South Africa's truth
and reconciliation commission. Syarikat activists have furthermore been doing
oral history investigations into the events of 1965-66 and have engaged in
advocacy on behalf of (relatives of) the victims.[29] With these actions,
Syarikat activists do not necessarily endear themselves to their own
communities of origin (which are all strictly NU). Although they have persuaded
senior kiai to give them their moral support, they are aware that their
activities may easily be seen as weakening the cohesion of their own group,
building 'bridging' social capital at the expense of 'bonding' capital.
The most significant difference between an NGO such as Syarikat and an
usrah-based movement is, from a civil society point of view, not the degree of
civility or the usefulness to the individuals concerned but the nature of the
social bonds that are fostered.
The rise of bonding social capital: a Christian usrah movement?
It was suggested above that usrah and jama`ah-type organisations among
Indonesian Muslims have developed since the early 1980s. This may be related to
the global rise of Islamist movements, but there probably were also factors
specific to the Indonesian situation. Two factors already mentioned were the
suppression of political dissent and the ban of student movements that had
until 1978 contributed to vibrant public debate in the universities. Rapid
economic growth without real development and a widespread sense of alienation
among (lower) middle class groups may also have been contributing factors. One
reason to seek an explanation for the emergence of these movements in
Indonesian society rather than in global processes alone is the little-remarked
fact that among Indonesia's Christians one finds a somewhat similar development
to that of the usrah movements, beginning at more or less the same time.
At least since the early 1980s, and perhaps earlier, small Bible study and
prayer groups called persekutuan do'a became increasingly popular among
Protestant Christians. Catholics later (towards the end of the 1980s) followed
suit with similar small groups, the [kelompok] do'a karismatik. The persekutuan
do'a consists of perhaps 10 to 25 people, mostly husband-and-wife couples,
belonging to the same church, who meet regularly (typically once a week) in
members' homes to read the Bible and pray together. The group members usually
live in the same neighbourhood and have more or less equal socio-economic
status. This facilitates the development of closer and more intimate and
emotional ties among the members. Members' personal or family problems are
often discussed in the group; the members help each other where they can and
pray together for divine intervention to solve problems. For some people, the
persekutuan do'a is one among several networks linking them to others; to many,
it is the most important network and the only one that is invested with
emotionality (it may become more important than one's family). Members also
tend to be in contact outside the weekly meetings.
The Catholic kelompok do'a karismatik is not much different. Prayers for
intercession by Mary are more prominent and, in a departure from Catholic
practice, the Bible is read in each session; there is the same combination of
study, prayer and interpersonal involvement as in the Protestant prayer
meeting.[30] There is a conviction that joint prayer is more effective than
individual prayer in invoking divine blessing and support (hence the name of
these groups, karismatik). Support of the group (and a degree of social
control) is also believed to contribute to strengthening the members' faith.
Recently, even smaller prayer groups have begun to be formed within the
charismatic prayer group, the kelompok inti (core group) or sel (cell) with
only five or six members. This core group meets even more frequently among
itself than the prayer group as a whole. The members of the cell come together
once a week too, and in addition each member has daily telephone contact with
every single other member; and they pray for one another every day. The degree
of intimacy between the members is much greater than in the larger karismatik
group; there is a deeper involvement in each other's problems and commitment to
strengthen each other's faith; members claim they feel that the joint prayers
are even 'stronger.'[31]
It is especially these cells that are reminiscent of the usrah among radical
Muslims, although the political dimension appears to be entirely lacking and
there is no secretiveness. Strong social trust is generated in these small
groups, but this appears to be combined with a high level of distrust towards
the world outside; the strengthening of ties within the group goes hand in hand
with a corresponding weakening of other ties. It is unlikely therefore that
this social trust will ever be transferred to society as a whole; it would
rather appear that the reverse is true and that these groups are a response to
insecurity and widespread lack of trust of the wider society. The PPIM survey
that was referred to repeatedly above indicates a very low level of
interpersonal trust in Indonesia compared to other developing countries.[32] No
doubt the economic hardship and political insecurities of the post-Suharto
years are partly to blame for the lack of trust, but even before the East Asian
crisis the level of trust in Indonesia was low. The popularity of conspiracy
theories - of conspiracies against Islam or against the position of Christians
in society and the state but also of conspiracies against individuals - and the
low level of trust are two sides of the same coin. In this context, many people
will prefer to invest in bonding rather than in bridging social capital.
The paradox of the Partai Keadilan:
imperfect democrats but perhaps Indonesia's strongest force for democratisation
To make a bold leap from small-scale prayer meetings to the political arena, a
look at the phenomenon of the Partai Keadilan is perhaps an appropriate
occasion to bring together the various threads of the preceding argument. This
party - since 2002, after a split and a reunion renamed Partai Keadilan
Sejahtera - came out of the Tarbiyah movement; its founders and present leaders
are former campus activists. The Tarbiyah movement had the usrah - jama`ah
structure discussed above, probably including the aspect of sirriyah,
secretiveness, but the party has a transparent structure and an explicit
ideology, party program and by-laws.[33] In the run-up to the 1999 elections,
many observers were struck by the fact that this was in fact the only party
with a clear program. Its performance in the following years has only
strengthened this perception: the party was not plagued by the internal
difficulties, infighting and corruption that most other parties experienced; it
remains a small party but showed itself a reliable and predictable actor.
The PK(S) shares with other Islamists the objective of turning Indonesia into
an Islamic state based on the shari`a. Unlike some other Islamist movements,
however, the Tarbiyah movement does not believe there is a shortcut to that
distant objective. It has to be reached through disciplining of the individual
and gradually transforming society, not through violent rebellion. Essentially,
the movement accepts the path of democracy. The party makes no effort to gain
numerous adherents but is selective in admitting members and subjects them, and
especially its cadres, to a thorough training. In that sense it sees itself as
a vanguard rather than a mass party - much as the Muslim Brotherhood and the
Jama`at- Islami do.
The PK(S), or at least some of its leaders, also subscribes to the belief in
anti-Islamic conspiracies and is hostile to Muslims of more secular or liberal
persuasions. The first two slim volumes in a political education series written
by the party's chief ideologist Abu Ridha - practically the official training
manuals of the PK(S) - are quite explicit in both respects.[34] And again like
most other Islamists, PK(S) spokesmen are not just anti-Zionist and
anti-Western but anti-Semitic. This is clearly not a liberal party (it
certainly does not claim to be one either), and its vision of society clashes
at some points with liberal democratic values. Beneath its transparent formal
structure, one suspects there are less visible lines of command following the
structure of the usrah network.
And yet. In spite of all this, the Partai Keadilan (Sejahtera) is one of the
very few forces in the political arena that may seriously contribute to a
gradual democratisation of the country. One reason for believing this is that,
unlike other jama`ah-based movements, it believes in participation in the
existing political system and in changing society through persuasion of
individuals rather than through grabbing power. In its practice if not in its
discourse it is moderate and patient, and it accepts pluralism as a given.
Unlike most other parties, the PK(S) is not eager for a share of power. The
party refused to join Abdurrahman Wahid's cabinet, and when party chairman Nur
Mahmudi Ismail accepted the position of Minister of Forestry and Plantations
(for which he was, significantly, qualified!), he had to resign his position in
the party. This indicates, incidentally, that positions of power in the party
are not personalised; and in fact promotion in the party ranks appears largely
based on merit. The party's leaders are refreshingly uncharismatic. It is
definitely one of the most rationalised parties (in the Weberian sense) in the
Indonesian political system.
The party's basic documents - its political manifesto, by-laws, and programme -
candidly address issues where the shari`a and democracy may be at odds, and it
resolves the matter in a way that raises confidence in its embrace of
procedural democracy. Islamists will always place the divine will above the
will of the people, and some (especially Saudi-style puritans) consider
democracy as sinful hubris. The PK's political manifesto however endorses
democracy based on popular sovereignty on principle, except where this
explicitly is in conflict with divine command. This reminds one of the slogan
that was popular in Islamic student groups in the 1980s: "in Islam everything
is allowed, except that which God has explicitly forbidden."
The party's emphasis on justice and equality is not surprising in an Islamist
party, but the manifesto explicitly includes women among those who should be
equal: all human beings are God's vicegerents on earth, and women have the same
rights and obligations as men, "except where the Qur'an makes explicit
exceptions." Women therefore can take part in public life and in politics; they
are in fact represented in the party's board, though not strongly: four out of
fifty board members are women. Accepting a woman as the president of the
country, however, has been a problem for the party. In 1999, it rejected the
idea of a female President as long as capable men were available. In 2001
however, when Abdurrahman Wahid was brought down, the PK pragmatically
recognised Megawati as the President because she had reached the position by
legally correct procedure.
The Partai Keadilan Sejahtera is not in all respects a democratic party - but
that is also true of many Christian political parties in the world.[35] Doubts
may also linger as to its real views on the position of non-Muslim minorities:
will these always be accepted as fully equal citizens, as the party's public
view has it? Or does the party hold on to a distant ideal of an Islamic state
in which non-Muslims will be protected but essentially unequal subjects? What
are the party's views on the hudud punishments? Does it aspire to have these
enacted, once, in a distant future? Or is it (as I suspect) content not to have
to think much about these questions because in the present situation they are
irrelevant?
It is the comparison with other political parties that brings out most clearly
the positive side of the PK(S). It does not suffer from the depressing
patrimonialism and corruption of most other parties (especially the large
ones); it does not depend on primordial loyalties but on merit and political
ideas. It is the only party that is consistently against all forms of
corruption (and not only against corruption among its political foes). In its
allegiance to existing procedure it probably is a more consistent supporter of
procedural democracy than most rival parties. In its insistence on the quality
rather than the quantity of its members, it is unlikely ever to become a big
party. It may come to play a role not dissimilar to that of the Indonesian
Socialist Party in the 1950s: never part of the establishment (although
individual members became influential policy advisers), always a critical voice
in the margin, and influential because of the strength of its ideas and its
moral consistency.
Conclusion
Since the fall of Suharto, Indonesia's NGOs, including the Muslim NGOs, have
flourished to an unprecedented degree. The Asian crisis, krismon (the monetary
crisis), kristal (the total crisis), the krisis multidimensi or whatever the
crisis was called brought nothing but prosperity to the NGO world, as the major
international agencies sought out NGOs as counterparts for their
crisis-alleviating and democracy-fostering programs. September 11 imposed new
priorities on the international agencies, which is reflected in increasing
support for Muslim activities that represent an alternative to fundamentalist
Islam (such as those of the Liberal Islam Network). Some of these activities
might have been initiated anyway, but in the post 9/11 world more funding has
been available for them. Muslim NGOs are more vibrant than ever and engage in a
wide range of activities. They appear to be re-conquering parts of the public
sphere that had in the 1990s come under almost hegemonic control of Islamist
discourses.
Islamist groups, many of them organised as jama`ah, have been discussed above
as another type of civil society organisations. I have tried to bring out some
significant parallels and differences between these groups and the NGOs. The
transnational linkages of both types of organisation - the movement of people
(e.g. for study), ideas and money - have been extremely important in shaping
both. Presently, flows of money and people from the Middle East have been
brought under control of the state, which may in the long run be favourable to
the 'liberal' currents in Indonesian Islam. However, much of the violent
Islamist activism of the past years appears to have been bankrolled by
indigenous elite groups, not from abroad. (I postpone judgment on the degree to
which Jama`ah Islamiyah terrorism has been steered and financed from the Middle
East.) The Middle Eastern influence has been strongest on the level of ideas
and public discourse. The present confrontation between the West and Islam will
do little to decrease the hold of conspiratorial and fundamentalist worldviews
over large segments of the Muslim population and may in fact strengthen it.
The large mass organisations Muhammadiyah and NU constitute, it has been my
claim, the stable centre of Indonesia's Muslim community and important props of
civil society. Many members of these associations are also active in other,
non-religious networks and organisations, investing in what I have termed
(following Putnam) 'bridging' social capital. Moderation and tolerance have
long been characteristic of the mainstream members of these associations. Both
have resolutely opposed issues that could lead to the further polarisation of
society (such as the Jakarta Charter). They may not always remain so moderate,
however. In both organisations there are second-echelon leaders who attempt to
build their careers on appealing to primordial sentiments and playing the
'fundamentalist' card.
The Partai Keadilan Sejahtera is even more 'fundamentalist' in inspiration, but
for a number of reasons explained above I believe it may in fact contribute to
democratisation (or come to the defence of a fragile democracy against new
authoritarian tendencies) rather than being a threat to it. It is not the
party's theoretical ideas about divine versus human sovereignty that will
determine its democratic performance but its acceptance of the rules of the
game and the fact that it is a rational and rationalised organisation.
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Putnam, Robert D. Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American
community. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.
Qahthani, Muhammad Sa'id al-. Loyalitas & antiloyalitas dalam Islam [al-wala'
wal-bara']. Solo: Era Intermedia, 2000.
Rasjidi, H.M. Koreksi terhadap Drs. Nurcholish Madjid tentang sekularisasi [A
correction of Nurcholish Madjid on secularization]. Jakarta: Bulan Bintang,
1972.
Santoso, Thomas. "Kekerasan politik - agama: studi historis - sosiologis atas
perusakan gereja di Situbondo [Religio-political violence: a historical and
sociological study of the destruction of churches in Situbondo] ."
Dissertation, Universitas Airlangga, 2002.
Setiawan, Bonnie, ed. Perjuangan demokrasi dan masyarakat sipil: Reposisi dan
peran Ornop/LSM di Indonesia. Jakarta: INFID, International NGO Forum on
Indonesian Development, 2000.
Sidel, John T. "Riots, church burnings, conspiracies: the moral economy of the
Indonesian crowd in the late twentieth century." In Violence in Indonesia,
edited by Ingrid Wessel and Georgia Wimhöfer, 47-63. Hamburg: Abera Verlag,
2001.
Siegel, James T. "Kiblat and the mediatic Jew." Indonesia 69 (2000): 9-40.
Soepriyadi, Es. Ngruki & jaringan terorisme: melacak jejak Abu Bakar Ba'asyir
dan jaringannya dari Ngruki sampai bom Bali [Ngruki and the terrorist network:
tracing Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and his network from Ngruki to the Bali bombing].
Jakarta: P.T. Al-Mawardi Prima, 2003.
Sumargono, H. Ahmad. Saya seorang fundamentalis [I am a fundamentalist]. Bogor:
Global Cita Press, 1999.
Tahalele, Paul, and Thomas Santoso. Beginikah kemerdekaan kita?[Is this what
our Independence is like?]. Surabaya: Forum Komunikasi Kristiani Indonesia,
1997.
Uhlin, Anders. Indonesia and the "Third Wave of Democratization": the
Indonesian pro-democracy movement in a changing world. Richmond: Curzon, 1997.
Umam, Fawaizul. "Modal sosial NU - ekonomika pemberdayaan warga Nahdliyin.
[NU's social capital: the economics of empowering the NU's constituency.]"
Gèrbang, Jurnal Studi Agama dan Demokrasi No. 12 Vol. V (2002): 138-166.
Wajidi, Farid. "Syarikat dan Eksperimentasi Rekonsiliasi Kulturalnya [Syarikat
and its experiment in cultural reconciliation]." Tashwirul Afkar, Jurnal
refleksi Pemikiran Keagamaan & Kebudayaan, forthcoming.
[1] Shi`ism came to be singled out as a major threat from the 1980s on, when
the effects of the Iranian revolution made themselves felt in Indonesia. Dozens
of anti-Shi`a books and pamphlets, in which Shi`ism is frequently depicted as a
Jewish invention, were printed and widely distributed. The term "Liberal
Islam", originally the title of a book of readings edited by Charles Kurzman,
has been adopted by a group of young Muslim intellectuals who wish to counter
'literalist' Islam by more sophisticated and liberal interpretations. The
group has, unsurprisingly, been the target of various counter-offensives from
the 'literalist' side. A recent book-length attack by Fauzan Al-Anshori, the
Jakarta spokesman for the Majelis Mujahidin, explicitly declares the liberal
Islam network to be part of an international anti-Islamic conspiracy and points
to its "unlimited funding" by The Asia Foundation as evidence (Al-Anshori 2003:
10, 17).
[2] For some contemporary Muslim views, see: Natsir 1967; Pusat Jajasan
Pendidikan Tinggi Da'wah Islam 1967; Al-Andunisi 1984.
[3] "Revelations" on the anti-Islamic policies of CSIS, based on alleged leaked
documents, appeared repeatedly in the Muslim press during the 1970s. For one
such document see Oey Hong Lee 1979, pp. 216-7. Even after the CSIS lost its
influence on New Order policies, it remained the object of intense dislike and
suspicion in reformist Muslim circles. At the time of Suharto's fall, PPP
politician Hartono Mardjono presented it again as an actor in his theory of
global conspiracy (Mardjono 1998).
[4] Polemics about Nurcholish' ideas, often based on a misunderstanding of what
he attempted to say, have been numerous. For an example of reformist anger see
Rasjidi 1972; for an early study of the polemics, Hassan 1980 (originally a
1975 Ph.D. thesis).
[5] On the DDII, see Husin 1998; Hakiem and Linrung 1997. The latter book (a
self-representation) is especially informative on the international connections.
[6] In the 1980s and 1990s, much anti-Semitic literature (including several
versions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion) was translated into
Indonesian, strengthening the tendency to analyse the world in terms of
conspiracy theories. See Bruinessen 1994a; Siegel 2000.
[7] Two books written by KISDI chairman Sumargono (1999) and sympathiser
Mardjono (1998) illustrate the mindset in cautious terms. Material of a much
more inflammatory nature, strongly anti-Chinese and anti-Christian, was
allegedly written for agitation purposes by prominent young Muslim
intellectuals working for Prabowo Subianto in 1997 (cf. Hefner 2000: 202-3).
After his retirement as head of the National Intelligence Agency (BAKIN) in
2000, Z.A. Maulani wrote a whole series of books on American and Zionist
conspiracies against the Muslim world. Maulani 2002 is a typical though hardly
original example of how anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have penetrated
radical Muslim anti-imperialist discourse.
[8] Most conspicuously Din Syamsuddin, holder of a Ph.D. degree from UCLA and
one of the alleged authors of the anti-Christian and anti-Chinese pamphlet
mentioned in note 7. He presently is the secretary general of the Indonesian
Council of Ulama (MUI) and a chairman of Muhammadiyah, and is perhaps the
strongest candidate for succession to the leadership of this major organisation.
[9] The most useful overviews of these debates are still Boland 1971 (writing
from a Christian perspective) and Anshari 1981 (from a modernist Muslim
perspective).
[10] Church burnings are documented in Tahalele and Santoso 1997. Cf Sidel 2001
and Santoso's 2002 dissertation.
[11] On the Majelis Mujahidin, see Bruinessen 2002.
[12] PPIM (Centre for Research on Islam and Society) is a research institute of
the State Islamic University (UIN, formerly IAIN) in Ciputat, Jakarta. An
earlier, more modest survey had been carried out in 2001. The 2002 survey
covered all of Indonesia and was based on interviews with 2500 respondents in
312 villages or urban wards chosen randomly with a stratified sampling
technique. Muslims constituted 89% of the respondents, which is close to the
88% figure of the population census. A full report and analysis of the findings
is given in Mujani 2003; a useful English summary (Mujani and Liddle
forthcoming) circulated on the Internet in early 2003.
[13] Mujani and Liddle, art.cit.; Mujani 2003: 127. Mujani constructed an
'index of Islamism' based on the responses to 14 questions like the ones quoted
and calculated the correlations between this and other components and
variables.
[14] Mujani and Liddle, art.cit. In the former four provinces, around 45%
scored 50 points or more on Mujani's 'index of Islamism' (a scale of 0 to 100
points, national average 39); in Yogya this was 28% and in Jakarta 33%.
[15] It should be added, however, that the social, economic and political
backgrounds of these regional shari`a movements have not been properly studied.
It is not unlikely that these movements also represent certain specific
political and economic interests that are in themselves not at all religious.
Islamic law may be more favourable to certain interests than adat or state
civil and criminal law. A call for Islamic law may also reflect a wish to
reduce competition from non-Muslims.
[16] Mujani and Liddle, art.cit.
[17] The tables of correlations in Mujani's thesis (2003: 224, 230-1) show that
NU and Muhammadiyah identities correlate positively with some but not at all or
negatively with other forms of civic engagement. Some of the correlations may
simply be artefacts of the way the questionnaire was framed and delivered.
Mujani and Liddle are somewhat selective in highlighting these correlations and
appear overly optimistic in their conclusion, but at least some of the
correlations are significant. It should be noted that civic participation is
much more strongly correlated with the degree of education and that some of the
apparent positive impact of involvement in NU or Muhammadiyah on civic
attitudes may be due to the slightly higher degree of education of those
actively involved in these associations as compared to others. (A multivariate
analysis shows, however, that there still is a correlation between Islamic and
non-religious civic engagement when the factor education is controlled; ibid.,
158-9.)
[18] A major exception is Nakamura's study of Muhammadiyah in Kota Gede (1983).
On NU, there are some relevant observations in Bruinessen 1994b and Umam 2002.
[19] Cf. note 1. See also JIL's website at www.islamlib.com/. Book-length
denunciations of JIL include Husaini and Hidayat 2002, Al-Anshori 2003, and
Armas 2003. Relations with the West, with Christianity and with Orientalist
constructions of Islam figure prominently among the accusations.
[20] Much ink has been spilt over the Jama`ah Islamiyah, and most reports
attribute more centralised structure and internal cohesion to it than I believe
is warranted. Much crucial information depends on intelligence sources and
cannot be checked independently. The best and most judicious reports available
are those written by Sidney Jones for the International Crisis Group (2002a,
2002b, 2003), which do not rely on intelligence sources but on public trial
depositions and confidential interviews (that cannot be checked independently
either). Even Jones, however, who is an experienced observer of Indonesian
Islamic radicalism, is inclined to view the Jama`ah Islamiyah as a centralised
and well-co-ordinated network, with the pesantren of Ngruki as its centre. I
believe a modest infusion of chaos theory will make for a more realistic
representation of this shadowy network.
[21] On Imran and his jama`ah, see Any 1982.
[22] See however Kraince 2000 and Damanik 2002, two studies on the public
student movement and the political party of the late 1990s that emerged from
this underground movement. On the various radical movements and their
interconnections see also Bruinessen 2002.
[23] E.g., Jones 2003: 11, based on an interrogation deposition of a detained
member describing the formal organisation of the Jama`ah Islamiyah as laid down
in a handbook written by Abdullah Sungkar in 1996. Police and intelligence
services have been concentrating their investigations on terrorist acts carried
out by segments this network and given much less attention to other activities.
The ultimate objective is the establishment of an Islamic state; it is not
clear, at least not to me, whether it is the entire network that has adopted
anti-Christian and anti-Western terrorism as its current chief occupation or
just several disparate parts of the network. The spokesmen of the Jama`ah's
front, the Majelis Mujahidin, have prided themselves in their members
participation in the (defensive) jihad in the Moluccas but strongly denied the
involvement of Ba'asyir and his direct circle in such terrorist acts as the
Christmas 2000 church bombings and later the Bali and Marriott bombings. See
e.g. Al-Anshori 2002, Soepriyadi 2003.
[24] Jabir 2001 (1987). The Indonesian translation has a preface by a prominent
member of the Tarbiyah movement, Salim Segaf Al Jufri, who studied together
with the author in Medina. The book describes the Muslim Brotherhood, the
Jama`at-i Islami and the Hizb at-Tahrir as proper examples.
[25] Jabir 2001: 205-214.
[26] The original Arabic version of this text, Al-walâ' wa'l-barâ' fî'l-islâm,
has long been used in the pesantren Al-Mukmin in Ngruki (Solo), that was
established by Sungkar and Ba'asyir in 1972 and that was the first breeding
ground for the usrah movement. Ngruki still constitutes a major node in the
Jama`ah Islamiyah network. An Indonesian translation of the book circulated in
stenciled form; it could only be legally published in the Reformasi period
(Qahthani 2000).
[27] In this respect, at least some jama`ah are not unlike radical sects and
cult groups. I have heard several accounts of young people who, once they
joined a jama`ah, were not allowed to regularly visit their parents and when
they did visit had to be accompanied by other members of the jama`ah so as to
prevent intimate personal contact. Marriages within the jama`ah are strongly
encouraged, and the women are expected to contribute to the jama`ah by bearing
many children.
[28] The measure of Muslim mistrust of Communism and Communists was brought out
clearly in the PPIM survey. Over 80% of the respondents objected to having
Communists as neighbours, as against 16% rejecting Christians. When asked which
group they disliked most in society, 58% said Communists, 7% Christians and 8%
Jews (Mujani 2003: 168-179).
[29] Syarikat is one of the NGOs on which Farid Wajidi's Ph.D. research
focuses. See Wajidi, forthcoming, and also Wajidi's contribution in this volume.
[30] Because of their apparent deviance from established practice, many
ordinary Catholics initially considered these charismatic prayer groups as
'eccentric' (nyeleneh) and almost Protestant, but meanwhile they have become
quite respectable.
[31] These paragraphs on prayer meetings are based on observations by me and
especially my wife, Listiyorini Goenoprasodjo, in Protestant and Catholic
circles in Surabaya over the past years. I thank Rini's friends for reporting
their experiences.
[32] Only around 10% of the respondents agreed with the statement "most people
can be trusted," which is way below the Asian average. Lower levels of trust
were only reported (in earlier surveys in the 1990s) for the Philippines (5.5%)
and Turkey (7%) (Mujani 2003: 137-142).
[33] The party's excellent website, www.keadilan.or.id/, has all relevant party
documents and reflects the party's sophistication. A glance at the website of
the branch in the Netherlands (unsurprisingly based at Delft Technical
University), www.pk-sejahtera.nl/, with its details on cadre training and on
what is expected from junior and senior members, confirms that this is a very
well organized party.
[34] A major global challenge for the da`wah movement is, Abu Ridha writes,
"that the Islamic world is encircled by the Crusader-Zionist alliance under
American command" and is subject to "a wave of conspiracies causing [.]
political, economic, social, cultural security and other problems that are
difficult to resolve." Usama bin Laden and the Taliban government in
Afghanistan were "only short-term targets; in the medium and long term the
conspiracy aims at the subjection of the Islamic world and the complete
destruction of its powers." (Abu Ridha 2002: 13-14). In Indonesia itself, "it
is not the unbelievers (kafir) but people who claim to be Muslims, such as the
Liberal Islam Network [.] and the renewal movement of Nurcholish [Madjid] and
friends [.] who oppose the application of the shari`a" (Abu Ridha 2003: 30).
[35] In a recent article comparing the 'third wave of democratisation', which
took largely place in Catholic countries (in Latin America, the Philippines and
Poland) with the situation in Muslim countries, José Casanova (2001) parts
company with Samuel Huntington and denies the overriding importance of
civilisational factors. The political traditions of these Catholic countries
were not less authoritarian and anti-democratic than those in Muslim countries.
For those who wish to find them, Islam offers as many arguments in favour of
human agency, individual responsibility and accountability, and respect of
others as the Christian traditions do.
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