A REAL THREAT FROM WITHIN: Muhammadiyah's Identity Metamorphosis and the Dilemma of Democracy (original) (raw)

Authoritarianism, Democracy, Islamic Movements and Contestations of Islamic Religious Ideas in Indonesia

Religions, 2021

Since independence, Islamic civil society groups and intellectuals have played a vital role in Indonesian politics. This paper seeks to chart the contestation of Islamic religious ideas in Indonesian politics and society throughout the 20th Century, from the declaration of independence in 1945 up until 2001. This paper discusses the social and political influence of, and relationships between, three major Indonesian Islamic intellectual streams: Modernists, Traditionalists, and neo-Modernists. It describes the intellectual roots of each of these Islamic movements, their relationships with the civil Islamic groups Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), their influence upon Indonesian politics, and their interactions with the state. The paper examines the ways in which mainstream Islamic politics in Indonesia, the world’s largest majority Muslim nation, has been shaped by disagreements between modernists and traditionalists, beginning in the early 1950s. Disagreements resulted in a schism within Masyumi, the dominant Islamic party, that saw the traditionalists affiliated with NU leave to establish a separate NU party. Not only did this prevent Masyumi from coming close to garnering a majority of the votes in the 1955 election, but it also contributed to Masyumi veering into Islamism. This conservative turn coincided with elite contestation to define Indonesia as an Islamic state and was a factor in the party antagonizing President Sukarno to the point that he moved to ban it. The banning of Masyumi came as Sukarno imposed ‘guided democracy’ as a soft-authoritarian alternative to democracy and set in train dynamics that facilitated the emergence of military-backed authoritarianism under Suharto. During the four decades in which democracy was suppressed in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, and associated NGOs, activists, and intellectuals were the backbones of civil society. They provided critical support for the nonsectarian principles at the heart of the Indonesian constitution, known as Pancasila. This found the strongest and clearest articulation in the neo-Modernist movement that emerged in the 1980s and synthesized key elements of traditionalist Islamic scholarship and Modernist reformism. Neo- Modernism, which was articulated by leading Islamic intellectual Nurcholish Madjid and Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman AbdurrahmanWahid, presents an open, inclusive, progressive understanding of Islam that is affirming of social pluralism, comfortable with modernity, and stresses the need for tolerance and harmony in inter-communal relations. Its articulation by Wahid, who later became president of Indonesia, contributed to Indonesia’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy. The vital contribution of neo-Modernist Islam to democracy and reform in Indonesia serves to refute the notion that Islam is incompatible with democracy and pluralism.

MUSLIM’S APPROACHES TO DEMOCRACY: Islam and Democracy in Contemporary Indonesia

JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN ISLAM, 2007

This article seeks to provide a theoretical account of how Indonesian Muslims have approached Islam and democracy. Historical analysis, combined with literary overview, is deployed to trace the empirical passage of Indonesian Muslims in developing discourses on democracy. This article argues that a widely-religion-based democracy is on the way of making. Following this process, discourses and counter-discourses on democracy are simply inevitable. The point of departure on which Muslims frequently disagree with each other is whether or not the type of Indonesian democracy should follow the path of Western secular democracy. Accordingly, three approaches following these lively discourses on democracy came into existence: First, the Huwaydian approach that claims the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Second, the Mawdudian approach that stands in an ambiguous position between rejecting and accepting democracy. Third, the Qutbian approach which argues that democracy is inimical to Islam by definition. Despite the risk of oversimplification and conceptual discrepancy, the three terms are utilized merely for the purpose of sociological categorization.

Moving towards a Normalised Path: Political Islam in Contemporary Indonesia

As the largest predominantly Muslim country of the globe, Indonesia nearly achieves two decades of its democratisation wave since the downfall of the Authoritarian Rule in 1998. Most scholars argue that the democratisation in Indo-nesia today is situated by the fact that it is unlikely to suffer a regression, but its developments have slow paces towards an embedded democracy for years to come. Political parties, one of the crucial democratic institutions, have a significant responsibility to maintain the democratic system as they are the sole official representatives to create leaders and policies in the government. In accordance with this, political Islam nonetheless has its strategic role to establish the fate and future of Indonesia as a Muslim state outside the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. This paper portrays the trajectory of political Islam in Indonesia particularly Islam-based parties slightly under two decades since Post-New Order regime. Islam-based parties have a potential to be a moderate-official force in the government. It could be proven by the threefold indicator. First is the ripeness of Islam-based parties in coping with both internal and external stimuli such as the leadership change and elite conflicts, the constitutional reform and the electoral result. Second is the role of Muslim political forces in the parliament particularly in addressing the policy-making of controversial bills. Third is the involvement of Islam-based parties in the administration cabinet. To sum up, by applying the analytical framework on the party goal, political Islam in Indonesia has three distinctive features: As " the vote-seekers " in the election, as " the issue-advocates " in the legislature and as " the office-seekers " in the executive. These denote to a normalised path of political Islam in reaching out the embedded democracy.

MUSLIM POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY: The Case of Indonesia

JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN ISLAM, 2007

This article tries to scrutinize the complexity of dealing with the attempts at crafting democracy in Indonesia. It relates the issue of deploying religion among Muslim actors with the issue of state-market powerrelations. With regard to the failing attempts of democratization, the writer argues that the problem does not lie with religion and Islam as such, but with democratisation that has run aground for a number of reasons. The real challenge is to develop more independent means of political representation. In his opinion, quoting Demos' survey, the major task in the country at large is to build popularly rooted and representative civic-political organisations. He goes on to argue that while Muslim politics may promote measures against corruption, and neo-liberal actors may foster the rule of the laws they have shaped, both tendencies neglect independent popular representation to promote politically equal control of public affairs.

Indonesian Democracy and the Transformation of Political Islam

We propose an analytical framework for understanding the relationship between democracy and political Islam in Indonesia. We argue that three rounds of democratic elections in Indonesia have produced two distinct but fundamentally related outcomes: the normalization of Islamist party politics alongside what we tentatively call stealth Islamization. This paper outlines our argument, distinguishes it from existing approaches to political Islam and democracy in contemporary Indonesia, and outlines the evidence that we will use to support it in what we envision to be a booklength project.

Islamic Organizations and Electoral Politics in Indonesia: The Case of Muhammadiyah

South East Asia Research, 2014

What role do Muslim social and educational organizations play in Indonesian politics after democratization? When democratization opens up a larger political space for Islamic organizations to participate in politics, do Muslim organizations emerge as political powers or remain socio-religious organizations? How do Muslim organizations engage in electoral politics? This article addresses these questions by examining the role of Muhammadiyah in democratic Indonesian politics. The author argues that Muhammadiyah's political behaviour is driven by its institutional logic, which places its religious and social duties before its political interests. Although there have been attempts by some elites to take advantage of Muhammadiyah for their own political gains, Muhammadiyah has managed to refrain from building or supporting a particular political party at the organizational level. Moreover, political learning through unsuccessful outcomes in initial elections and bitter experience with PKS also alerted Muhammadiyah to the need to protect itself from partisan politics by emphasizing its organizational principle. This article also demonstrates how religious institutions use politics for religious ends and to confirm the integrity of their community.

The Role of Islamic Organizations' Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama'in Forming National Politics in Indonesia

Polit Journal, 2023

Unlike many of Islamic organizations, where they have some international agenda, Islamic social organizations in Indonesia have unique characteristics allowed them to play an important role in Indonesian society. Although, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama have some differences in basic thoughts and mechanism of actions but they are in the same competition to serve the society. This specific case made these two organizations more long lasting and trustworthy. This study included explanation of values, political characteristics and feature of these two Islamic organizations in addition to the role of both of them in shaping political aspects in Indonesia. This study was conducted by adopting qualitative approach through interviews with regional leaders and scholars in East Java Province. Narrative approach was used to finalize the results and writing report. This study reveals the political role of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama through forming political parties, participation in election, adopting Pancasila, education, economic activities, and religious occasions in shaping the political identity in the country. The formers, scholars, regional leaders of both organizations have an effect on followers and society to choose representatives in DPR (People's representative council), MPR (People's consultative assembly) and DPD (Regional representative council).

The Indonesian Government's Political Control of the Islamic Ideology Movement in a Country with a Majority of Muslims

Archives of Current Research International

Geneological perspective differences on the Jakarta Charter had become the main cause for some Islamic groups to have an endless struggle in embodying Islamism and Islamic ideology formalism as the basis of their philosophy and ideology. Compromise and radicalism are part of the movement of these groups. This study aims to examine the supporters’ movement of the understanding of Islamism and Islamic Idiology formalism in order to get involve in Indonesian political system. The phenomenological constructivism approach is used in understanding the views of New Order Regime and Reforms Regime in dealing with Islamism and Islamic idiology formalism which are taken from interview and document analysis. The results of the study show that the radical issues are far more than the normal level of the Indonesian Islam movement. The concerns of certain groups which are oriented towards the Islamic movement in Indonesia are more co-opted in an anti-Islamic global network sponsored by the United...