Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium

8. Political Islam in Post-Soeharto Indonesia

133 Political Islam in Post-Soeharto Indonesia 8 POLITICAL ISLAM IN POST-SOEHARTO INDONESIA Azyumardi Azra The dawn of the new millennium has brought not only euphoria to citizens of the world, but also hopes of better political and economic lives for Muslims. By the same token, the new millennium brings increasing anxiety among Muslims as tendencies, which have gained momentum over the last decade, intensify. As Liddle and Mujani (2000) rightly argue, one of the most evident tendencies in the post-Cold War period up until the new millennium was the rapid growth of democracies, or at least there was a strong tendency that increasing numbers of nation-states are becoming more democratic. This tendency, as both scholars further point out, seems not to be taking place in dominant or predominant Muslim states in the Islamic world as a whole. As a result, the old question regarding Islam and democracy: whether or not Islam could play a more positive role in the new wave of democracy, once again becomes a subject of heated discussion both from within Muslim communities and without (cf. Esposito and Voll 1996; Eickelman and Piscatori 1996). The discussions and debates on the relationship between Islam and democracy have once again come to the fore in Indonesia in the aftermath of the fall of Soeharto. This has much to do with the rise of “political Islam” which appears to be one of the most visible political developments in postSoeharto Indonesia. It can be clearly observed in several tendencies. First, the establishment of a great number of “Islamic parties” which mostly adopt Islam 133 Azyumardi Azra 134 as their basis replacing Pancasila that used to be the sole basis of any organization; second, the increasing demands from certain groups among Muslims for the official adoption and implementation of shari’a; and third, the proliferation of Muslim groups considered by many as radicals, such as Lasykar Jihad (Jihad Troops), Front Pembela Islam (FPI, or Islamic Defence Front), Hizb al-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), and Angkatan Mujahidin Indonesia (the Jihad Fighter Group of Indonesia) (cf. Bamualim et al. 2000). The three developments — by no means exhaustive — appear to some to represent the return of the idea of the Islamic state in Indonesia, and this could supposedly bring the future of democracy and pluralism in Indonesia into question. I would argue, however, that despite the seeming recent tendencies among Indonesian Muslims to cling to political and formal Islam, it remains difficult to imagine that Indonesia would and could be transformed into an Islamic state. The three new tendencies could be very alarming for those who are concerned with the future of democracy in this country, but one should not overestimate them since there is also a number of factors that are working in Indonesian society which make the realization of an Islamic state in Indonesia only a remote possibility. This chapter discusses these complex developments. One of the most important questions to answer is the feasibility and viability of the idea of the Islamic state in Indonesia. Not least important is, of course, the discussion of the future of democracy in Indonesia in relation to all the recent tendencies towards political and formal Islam. CALIPHATE VERSUS MODERN NATION-STATE Before proceeding, it should be made clear that any discussion of Muslim politics should avoid sweeping generalizations. In fact, there is no single Muslim politics and Muslims are not a monolithic phenomenon. Hefner has persuasively argued that there is no single, civilization-wide pattern of Muslim politics, but a variety of competing organizations and ideals. In his opinion, the modern era’s nation making and market globalization have, if anything, only increased the pluralism and contestation of politics in the Muslim world. As a result, the most significant “clash of cultures” is not that between distinct civilizations, but rival political traditions within the same Islamic country (Hefner 1999, p. 41). The contest and rivalry among a number of Islamic political traditions are even becoming increasingly complex with the contemporary Islamic revival. The so-called revival of religion — including Islam — that has swept 135 Political Islam in Post-Soeharto Indonesia many parts of the globe over the last two decades at least rekindles the old debates on the relationship between Islam and politics. Both at the theoretical and practical levels, Muslim intellectuals, ulama, and leaders have engaged in such issues as the compatibility or incompatibility of Islam and contemporary ideas...