Religion and Politics

LEYAKET ALI MOHAMED OMAR
History of Religion Part 2- Prof Bernard Adeney- Risakotta and Prof Margana
Readings are from : Robert Hefner- Civil Islam; AbdurRahman Wahid- Islam, Politics and Democracy in the 1950s and 1990

It all started from the student leader of the pergerakan, men like Sutan Sjahrir, Dr Mohammed Hatta, Hj Agus Salim and Ahmad Soekarno who later became leaders of Indonesian Revolution. The nationalist movement and parties, especially the Indonesian Nationalist Party and the Indonesian Communist Party which emerged to fight for independence from Dutch colonial rule in the 1930’s had their beginnings in the pergerakan era in the first quarter of this century.

A blossoming of schools, literature and newspapers promoted and politicised these nationalist ideas of a free and independent Indonesia. They eventually seized the opportunity following Japan’s sudden surrender on the 14th of August to declare Indonesia’s independence on the 17th of August but beneath all the latter struggles lies the internal political religious movements that awaited them hence tough decisions had to be made in order to run the state in the Islamic way or the secular. This embedded challenge made Soekarno proposed a ‘five principles, or Pancasila, as the philosophical foundation.

Of course the matter does not rest in peace after that incident as it added on to the twist and turn of the political agenda of the secularist, the Muslim and the supposed middle way. Indonesia boasts a majority Muslim population with a wide spectrum in the school of thoughts. What remains clear in my understanding is that although there might appear to be so many parties and organisations, they all are Muslims.

AbdurRahman Wahid mentions (p.152-153) “The main ingredient of ‘political Islam’ is still the same...the basic reasons behind this demand is the argument that Islam never recognises a total separation between religion and politics, and that the state should reflect in itself the norms of the majority”. With that statement I believe Indonesia has a unique stand in the Islamic-Political arena. It is a point to note that Indonesia differs from other known Arabic-Islamic State and being a State that has a population of more than 200 million people, it is not an easy matter to handle especially when there is a participatory society and a controlling state that are two strong competitors as Robert W. Hefner mentions in his conclusion to a quotation from Benedict Anderson on the policy outcomes in Indonesia