Revolution and Pancasila by Joko Wicoyo

Civil Islam argues that Indonesia illustrates the compatibility of democracy and Islamic culture. Hefner finds and examines that Indonesia's social and cultural patterns, its tolerance and courteous respect for others meet the required standards of a democratic civil society. He traces how the two Muslim parties, Masyumi and Nahdlatul Ulama, championed Islamic ideals while coping with the authoritarian Sukarno and Suharto regimes. Hefner shows that Indonesia's Islamic reform movement repudiated the goal of an Islamic state, mobilized religiously ecumenical support, promoted women's rights, and championed democratic ideals. He also describes the atmosphere of democratic life of Indonesia in the early 1950s till 1965 with rich precedents for tolerance, civility, violence and 1965’s bloodshed. In the aftermath of this bloodshed, a "New Order" regime came to power, suppressing democratic forces and instituting dictatorial controls that held for decades. From this maelstrom of violence, repressed by the state and denounced by conservative Muslims, an Islamic democracy movement emerged, strengthened, and played a central role in the 1998 overthrow of the Soeharto regime. In 1999, Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid was elected President of a reformist, civilian government.

I think this book is the most detailed study of Islam and the Muslim's role in democratizing Indonesia written with special sympathy on those influential currents in Indonesian Islam. In this book, Hefner argues that Islamic states and civil society are compatible. He makes an important contribution to junior Indonesian citizens’ knowledge of the dynamics of contemporary Islam in Indonesia.

As an anthropologist, Hefner draws on different disciplines such as history, political science and sociology to provide his major contribution to the literature of Indonesia. This book represents an in-depth cross-cultural study on democracy and civil society in the Muslim context. Though this book reveals a variety of religious interpretations within the Islamic body politic typically found in Muslim states, I think, Hefner speaks not only to Muslims, but he also speaks to a wide range of audiences who are interested in the issue of religion and contemporary politics. This book elaborates how liberal Muslim leaders such as President Abdurrahman Wahid, was able to bring his conservative constituents, into a more liberal ideological stance, independent of the authoritarian state.

I think Hefner has analyzed democracy and civil society in the Muslim context in an explicable manner that depicted the political confrontation between liberal Muslim leaders in alliance with civil society against regimist Muslims in coalition with the ultraconservative wing of the armed forces. For the Muslim liberals, secularization was a mere detour to prevent a recurring pattern of Indonesian history in which religious violence was no stranger in the land. In this case, Hefner assumes that in all religious communities, there are always uncivil elements stalking and even disrupting the democratic march in any given state. Indonesia has already experienced them and they should be drawn as valuable experience in promoting the long life of democracy.