Saiful Mujani: Islamic populism threatens Indonesian democracy

NICT, UIN News Online – Islamic populism threatens the diversity of Indonesia as a nation-state and reduces the quality of democracy. This populism did not only come from religious political groups, but also nationalist groups.

This was said by Saiful Mujani during his speech in the context of celebrating the 75th Indonesian Independence and the 63rd Anniversary of ADIA / IAIN / UIN Jakarta at the NICT Building, Tuesday (08/18/2020).

“Despite a number of shortcomings, the Indonesian has been quite successful in creating political conditions that are relevant to diversity since the transition from the New Order regime to the Reform Order,” he said.

According to Saiful, since 1998, Indonesian democracy has progressed, especially in the aspect of political rights. But in the last 6 years there have been a few setbacks in matters that have much to do with our nation-state diversity. The main problem that reduces the quality of civil liberties related to diversity is the emergence of what is known as Islamization. However, Saiful emphasizes that Islamization at the family and individual levels is not something that needs to be questioned.

“The problem for Indonesia's diversity is if Islamization is a product of state or government policy, even though this only applies to Muslims,” he said.

He also added that if that happens, then the Jakarta Charter will return to today's Indonesian democracy: a state, central or regional policy, which only applies to Muslims, and does not apply to non-Muslims.

“State policies like that are discriminatory sectarian policies, denying our inclusive constitution,” he said.

The founder of SMRC then cites a study conducted by Buehler (2013) which explains that a number of exclusive public policies, only accommodating the interests of one Islamic (sectarian) group, discriminate against non-Muslims, have been made in many areas. In the 1999-2009 period, there were at least 169 public policies in various regions, provinces and districts / cities, which were categorized as sharia public policies.

Saiful stated that in many Muslim countries, efforts to make public policies related to Islamic law usually come from people's representatives from religious parties. But the case in Indonesia is different because the religious (Islamic) parties are too small when compared to the nationalist parties.

But what has happened in a number of regions in Indonesia, according to a study, is that public policies containing sharia are actually issued by regional legislators from many nationalist parties, not just parties with Islamic ideology such as PKS. (Buehler 2013)

Saiful also added that they do not care about their party's platform which upholds diversity when they are faced with movements, networks and lobbies from various Islamic groups that have an agenda to implement Islamic law in regional public policies.

Many nationalist politicians in the area melted away when they were promised by the Islamist group that they would get lots of voter support in the elections.

Saiful said the submission of legislators and regional heads to the shari'ah policy agenda because electoral support is a characteristic of what is known as Islamic populism: the belief that agendas and policies based on Islamic sentiment that discriminate against non-Muslims receive strong support from the large majority of Muslim people.

“In the hands of such politicians, Indonesia can become a sharia state without having a strong Islamic party, without having to be led by a president with an Islamic ideology, without having to change our constitution which is inclusive of diversity, and without armed movements like what DI / TII does. If Islamic populism and the Islamization of Indonesia get stronger, the diversity that is the foundation of our nation-state will be threatened,” said Saiful. (usa/sam/mf)