![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
Indonesian democracy has been challenged by rising religious intolerance and discriminatory attitudes in civil society since the mid-2000s, despite expanded freedom in many areas including the media. Why has Indonesian civil society been put on the defensive by radical and conservative Islamic elements in the context of democratic consolidation? What role has expanded freedoms and a flourishing of new media and information technologies played? This article argues that two factors have contributed to the rising influence of religious hardliners/radicals and increasing religious intolerance. The first is hardliner access not only to new media but, more importantly, to traditional means and institutions for religious and political mobilisation, including state apparatus, to cultivate antagonistic sentiments and attitudes against what they consider the enemies of Islam within the Muslim communities while disseminating narrow and dogmatic interpretations of Islam. The other is the rise of conservative Muslim politicians within the state who are ready and eager to embrace new media and communication technologies while using the state office and prerogatives to advance conservative religious visions and agendas. In order to assess how those conservative politicians exploit their ministerial prerogatives and state patronage to curtail civil society, particularly the freedom of expression and religion, this article examines two prominent and controversial Muslim politicians: Tifatul Sembiring from the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party and Suryadharma Ali from the United Development Party.
Notes
1. Liberals are defined as religious (Islamic) actors who advocate progressive and flexible interpretation and adoption of Islamic precepts and texts in order to reconcile worldly and modern issues, such as democracy, human rights, individual freedoms, secularism and citizenship. Liberals are not necessarily secular. Conservatives, on the other hand tend to adopt and emphasise more rigid and doctrinal interpretation of the same texts in order to deal with such issues while aspiring to promote conservative religious visions, values and norms. Radicals tend to share these attributes and attitudes with conservatives but differ from them in at least two crucial respects: (1) radicals do not hesitate to employ radical and illegal means, typically violence and intimidation, in order to achieve their goals; and (2) radicals aspire to achieve radical and drastic changes, including creation of an Islamic state based on dogmatic and narrow interpretation of Syariah (Islamic law).
2. Some 20.8% of Indonesian Internet users aged over 15 tweet, making them the most prolific users of Twitter on the planet (compared to Brazil with 20.5% and the USA with 11.9%) (Institute of Innovation Research Citation2011, 32).
3. I appreciate Ronnie Nataatmadja’s assistance in gathering data to make this assessment. The observation was made in September-October 2011.
4. The Twitter accounts for these groups are: @HTIpress (HTI); Front Pembela Islam @Laskar FPI Markas Besar, Front Pembela Islam @FPI_Indonesia Jakarta, Front Pembela Islam @FPI_online.Indonesia (FPI); @arrahmah (Arrahmah); @majlismujahidin (MM); @PKSejahtera (PKS); and @islamlib (JIL). All of them have their own websites: HTI (http://hizbut-tahrir.or.id); FPI (http://www.fpi.or.id); Arrahmah (http://arrahmah.com/); MM (http://majelismujahidin.wordpress.com); PKS (http://www.fpks.or.id); JIL (http://islamlib.com). FPI also has its own Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Front-Pembela-Islam/108002115900144).
5. There is some variance among the three groups: Islamic Defenders Front, PKS and the JIL. In the case of FPI, there are postings from disgruntled followers who protested against some of FPI’s actions though such postings are relatively low in numbers.
6. Prominent incidents include threats posed by Islamic groups, including FPI, to ban a sold-out concert by the American singer Lady Gaga in June 2012. In the end, Lady Gaga cancelled (see Jakarta Post, May 8, 2012).
7. Some of them, most famously Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, in fact, hail from a prominent NU family.
8. A similar trend can be found in other Muslim societies, such as its more conservative neighbour, Malaysia. Considerable attention and coverage given to a progressive Muslim women’s group, Sisters in Islam, in mainstream media seems to have given the impression that the group is more influential than it actually is in the Muslim community.
9. PKS lost one cabinet position, State Minister for Research and Technology, at a cabinet reshuffle in October 2011.
10. The use of defamation laws by the government to control media content is a common concern among human rights activists in an authoritarian regime, such as Singapore, since the state authorities could use these legal tools to suppress freedom of expression in new media, such as the blogosphere. Not surprisingly, authoritarian regimes are concerned about expanded digital/online media which could provide their pro-democracy opponents an alternative communication channel to threaten their monopoly over information (The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2012).
11. Indonesia is dubbed the “Blackberry nation” due to its high usage. Blackberry is among the top three smartphone brands with 3 million users (BBCNews, June 15, 2011).
12. Tifatul’s Twitter is http://twitter.com/#!/tifsembiring (accessed August 20, 2011). His Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/tifatul.sembiring. One of FPI’s Twitter accounts has 6,918 followers (Twitter.FPI_online), accessed July 29, 2011.
13. See PKS’s Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prosperous-Justice-Party/109017552451135#!/
14. A number of human rights activists and NGOs filed a judicial review against the law to the Constitutional Court. In the end, the Court ruled to uphold the Blasphemy restrictions in 2010. See “MK Tolak Permohonan Uji UU Penodaan Agama,” MK Online, April 20, 2010, http://www.mahkamahkonstitusi.go.id (accessed May 30, 2011).
