RITUAL GUARDIANS VERSUS CIVIL SERVANTS AS CULTURAL BROKERS IN THE NEW ORDER ERA

Abstract

This paper examines two leading social roles in the island of Tidore: that of the traditional clan leaders and that of the civil servants, who advance two competing versions of Islam. While the traditional Tidore Islam espoused by the clan leaders is integrated with ancestor worship, the civil servants espouse a more strictly Qur'anic Islam endorsed by the Indonesian state ideology of Pancasila and modernisation. The two forms of Islam have come to represent a struggle for political power within Tidore society.

Notes

¹This article is a revised version of the paper presented at the panel ‘Bhineka Tunggal Ika: Masih Mungkinkah?’ (Unity in diversity: is it still possible?), First International Conference on Social Anthropolgy, Kampus Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, 1–4 August 2000, and is based on research for my PhD thesis, Tradition und Moderne in Tidore/Indonesien. Die Instrumentalisierung islamischer Rituale und ihre politische Relevanz. (Münster: Lit 1998). The field research on Tidore was undertaken from October 1989 to September 1990 in the three villages: Jaya, Gurabunga and Tomalou.

²The other four principles of the Pancasila are humanitarianism, national unity, democracy and social justice.

³On the notion and a deeper analysis of Islam Murni see Mulkhan (2000).

⁴When explaining their local tradition of Tidore Islam, they were comparatively open with me, as an Indonesian woman, trained in Europe and a non-Muslim. Their hearty openness often seemed a kind of pride and at the same time, a defence against influence from outside.

⁵In several aspects this resembles the priyayi phenomenon, with people who are on the one hand superior in the cultural context and on the other hand government-employed (Sutherland 1975: 65–8).

⁶Another influence was the Muhammadiyah in Tidore, who would not tolerate any ritual celebration except salat (one of canonical ritual prayers) which takes place in the mosque. Unlike the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) who do accept local traditions as a part of Islam and are prepared to consider the mystic as Islamic, Muhammadiyah judges it to be kafir or ‘heathen’ (see also: Nakamura 1976; Peacock 1978; Woodward 1989). Islam in Tidore clearly has greater affinity with the NU, as in many parts of Indonesia.

⁷The same tendency on ‘pure’ Islam with presumably different political intentions is found among the younger generation in Ternate, the island next to Tidore, particularly in the southern part of the island (Kiem 1993: 103), where the ‘pure’ religion is not admixed with the heathen veneration of kings (sultans) and the sultan is regarded as belonging to the colonial infrastructure (van Klinken 2007: 116). The current Sultan of Ternate, Mudaffar Syah, arranged to have himself elected as chairman of the North Maluku branch of Golkar in December 1998.

⁸Interview 12 January 1990. Islam Murni or Islam Pancasila share the same idea, namely that Islam does not accept the local tradition, which is seen as an impediment to progress or even modernity.

⁹This pattern is not typical for Tidore alone, but can also be found in other parts of Indonesia, as the data on Java by Koentjaraningrat (1980) show.