Commodification of instrumental Islamic piety in Indonesian political contestation 2019

ABSTRACT

This study examined the practice of extensive commodification of Islamic piety by political actors during the Indonesian presidential election 2019. By identifying the posting of contestants between 23 September 2018 and 16 April 2019 and analyzing using the multimodality technique, this research found four forms of extensive commodification of Islamic piety. They are extensive commodification of piety-based developmentalism, social-oriented personal piety, Islamism-based nationalism, and welfare-state-based Islamism. This research concludes that Islamic piety became a political instrument. The religion of Islam is not only a system of beliefs and religious practices but also a political commodity, which political actors commodify during political contestation. The commodification of Islamic piety functions to increase the value exchange or marketability of political candidates. Any candidates are political symbols or commodities among Indonesian voters. The production of instrumental piety messages in political communication results from the intricate interplay between Indonesia's demographic structure, voter psychography, and patron-client culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Commodification
• instrumental Islamic piety
• Indonesian presidential election
• political actors

Acknowledgments

This article is a part of Karman's dissertation. He thanks Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, the Head of the Agency for Human Resources Development and Research on Communications and Informatics at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, for assigning Karman to the doctoral program. We appreciate all the informants who enriched the study. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers of the Asian Journal of Communication for their comments to improve this article's quality. Lastly, thanks to Gregory Moore, the copyeditor at the Research Center for Society and Culture, for his feedback on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karman

Karman main contributor for this article is a researcher at the Research Center for Society and Culture at the National Research and Innovation Agency, Indonesia. He is interested in the Political Economy of Communication and Discourse Studies within Muslim societies.

Ibnu Hamad

Ibnu Hamad is a professor in Department of Communication, at Universitas Indonesia. His extensive research includes media and communication studies, political communication, and discourse studies. His work offers valuable insights into the interplay between media, culture, and society.

Udi Rusadi

Udi Rusadi a media, and communication studies scholar affiliated with the Institut Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik in Jakarta. He has conducted extensive research on communication policy at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Indonesia.