Understanding the floating ummah in neoliberal Indonesia

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, politicians – particularly of the conservative kind – have been influential in binding together political support based on identity. Taking the case of the most populous Muslim country in the world and the largest democracy in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, this study analyses how Islamic identity has been instrumental during moments of political consolidation. It focuses on the way the political campaign industry uses social media to appeal to an otherwise fragmented ‘floating ummah’ (Hadiz, V. R. (2018). The ‘floating’ ummah in the fall of ‘Ahok’ in Indonesia. TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 7, 271–290), is an assemblage of believers unified momentarily against an abstract oppressor. The mobilisation of the floating ummah with social media, this article argues, has provided opportunities for marginal politicians to gain standing in an intra-elite struggle over power dominated by the oligarchy.

KEYWORDS:

• Floating ummah
• Indonesia
• Islam
• identity politics
• social media

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universitas Indonesia: [Grant Number International Publications grant].

Notes on contributors

Inaya Rakhmani

Inaya Rakhmani is assistant professor at the Department of Communication and Director of the Asia Research Centre, Universitas Indonesia. Her research interest is in cultural political economy, especially how media and communication can hinder and/or enable redistribution of wealth and access.