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Abstract
The demise of Leftist political traditions in Indonesia has come to facilitate newer Islamic expressions of socio-political discontent accompanying socio-economic modernisation in localities that used to be dominated by communist and radical nationalist organisations. Because social grievances related to endemic issues like social injustice are increasingly being framed through Islamic cultural references, there will be implications for the workings of Indonesian democracy, premised on secular state institutions. But this does not lead to the sort of post-Islamism associated by Bayat with Iran, where the imperatives of running a modern state and economy once purportedly enabled pluralist social inclinations, albeit within an Islamised polity. Nor does it lead to the generalised ‘Islamisation of radicalism’ envisaged by Roy. Rather, what is witnessed is the substantial, though by no means uncontested, mainstreaming of social grievances through the lexicon of Islamic politics within Indonesian democracy even if there has been no take-over of the state by Islamic forces. The adoption of such framings even in the former bastions of the Indonesian Communist Party, once the third largest in the world, provides important insights into how hegemonic contests have taken place in the Muslim world after the end of the Cold War.
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Notes
1 Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia.
2 Gudavarthy, India After Modi.
3 Bayat, “Making of Post-Islamist Iran.”
4 Roy, “Who Are the New Jihadis?”
5 Diprose, McRae, and Hadiz, “Two Decades of Reformasi in Indonesia.”
6 I thank F. Serkan öngel of Gaziantep University and Ahmet Bekmen of Istanbul University for historical data, based on ongoing research, regarding the changing political attitudes of the working class in the periphery of Istanbul.
7 For example, Rakhmani, Mainstreaming Islam in Indonesia.
8 Hadiz and Rakhmani, “Marketing Morality in Indonesia’s Democracy.”
9 Full name Basuki Tjahaka Purnama.
10 Hefner, “Where Have All the Abangan Gone.”
11 Fealy, “Militant Java-Based Islamist Movements.”
12 Rakhmani, Mainstreaming Islam in Indonesia.
13 I was ably and indispensably assisted by Andi Rachman Alamsyah and Beni Setiawan in planning and conducting the fieldwork.
14 Greater Solo in the 1960s was a ‘bright red’ area, ie Leftist, as recalled by Moedrick Sangidoe, local veteran Islamic political activist. The same observation was made by K. H. Subari, the head of the local chapter of the Muhammadiyah mass organisation, who suggests that the destruction of the Left provided new opportunities for Islamisation there. Interviews, Solo, 23 July 2018. Budi Setiawan, a Muhammadiyah official in Yogyakarta, makes the same observation of that city and its environs and adds that the elimination of the Left enabled greater spirituality to permeate through everyday life. Interview, Yogyakarta, 18 July 2018.
15 One such female interviewee, who dons the jilbab, states that the children and grandchildren of victims of the anti-communist pogroms have joined religious organisations like the Muhammadiyah or become civil servants. Having a communist family background would jeopardise their jobs. Interview, Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta, 1 July 2019.
16 Thomas, Gramscian Moment, 163.
17 Davidson, “Uses and Abuses of Gramsci,” 71–2.
18 Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 377.
19 Bourchier and Hadiz, “Organicism Ascendant.”
20 Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia; Hadiz and Robison, “Political Economy of Oligarchy.”
21 Hadiz, Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East; Hadiz, “Imagine All the People?”
22 Feith and Castles. Indonesian Political Thinking, 1945–1965; Feith, Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia.
23 Robison, “Middle Class and the Bourgeoisie in Indonesia.”
24 Hefner, Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratisation in Indonesia, 94–127.
25 See Fealy and McGregor, “Nahdlatul Ulama”; Robinson, Killing Season. Two elderly interviewees in a village in Boyalali, Central Java, admitted to assisting the military by identifying local communists, though not to participating in their executions. Interview, Boyolali, 5 July 2019. In Kotagede, K. H. Muhaimin, an esteemed religious leader, recalls a youthful period when he was trained by the military to use firearms and to act as a spy. Interview, Kotagede, Yogyakarta, 29 June 2019.
26 Roosa, Pretext for Mass Murder; Melvin, Army and the Indonesian Genocide; Cribb, Indonesian Killings 1965–1966; Cribb, “How Many Deaths?”
27 Interview with Jayusman, Yogyakarta, 19 July 2018. A footballer during his teenage years in Jakarta, he claims that he was unfortunate to have played for a team considered close to the Leftist Pemuda Rakyat (People’s Youth). Imprisoned in 1969, he was to spend 10 years exiled on the infamous Buru Island.
28 McGregor, History in Uniform; Kuddus, “Ghost of 1965.”
29 According to Bedjo Untung, an ex-PKI political prisoner, this ensures that a proper reappraisal of the events of 1965 remains impossible. The result is continual marginalisation of those accused of having been part of a communist plot against the state, as in New Order historiography. Interview, Jakarta, 11 July 2018.
30 Mortimer, Indonesian Communism under Soekarno.
31 For example, Simpson, Economists with Guns.
32 Robison, Indonesia: The Rise of Capital.
33 Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia, 73–4.
34 Bourchier and Hadiz, “Marginalised Islam”; Raillon, “New Order and Islam.”
35 Reeve, Golkar of Indonesia; Liddle, “1977 Election and New Order Legitimacy.”
36 Alamsyah and Hadiz, “Three Islamist Generations”; Solahudin, NII Sampai JI; Formichi, Islam and the Making of the Nation.
37 Hefner, “Islam, State and Civil Society.”
38 Hadiz, Workers and the State in New Order Indonesia.
39 BPS, Kota Surakarta Dalam Angka.
40 BPS, Statistik Daerah.
41 World Bank, Indonesia’s Rising Divide.
42 CEDS-USAID, Evolution of Inequality in Indonesia, 1990–2012, 4.
43 OECD, OECD Economic Surveys: Indonesia, 17.
44 BPS, Profil Kemiskinan di Indonesia Maret 2018, 1.
45 BPS, Tingkat Pengangguran Terbuka.
46 Tadjoeddin, “Decent Work.”
47 OECD, OECD Economic Surveys: Indonesia, 17.
48 Wilson, Politics of Protection Rackets; Mudhoffir, “Islamic Militias and Capitalist Development”; Yasih, “Jakarta’s Precarious Workers.”
49 Colás, “Reinventing of Populism,” 237–8.
50 Standing, Precariat: The New Dangerous Class.
51 Bush, “Regional Shariah Regulation in Indonesia.” They apparently do so to accommodate the purveyors of Islamic conservatism or to pre-empt them.
52 Fealy, “Ma’ruf Amin.”
53 ICG, Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia.
54 Interviews with Abdul Wahid and Kuncoro, social historians in Yogyakarta, 17 and 20 July 2018, respectively. See also Pringle, Understanding Islam in Indonesia, 91.
55 Monfries, “Sultan and the Revolution.”
56 Hasan, Laskar Jihad.
57 McRae, A Few Poorly Organised Men.
58 Interview with Ustad Jazir ASP, religious and informal community leader in Jogokaryan village, 17 July 2018.
59 Hefner, “Where Have All the Abangan Gone.” Still, its resilience has been uneven. Kotagede, Yogyakarta, which one local notable described as having had a mixture of pre-Islamic and Islamic influences in the 1960s, is assessed as having almost eradicated the former following the elimination of the PKI’s presence there. Interview with Achmad Charis Zubair, Kotagede, 2 July 2019.
60 Interview with Sugeng Bayu Wahyono, expert on traditional Javanese belief systems, of Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta, 16 July 2018. In Solo, Muhammadiyah veteran Muhammad Dimyati also believes that the Islamisation of formerly Leftist bastions has not eliminated Javanese syncretism. Interview, Solo, 3 July 2019. This view is echoed in Sragen by religious movement veteran H. Muslih Mustofa. Interview, Sragen, Central Java, 3 July 2019.
61 Some of these espouse the austere Salafi-Wahabbi form of Islam. They have tended to be created by individuals who had had religious education in various parts of the Middle East, benefiting from scholarships.
62 Interview with K. H. Subari, Muhammadiyah and MUI official in Solo, 23 July 2018.
63 Hadiz, Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East.
64 Interview with Sujoko, Ngruki resident, 20 January 2011.
65 Alamsyah and Hadiz, “Three Islamist Generations.”
66 Interview with H. M. Amir, Ngruki, 12 July 2011. This reflected a common pattern. In Karanganyar, Central Java, near the border with East Java, a local religious notable recalled how 99% of the Muslims in the 1960s did not pray and that it used to be ‘100% PKI’. Interview, H. Abdul Basyir, Karanganyar, 4 July 2019.
67 Interview with Ustad Jazir ASP, Jogokaryan, 17 July 2018.
68 This was clearly replicated elsewhere; K. H. Masturi, for example, an elder of the Nahdlathul Ulama mass organisation in Boyolali, credits the role of the military but also the key role of the projects undertaken by the Ministry of Religion to introduce communal prayer activities in a formerly ‘red’ area. Interview, Boyolali, 18 July 2018.
69 Interview with Ustad Jazir ASP, Jogokaryan, 17 July 2018.
70 Ibid.
71 Interview with FKKD, Tawangmangu, Karanganyar, Central Java, 25 July 2010.
72 Interview with ‘Abu Hanifah’, Tawangmangu, Karanganyar, Central Java, 25 July 2010.
73 Interview with FKKD, Tawangmangu, Karanganyar, Central Java, 25 July 2010.
74 Hadiz and Rakhmani, “Marketing Morality in Indonesia’s Democracy.”
75 Calhoun, Juergensmeyer, and Van Antwerpen, Rethinking Secularism; Norris and Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide.
76 Al-Anani, Inside the Muslim Brotherhood.
77 Buğra and Savaşkan, New Capitalism in Turkey.
78 Hadiz, Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East.
79 Colás, “A Perverse Symbiosis.”
80 Marzouki, “Islamist Ideals and Governing Realities.”
81 Moghadam, “Socialism or Anti-Imperialism.”
82 Kersten discusses how this thesis has been addressed by Muslim intellectuals in Islam in Indonesia.
83 See “Mahfud MD: Ideologi Pancasila Harus Sampai ke Akar Rumput,” Kompas.com, November 26, 2019, https://medan.kompas.com/read/2019/11/26/13045481/mahfud-md-ideologi-pancasila-harus-sampai-ke-akar-rumput
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Vedi R. Hadiz
Vedi R. Hadiz is Director and Professor of Asian Studies at the Asia Institute and Assistant Deputy Vice-Chancellor International, University of Melbourne. His research interests revolve around political sociology and political economy issues, especially those related to the contradictions of development in Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly, and, more recently, in the Middle East. He is an elected fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. He is the author of Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2016).