Political Economy and Islamic Politics: Insights from the Indonesian Case

Abstract

It is argued in this study that the trajectory of Islamic politics in Indonesia has been shaped within larger processes of state formation and socio-economic and political changes associated with the advance of the market economy and the pressures of globalisation. It incorporates the Indonesian case into a vast and well-developed debate that has hitherto focused on North Africa and the Middle East. As such it offers a distinct interpretation that goes beyond the prevailing understanding of Islamic politics in Indonesia as the product of conflicts over ideas, doctrine or culture or the institutional requisites of authoritarianism or democracy. Specifically, it is proposed that Islamic politics has been underpinned variously by the conservatism of small propertied interests, the populism of marginalised urban and small town middle classes and the ambitions of the upper middle classes and business. While these dynamics are found across much of the Muslim world, the political outcomes have been diverse. We show that the Indonesian trajectory has been greatly influenced by the failure of Islamic politics to establish effective cross-class alliances behind the banners of Islam and the ability of the secular state to effectively establish its own apparatus of populist politics.

Keywords:

• Political Economy
• Indonesia
• Islam
• Capitalism
• Populism

Notes

The potential value of comparative studies between political Islam in Indonesia or elsewhere in Southeast Asia and NA/ME has not been well exploited (Hadiz 2008). One interesting study, however, is that of Lubeck (1998).

It is true that other areas, like West Africa and South Asia, offer interesting parallels to Indonesia, particularly where Islamic parties have also failed to capitalise on a shift to electoral politics. However, it is the common experience of large nationalist states and state-led protected manufacturing followed by the emergence of market-oriented authoritarian rule and the attempts to preserve the authority of various oligarchies in electoral political systems that is interesting to us in this case. Countries like Egypt, Turkey and in the Maghrib offer the best comparisons. The experiences of West Africa and South Asia frequently involve rural and tribal influences that are not so important in Indonesia.

It has been widely claimed, especially by some Islamic activists, that Komando Jihad was invented by Indonesian intelligence to flush Islamic activists into the open (interview with Ustad Wahyudin, Director of the Al Mukmin pesantren at Ngruki, 16 July 2007, jailed in the 1980s for alleged involvement in the movement).

These include, most notably, the National Awakening Party (PKB) based in rural Java and dominated by Islamic clergy, most famously the former President, Abdurahman Wahid.

Among these are the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), the Pan-Islamist Hisbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Corps Hisbullah, Lasykar Jundullah and the now demised Lasykar Jihad, which infamously sent fighters to the participate in bloody communal conflict in Maluku (Hasan 2006).

Interview with Sobarin Syakur, Secretary, Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, Solo, 17 July 2007.

Interview with Moedrick Sangidoe, Solo, 20 July 2007.