Penolong Kesengsaraan Umum

Abstract

This article discusses the nature of Islamic philanthropy and social services in the context of the plurality of Indonesian society by looking at the early development of Muhammadiyah’s charitable activities, known as Penolong Kesengsaraan Umum or by the acronym PKU (Assistance for the Relief of Public Suffering). This article asserts that PKU took an inclusive approach to humanitarian issues in providing social services to underprivileged groups and that this was claimed as being ‘without discrimination of religion and race or group.’ It analyses the ‘bridging’ and ‘bonding’ aspects of faith-based philanthropy as social capital and questions how it was that PKU could formulate inclusive ideas that underpin its vision and activities and that bolster Muhammadiyah’s label as a civil society organisation. Even though the ideas were overtaken at the end of the Dutch colonial period, the potential for an inclusive principle remained in place.

• Charity
• inclusivity
• Indonesian Islam
• Muhammadiyah
• social capital

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Prof. M.C. Ricklefs, two anonymous reviewers, Kostas Retsikas, and fellow researchers of the Religion and Globalisation Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore for their constructive comments on this article. The original draft of this article was presented at the International Research Conference on Muhammadiyah, Malang, 29 Nov–3 Dec 2012, in regard to which the author would like to thank Prof. Mitsuo Nakamura.

Notes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

1. For example, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies states that it is ‘the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions’; see: http://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/vision-and-mission/ (accessed 05 June 2017).

2. Petronella hospital, known in many sources as Toelong/Pitulung hospital, claimed to give assistance as soon as possible without asking the identity of those sick. The hospital states its motto as ‘help first, administration later’ (Tolong Dulu Urusan Belakang), and provides ‘assistance to patients in need without discrimination of ethnicity, religious and group background’; see: http://bethesda.org.id/page/30/isi.html (accessed 05 June 2017). Panti Rapih hospital seems to have the same principle. The founder of PKU, Syuja’, was at one time hospitalised in this hospital (Syuja’, 2009: 204).

3. Raden Kaji Lurah Hasyim was the father of Syuja’ and was a religious official in the court of Yogyakarta. His family is known as being among the main supporters of the Muhammadiyah, such that Muhammadiyah’s members remember him and his siblings as four brothers (and leaders). They are KH Fachruddin, Ki Bagus Hadikusumo, KH Zaini and Syuja’ himself (Yusuf, 2005: 355).

4. Dahlan encouraged and ‘educated’ activists of Muhammadiyah to learn from other organisations including socialists, who he did not hesitate to invite to give talks at Muhammadiyah events. He invited Sarekat Islam women leaders (one was Woro Sastroatmojo) to an open meeting of Aisyiyah and top leaders of ISDV (including Semaun and Darsono) to an open meeting of Muhammadiyah (Syuja’, 2009: 168–178).

5. The term bangsa may refer to race, nationality, ethnicity or group. In that context, bangsa Jawa means orang Jawa, and so on, to many groups such as Malays, Arabs, Buginese, Chinese, Dutch, British and Portuguese.

6. From 1990 to 2015, there were many changes in the use of names and decisions to separate or unite the social service and heath service; see: http://mpsppmuh.or.id/profil/ (accessed 05 June 2017).