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Indonesia: Defending Islam against
itself
By Bill Guerin
Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab,
leader of the pro-Suharto radical Muslim group FPI
(Defenders of Islam), and his storm troopers may, after
two years of apparent immunity from the process of law
and order, be about to be brought to account.
Police over the weekend arrested 13 members of
the FPI after violent attacks on several of the
capital's nightspots by an estimated 600 members. A
discotheque was stoned and the equipment at two
late-night pool bars destroyed.
Although the FPI
has been consistently vandalizing and looting such
entertainment venues for at least two years, there have
never before been any arrests.
There is no
evidence yet that the pivotal arrests and police action
are related to the palpable nervousness here about the
effect this domestic violence has on the image of
Indonesia as seen by the outside world.
FPI
aggression and violence in numerous attacks on places
deemed to be "immoral", including nightclubs and
restaurants, radical Islamic groups continuously voicing
resentment toward perceived threats to Islam, "sweeps"
for US nationals in Central Java, and other such
incidents have had an as yet uncalculated effect on
tourism and foreign investment.
A visibly angry
national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar confined his
public comments to warning anyone or any group against
taking the law into their own hands. "I remind all
groups, whoever they are, to respect the law, and the
law can only be implemented by institutions or officials
empowered to do so. Anyone else should not take the law
into their hands, because that is a violation of the
laws," Bachtiar warned.
Reining in the FPI will
be no easy task. The movement was founded in 1998 and is
said to be funded by rich anti-reformist generals intent
on protecting the vested interests of the elite.
It is, though, a dangerous fallacy to say that
political parties or members of the old Suharto crowd
intent on destabilizing the capital and the country
manipulate the FPI or to dismiss them as "Rent-a-Jihad",
fanatics for hire by the police and the military.
The New Order government under Suharto always
restricted the political rise of Islam for the same
reasons as the first president of Indonesia, Sukarno.
Realizing the potentially explosive force of a
highly politicized Islam, especially at a time when
Islamic fundamentalism was radicalizing politics from
North Africa to Malaysia, Suharto foresaw a danger that
the emergence of a politically dominant Islam would
cleave Indonesian political society along religious
lines.
Thus the national ideology, Pancasila,
was to be the glue that held this large nation together.
But is this glue still sticky enough?
It is
hardly surprising, given the political turmoil since
Suharto stepped down, that Islamic movements have seized
the opportunity to be seen and be heard. The two largest
Islamic groups, the 35-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU), whence PPP originated, and the Muhammadiyah with
some 28 million members, neutered during the Suharto
era, quickly regained their manhood and achieved a new
and substantial political stature.
NU chairman
Abdurrahman Wahid formed the National Awakening Party
(PKB), and his most bitter foe, Muhammadiyah leader
Amien Rais, founded the National Mandate Party (PAN).
For the first time in more than 30 years Muslim
parties are represented in the Indonesian parliament,
and are now conscious of their strength. Does this mean
that Indonesia could become a Muslim theocratic state in
the future, like Iran or Pakistan?
The
Islam-based United Development Party (PPP), authorized
by Suharto to represent all Islamic political factions,
had a full makeover and broke its links with the
establishment. Vice President Hamzah Haz, who was
adamantly against Megawati Sukarnoputri becoming
president in October 1999, heads the PPP, which, with
another Islamic party, the Crescent Star Party (PBB),
has long been campaigning for the revival of the Jakarta
Charter. This calls for the adoption of syari'ah
(Islamic law) for Muslims, and needs an amendment to
Article 29 of the constitution which was rejected by the
MPR at its annual session in August.
A keystone
of the FPI demands is also reformation of Islam by
imposing Islamic law in Indonesia, in an attempt to
appeal to fellow Muslim citizens. They strive for
publicity, however bad, to make up for the fact that
they are extremely small in numbers, though they claim
to have thousands of "warriors" ready to take up arms as
it were.
Most of their followers are from the
lower strata of society, poorly educated and usually
unemployed.
Wielding vicious homemade spears
everywhere they went, the FPI forces of repression were
earlier ill-received by a reformation movement
determined to fight. Nowadays though, when these
white-robed "warriors" go on the march, most civilians
get out of the way.
Just prior to the latest
attacks, the hardliners toured Central Jakarta in a
convoy of vehicles, bawling and screaming aggression,
and even the police admitted they were unable to stem
the violence because they were outnumbered.
Although some 80 percent of Indonesia's 215
million people Indonesia are Muslim, the vast majority
are moderates. According to Indonesian Ulemas Council
(MUI) chairman Amidhan, Muslim hardliners make up only 1
percent of the country's population.
Asked
whether FPI was a competitor to the mainstream Islamic
groups, Al-Habib admitted, "NU is wiser, more polite and
softer. Muhammadiyah is critical, intellectual. FPI is
more physical, we fight immorality. NU plants the seeds
of the paddy, because it has the seeds. FPI doesn't have
the seeds, we only have the sickle. Our job is to clean
up the mice, the pests that ruin the paddy. It's just a
division of labor. There is no competition between us."
Syafi'i Ma'arif, chairman of Muhammadiyah,
however, has frequently warned that mainstream Islamic
groups need to stay close to their members and listen to
their aspirations, so that the voice of the "silent
majority" of mainstream Muslims is heard, at least in
the background.
The latest incidents and the
subsequent arrests have attracted little attention in
the foreign media but if the establishment backs off
caging the violent fringe elements, the perceptions will
be of a significant political shift toward a more
aggressive groundswell of Islam in Indonesia.
The FPI and other radical groups may not yet
have won over disaffected mainstream Muslims, but unless
the weekend arrests signal a crackdown on their
violence, threats and intimidation, the outlook could
rapidly deteriorate.
The real defenders of Islam
in Indonesia are the Islamic masses that mainly belong
to the NU and Muhamaddiyah, who see Indonesia as safer
within its traditional plurality. These organizations
have consistently warned that the introduction of
Islamic law is not acceptable to the spirit of the
national state of Indonesia.
The NU, for
example, speaks for a membership in excess of 30 million
and an unparalleled, grassroots, village-based system of
traditional religious schools or pesantren that
covers the whole archipelago.
The modernist
Muhammadiyah, on the other hand, is largely
middle-class-based, and its philanthropic success in
building universities, hospitals, orphanages and
foundations inspires the loyalty of an equally important
sector of modern Indonesian society.
Together, the
two organizations reach out and touch the hearts and
souls of most of Indonesia's "ordinary" Muslims.
The extremists are not acting with the blessing
of the NU, the Muhamaddiyah or the government of
Indonesia. With their actions they not only threaten the
image of Islam but also pose a danger to the
preservation of Indonesia as a secular state governed
(more or less) in line with the all-inclusive and
tolerant Pancasila ideology.
Though Megawati has
been able since September 11, 2001, to juggle support
for the US-led global "war" on terrorism and the
sensitivities of the Muslim majority in Indonesia, this
was largely due to senior officers in the Indonesian
military (TNI) holding fast to their predominantly
moderate and secular views so as to avoid alienating the
wider Muslim community.
But now the new military
paradigm, and the consequent hardline stance on any
protests or disturbances that threaten security or
stability, may encourage once again the use of excessive
force in controlling anti-US sentiment. If US President
George W Bush goes ahead and bombs Iraq, the situation
on the ground in Indonesia could deteriorate very
quickly and Americans may have to be withdrawn to
safety.
Suharto, like his predecessor Sukarno,
feared that fundamentalist Islamic elements, the
"extreme" right, posed as much of a threat to the unity
and security of the state as the communists, the
"extreme" left. Unrestrained Islam was not something
Suharto and the military would ever allow.
Later, Abdurrahman Wahid tried hard to move
toward separating religion from the state but found that
Islam is too embedded in Indonesian culture to be taken
out of politics.
Mainstream Indonesian Muslims
also fear a new secular Indonesia that would take away
the right of their religion to be afforded state
protection.
Al-Habib and his radical Islamic
FPI, on the other hand, which wishes to see Indonesia
become an Islamic state and is most keen on taking the
law into its own hands to protect Muslim "values",
represent a clear and present danger to Indonesia.
The agenda is clear. Two months after Megawati
was sworn in as president last year, Al-Habib was
interviewed by a local media consultancy firm and had
this to say: "When a policy is issued to castrate the
rights of FPI, or oppress Muslim people, we will fight.
So, we warn the government not to try to oppress
Muslims. As long as they do not, FPI will have no
reasons to act. But if the government acts against
Muslims, then we will take real action! So, we will
watch the behavior of the government. You can say that
FPI is practicing social control towards Megawati's
government and the policies it makes. So we would like
to warn the present government under Megawati: Don't
mess with Muslim people or try to oppress them! We will
be watching! This is a warning!"
Though the FPI
thugs have waged a relentless campaign of destruction of
property owned by those they say are sinners, to the
radicals the sin of the president is just that of being
born a woman. Al-Habib has said FPI will not recognize a
female president and, according to him, under
syariah a woman cannot be president.
The
continued violence and unrest in the regions, economic
turmoil and the scrabble for political clout before the
elections in 2004, as well as the general lawlessness,
all creates a ripe battlefield for those who abuse the
law and openly defy the authorities in the name of
Islam.
There is little of more fundamental
importance to Indonesia than the attainment of religious
harmony in these multiracial, secular states, whose
people find their spiritual strength in various
religions and live amid such a diverse cultural
tradition.
Religious sensitivities, more often
than not, have created havoc in the community. Religious
and sectarian killings in Ambon and the rest of the
Spice Islands have claimed many hundreds of lives.
Islam is a religion of love and peace, and those
who resort to destruction and violence are blackening
its image and discrediting its message. The FPI,
however, portrays the religion as a violent and fierce
creed, and demonstrations and violent behavior only
tarnish the image of Islam. Confiscating beer and
spirits, smashing nightclub signs, windows, and security
posts, accosting people, shaving the heads of women, and
other acts of intimidation have nothing in common with
believers of any faith.
The demonstrators say
they are acting on behalf of Islam, so it is fair to ask
how they interpret the Islamic religion, which teaches
the virtues of wisdom, patience and mutual respect, by
showing their disrespect for the law and for the
authorities.
They want to show their antipathy
toward immoral activities, but they fail to convince
that they are of high morals themselves, or that they
have any respect for the law.
Further adverse
publicity and any perception of unrestrained Islamism of
the sort Suharto so carefully caged will set Indonesia
even farther back on the road to economic recovery.
Continued weakness in law enforcement against Muslims
who are committing such offenses threatens the growth of
even more Islamic extremism and even a potential
economic collapse that would destabilize the entire
region.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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