Asia Times: Southeast Asia


	June 25, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

All eyes on rise of young Islamic party
By Prangtip Daorueng

JAKARTA - Indonesia sees itself as a politically secular country, but the emergence of a young political party with Islamic credentials and a good amount of young, well-educated supporters is being closely watched by many.

The Justice Party is one of several Islamic groups and parties that support calls to amend the 1945 constitution to apply Islamic Shariah law in the world's most populous Muslim country, despite opposition from other major parties.

The rise of such calls is a new phenomenon, not seen during the three decades of Suharto's rule, for instance.

"Our main aim is based on Islamic teachings, which seek to establish a justice and welfare nation, which is blessed by God," said Hidayat Nur Wahid, 42, second president of Partai Keadilan or Justice Party.

"The intention to serve, which is the main policy of our party, is the worship of God," explained Dr Zulkieflimansyah, the party's director, an economics graduate from Britain. "You can say that we have vertical relations to God and horizontal relations to the people."

After entering politics in 1998, the party rose swiftly in the House of Representatives, gaining seats in a relatively short period of time despite competition from the bigger, older, secular parties. It gained seven seats in the House the first time it ran in the election, and soon became party No 5 in Jakarta - a "big success", Hidayat proudly said, for a new party.

Meantime, leaders of the major parties, including the National Awakening Party of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who counts as his power base the Muslim organization Nahdatul Ulama and its 35 million members, have frowned on the Justice Party's moves.

Wahid has been quoted as saying that Article 29 of the constitution - which guarantees respect for the supreme being - was precisely a "joint agreement" of Indonesia's founding fathers, who wanted people to have freedom to pursue different beliefs.

Parties such as the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the former ruling party Golkar, and even the National Mandate Party of leading politician Amien Rais, based on the second-largest Muslim group Muhammadiyah, are against amending the charter.

Since its birth in 1945, Indonesia has positioned itself as a secular state that followed a modern legal system while giving social space for Islam, the religion of the overwhelming majority of its 220 million people.

Nationalism under founding president Sukarno ignored Islam as a political force. Suharto's military regime emphasized state-controlled national unity, and saw Islamic groups and their elite as a threat to its existence. As a result, Islamic groups - even the biggest mass-based ones such as Nahdlatul Ulama - have never played a significant role in parliamentary politics, and many Islamic leaders have long advocated a secular state.

Even after Suharto's downfall in May 1988, most Muslim voters still generally chose secular parties over Islamic-based ones.

Vice President Hamzah Haz comes from the Muslim-based United Development Party, which supports the constitutional amendment. But he has reportedly conceded that the amendment would not gain enough support in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the highest body that can amend the constitution.

Indonesia also has seen fundamentalist groups such as the Laskar Jihad and Laskar Mujahiddin emerge after 1998, but people viewed them as disturbing signs of division and extremism - yet insignificant in the long-term political picture.

Along with Muslim factions in the House and other Islamic groups, the Justice Party suggested that Article 29 of the constitution, which stipulates that "the State is based on one Supreme God principle", be followed by a sentence that reads, "It is obliged to perform Islamic Shariah [law]."

"Our understanding of Islam is not something related to violence or terror, but justice and welfare for all," said Hidayat, also an Islamic theologist. "In our constitution's Chapter 29, the practice of religion is free. So if Indonesia practices Islamic law, it is not against the constitution."

He said the application of Shariah would not go against the country's social background because Islamic law had been practiced before the Dutch colonial period.

"Islamic Shariah can be applied to Muslims in the country, while those of other religions are free to practice their beliefs. Our policy is to be open for cooperation with everybody," he pointed out, although skeptics say the party may have a moderate face but its real policies on religion remain unclear.

Still others say there is no need to go down the path of constitutional change for this purpose.

"The state cannot regulate how many units a person should perform within a prayer and many other things related to religious service," Nahdatul Ulama Central Executive Board member Masdar Mas'udi told the online weekly Tempointeractive.

Still, the time when Islam has been separate from politics in Indonesia may yet change, analysts say, looking at how the Justice Party has gone into parliamentary politics and is receiving support from young supporters.

There are no surveys to indicate support for the Justice Party, but Hidayat said it has had a 500 percent increase in party members, which he calls "cadres", since the last election. Party officials say it now has 300,000 core members, most of them from well-educated younger generation belonging to the middle class.

"They are university-graduated and leaders of Islamic boarding schools in Java, Sumatra, and East Indonesia, but right now we recruit new cadres through training and seminars from other groups apart from the campuses," he said.

The seeds of Justice Party began in several Islamic groups, which had been active in campuses since before Suharto's fall.

Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, an Islamic scholar from the non-government Freedom Institute, said the younger generation's interest in Islam is not a new phenomenon. "During the New Order [Suharto era], many university students turned to religious activities as an alternative to the ban on political activities," he said.

As to how his party got the support of students, Hidayat said: "We don't express our belief only by talking, but by doing," and he cited several welfare projects as an example. "That's why young people who seek Islam as an answer feel at home with us."

But at the same time, Hidayat concedes that Indonesian Muslims' secular political and social outlook could be a problem in getting more support. "You can see that although there are Islamic banks in the country, many people still prefer to use commercial banks," he explained.

But the Freedom Institute's Ulil argues that the most important point in the social life of Islam in Indonesia should be the room it gives for people to follow their religion.

"I don't think that a political party with one single idea of imposing Islam on every Muslim is a good idea, and perhaps the Justice Party will have to answer this question once it grows," he said.

(Inter Press Service)