BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

LOW PROFILE OF ISLAMIST POLITICS IN INDONESIA: EXPLAINING THE ‘DEMOGRAPHIC PARADOX’

Author: Moinul Khan

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2013v34n2a3

ABSTRACT

Although Indonesia constitutes the largest Muslim majority country, Islambased politics remains at a low profile since its independence. This presents a ‘demographic paradox’ vis-à-vis the conservative interpretation of Islamic ideology as one and uniform in nature for power politics as evident in a number of Muslim countries. This article mainly seeks to explain as to why this is the case. While highlighting the reasons, this article finds that the pluralist nature of the Indonesian society and strong syncretic formation of Islam have influenced the Indonesian government to adopt religious neutral ideology, Pancasila. This was reinforced by two authoritarian regimes of Sukarno and Suharto for about four decades, who subordinated the public role of Islam. Although, the fall of Suharto saw the trend of conservative Islamist agenda often expressed in the rise of Islamic piety and violence against the Western interests through extremism and terrorism, this did not reflect in the voting behaviour in subsequent general elections. The popular appeal of Islamist parties has remained confined to a small minority of the vast majority of Muslim population. The post-Suharto governments of Indonesia have also shown firm commitment to promote secular ideals and domesticate the role of Islamists. This puzzle underlines the thesis that Islam is not a monolith and at the same time ideological characterisation by the orientalist and neo-orientalist school of thought ignores many realities especially in the case of Indonesia.