June 20, 1999
Can She Run Indonesia? It's About Islam, or Is It?
By SETH MYDANS
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Like white doves, demure and cowled, the girls of the
Asshiddiqiyah Muslim
boarding school nestled on tiny carpets for their noon prayer, their
thick-soled sneakers lying in a
jumble on the steps outside.
Then came lunch and gossip and glances across the small brick courtyard at the
boys and, all right,
if we must, some talk of politics. Can a woman be president of Indonesia, the
world's largest Islamic
nation?
It is the question of the day. The leading contender for the presidency in
Indonesia's long, tortured
political process is a woman, Megawati Sukarnoputri. As coalition lobbying
intensifies following this
month's inconclusive election, some of her opponents are playing the Islamic
card.
A restive but largely quiescent political force for decades, Islam has
suddenly
emerged, in the
vacuum of the slow vote count, as a potentially divisive issue.
There is no question of a rise of militant Islam or an imposition of Islamic
law. But all of Indonesian
politics is in flux now, one year after the forced resignation of President
Suharto, and Islamic factions
are shifting and roiling as they seek a new place in a new political order.
The wedge issue is gender.
"A Woman President: No Way!" shouted a recent newspaper headline, stating the
case succinctly.
This was also the opinion of Rosita, 17, a student here at the boarding
school.
"We think a woman
always follows her feelings and is too emotional," she said, expressing a view
commonly held here.
Then, as if to prove her point, she exclaimed, "We love Habibie!" -- the
incumbent president,
B.J. Habibie -- "He is so handsome!"
The rector of the boarding school, Noer Muhammad Iskandar, took a different
(perhaps less
emotional) view. "Why not?" he said. "Islamic laws allow a woman to be
president. All this business
is a political interpretation of Islamic law, not a religious
interpretation."
The disagreement between the student and the rector goes all the way to the
top
of the religious
hierarchy. Three of Indonesia's five leading clerics argue that a woman cannot
be president; two
disagree.
In the political field, a dozen parties that label themselves Islamic --
out of
48 that contested the vote --
are also divided on the question.
But there is agreement among most political commentators that the real issue
here is not gender or
Islam but politics. This is a country where nationhood has always taken
precedence over religion and
where Islam, in its many variations, has for the most part been moderate.
In a nation where some 90 percent of the population of more than 200 million
are Muslim, there is no
such thing as a unified Muslim vote. Instead there is a continuing debate over
the role of religion in
society and a continuing jostling for dominance among the more orthodox and
more secular views,
and their various subsets.
"Islam is factionalized and they are poorly organized," said Arief Budiman, a
leading political scientist.
"But it has the potential to be an effective political tool especially if
it is
focused on a unifying issue,
even a small issue. But that does not mean fanaticism in the religion like the
Taliban," a reference to
the fundamentalist movement in Afghanistan.
During his 32 years in power, Suharto worked to neutralize the power of
Islamic
politics. He also at
times subtly played an Islamic card when it suited him.
On voting day in the coastal village of Sukawali, 30 miles northwest of
Jakarta, a fisherman named
Hasan Bisri, 60, expressed the nationalist philosophy that Suharto had
fostered. "Some people might
vote for an Islamic party," he said. "But we prefer to put Islam aside. We
prefer to put the nation first
and Islam second."
Islamic parties generally did poorly in the election. The potential problem,
political analysts say, is
that if they are ignored in the government coalition that will eventually
emerge, the seeds could be
sown for future tensions.
The religious question emerged quite suddenly on the eve of the June 7 vote.
First came an
unconfirmed report that 60 percent of Mrs. Megawati's parliamentary candidates
were non-Muslim.
Then, in a clear attack on Mrs. Megawati's party, came a round of streetcorner
fliers urging good
Muslims to vote only for parties that support Islam. Then came the debate over
a woman president.
Mrs. Megawati's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Reform, represents
the country's
mainstream of secular nationalism and is home to many members of the Christian
minority.
But she herself and most of those who support her are Muslim. If indeed a
disproportionate number
of her candidates are Christians, said Goenawan Muhamad, a leading publisher
and political analyst,
it was as much as anything a sign of her political ineptness, "most unwise on
her part, and
insensitive."
Apart from questions of religion, Mrs. Megawati's party will need to form a
coalition in order to take
power. And the two most likely partners are the parties of the two most
prominent Muslim politicians
-- both of whom also covet the presidency. One, headed by Abdurrahman Wahid,
has its base in the
nation's largest Islamic association, with a membership approaching 30
million,
the Nahdlatul Ulama
-- which means council of religious scholars. It represents a relatively
relaxed and moderate approach
to religion, but it is so large that there is more than enough room for
divisions over issues like the
propriety of having a woman president.
The second, headed by Amien Rais, is based in his more conservative Muslim
association, the
Muhammadiyah, but contested the election as a secular party.
Rais was the first major politician to concede defeat in the election, when
the
early count showed
his party trailing. But he could still form a crucial swing vote between a
Megawati-Wahid alliance
and an alliance built around the incumbent party, Golkar.
"I have great faith in the capacity of Muslim politicians to do the most
remarkable deals with non-
Muslims," said Harold Crouch, an expert on Indonesia at Australian National
University in Canberra.
"I think they'll be bargaining hard like everyone else."
He added: "This is not rising fundamentalism we have here. It's old-style
Islamic politics."
This is all as it should be, said Rosita's Islamic law professor at the
boarding school, Tohirin Suparta.
"If you know the history of Indonesia, our country was established by
nationalism, not by Islamic
law," he said. "We are not an Islamic nation, so the political leader is
higher
than the religious leader."
Her English teacher, Jazeri Sardi, looked on as the girls in their white cowls
knelt in intense
concentration, dipping their heads to the floor as their rector read a
prayer.
"I have many Christian friends," Sardi whispered. "We visit each other often
and we don't have any
conflict. Religion has come to make people love each other, not to make people
hate each other.
What do you think?"
History often repeats twice, the first time occurs as a tragedy,
the second time a farce.
Karl Marx
The third time is a comedy
Unknown
