http://www.theage.com.au/world/religious-partys-rise-raises-questions-20090403-9qqf.html?page=-1
Religious party's rise raises questions
a.. Tom Allard, Jakarta
b.. April 4, 2009
A traditional Indonesian puppet, or ondel-ondel, drums up support for the
Prosperous Justice Party at a mass rally inside Jakarta's Bung Karno stadium.
Photo: AFP
THE cadres of Indonesia's main Islamist party, the Prosperous Justice Party
(PKS), have come out in force, staging the kind of mass rally in Jakarta about
which the other parties could only dream.
More than 100,000 turned up to the Bung Karno stadium earlier this week - an
impressive show for a work day and by far the largest rally of any party in the
nation's capital.
As the people chanted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great"), rock bands played and
party officials spruiked their message of personal purity and anti-corruption.
There was a festive feel to the occasion.
Yellow, white and black flags flew and an ondel-ondel - a giant, traditional
Jakarta doll directed by two men inside - roamed the stadium's field. Rather
than the usual caricature based on figures from Javanese legend or modern pop
culture, the ondel-ondel depicted a pious young woman, complete with hijab.
As Indonesia prepares to go to the polls next Thursday to elect its national
parliament, the fortunes of its Islamist parties are being closely watched.
The terrorist attacks that gripped the nation from 2000 to 2005, and the rise
of hardline Islamist movements in the Middle East, have raised concerns that
Indonesia's moderate form of Islam and its secular ideology are under siege.
It's a view put forward by former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid,
popularly known as Gus Dur. "Extremist agents" backed by "fantastic amounts of
petrodollars" have infiltrated every level of Indonesian society, he contends -
from mosques to educational institutions, religious councils and mass Islamic
organisations, and right up to the presidential palace. "Since their appearance
after the fall of Suharto, extremist movements have begun to succeed in
changing the face of Indonesian Islam to become more aggressive, furious,
intolerant and full of hate," he said in the preamble to a paper released this
week by the LibForAll Foundation.
Yet despite Gus Dur's alarm, all the polling and the internal machinations in
parties like the PKS suggest that Islam as a potent political force is actually
on the wane in Indonesia - or, at best, is treading water.
"There's no reason to be fearful of the rise of Islamism in Indonesia," says
Greg Fealy, the Australian National University professor in Indonesian politics
who monitors Islam closely. "Overall, the polling is showing that Indonesian
people are overwhelmingly concerned with economic performance - who can help
them put food on the table and help them improve their daily lives."
A recent survey in the Kompas newspaper found only 8 per cent of respondents
said religion would have a significant influence on who they voted for, while
60 per cent said it would have no impact.
When grouped together, all the Islamist parties are polling about 25 per cent
in the most authoritative surveys, compared to 38 per cent in 2004 - when
disenchantment with the West, due to the Iraq invasion, was at its peak in
Indonesia.
And the PKS - a movement inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that began as a
Koranic study group on the country's university campuses - is drawing
significantly less support than the 7 per cent it achieved in 2004, garnering
it more than 40 seats in the national parliament and three cabinet positions in
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Government.
To be sure, it's the PKS - which relies on young, educated urbanites for most
of its support - that is uppermost in Gus Dur's mind when he takes aim at
Islamist hardliners taking over Indonesia.
Yet Bachtiar Effendy, a political analyst at the State Islamic University, said
the PKS was abandoning its "Islamic colour" to reach a bigger audience.
PKS politicians have been the driving force behind the country's controversial
anti-pornography bill. In classic Indonesian fashion, however, the new law is
not being enforced.
"Indonesia's social politics are so pluralistic. Anything that goes against
Pancasila (the country's secular philosophy) cannot live in Indonesia," Dr
Effendy said.
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