In neighboring Indonesia, concerns about the rise of political Islam and religious conservatism, especially ahead of last month’s general election, appear to have subsided.
Observers noted that the three presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs did not use identity politics to gain votes.
The three couples are: Former governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan who is paired with chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Muhaimin Iskandar; current Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto and mayor of Solo Gibran Rakabuming Raka; and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo who is running with former PKB member Mahfud MD.
Unlike the other two candidate pairs, Prabowo and Gibran have never been members of an Islamic party.
Initially there were concerns that this election would be interfered with by religious conservatism, especially because identity politics dominated the presidential and legislative elections in 2019 and the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.
Ujang Komarudin, an expert on Islamic politics from Al Azhar University Jakarta, believes that several political groups want to uphold Islamic ideology but find it difficult to win elections because Indonesian society is heterogeneous.
“Objectively, there are indeed people or groups who fight for Islamic ideology or Islamic politics.
“But if we look at the Islamic community, here Islam itself is heterogeneous. Not homogeneous,” said Ujang.
Apart from that, added Ujang, although around 87 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million population are Muslims, most of them are not religious.
Most Indonesians practice moderate Islam or the religion is only a label on their KTP, but do not actually practice the teachings of that religion.
“This has an impact on voter behavior and their choices (during the election),” said Ujang.
In addition, observers told CNA that it is difficult for conservatism to rise in Indonesia due to the ideological differences of various Islamic political groups and their inability to gain mainstream support, plus the existence of Pancasila as the country’s basic philosophy.
DIFFERENCES IN THE IDEOLOGY OF ISLAMIC POLITICAL PARTIES
According to Ujang, Islamic parties in Indonesia are not united and have different ideologies. This is different from Malaysia with PAS as the dominant Islamic party.
“For example, PKB and the National Mandate Party (PAN), do they work based on ideology? I don’t think so,” said Ujang.
“They work based on interests, whether when forming coalitions or campaigning. They do not highlight Islamic values, but general or universal values when they talk about Islam.”
Currently there are nine political parties in the Indonesian parliament.
Five of them are nationalist parties, and the other four have an Islamic ideology, namely PKB, PAN, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and United Development Party (PPP).
Only PKB showed a significant increase in votes in last month’s legislative elections, making it the fourth largest party in parliament in 2024-2029, whose members will be sworn in next October.
PKB is the fifth largest party in parliament based on the results of the 2019 elections – after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), Golkar, Gerindra and the National Democratic Party (Nasdem).
“Regarding the results of the legislative elections, thank God. We at PKB are grateful.
“Because we are led by Muhaimin, who is Anies’ vice presidential candidate, we have a significant tailcoat effect,” said Zainul Munasichin, Secretary of the PKB Winning Institute.
The coattail effect is the tendency of a political party figure to attract votes for other candidates from the same party.
In the recent elections, Anies and Muhaimin were supported by a coalition of PKB, PKS and the nationalist Nasdem party.
Before this coalition was formed, some observers thought that PKB and PKS would not be able to work together because they had different views on Islam. However, PKB’s Zainul told CNA that his party’s alliance with PKS was “purely tactical.”
Meanwhile, PAN – which supports Prabowo and Gibran – was founded by figures from the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah.
PAN Secretary General, Eddy Soeparno, said that this party performed slightly better in the February general election compared to five years ago. Previously, he said, there was a perception that PAN’s right-leaning founders often participated in events attended by hardline Islamic groups.
The remaining Islamist party in parliament, the PPP, is the oldest and has been around for 51 years.
PPP was one of three political parties that existed during the Soeharto regime, along with the nationalist party Golkar and PDI, which is now called PDIP.
However, in recent years, this PPP has lost its influence.
According to Muhammad Romahurmuziy, chairman of the PPP advisory board, there are several factors causing this.
One of them is because this party does not have a strong leader and political machine.
“We will have to carry out a major reorientation in the next party congress,” Romahurmuziy told CNA, adding that the congress will be held in December next year, but could be moved forward depending on the results of the last elections.
According to the official election results released by the General Election Commission (KPU), PPP did not meet the minimum threshold of 4 percent to enter the DPR. This is the first time since its founding in 1973 that the PPP has no representation in parliament. PPP has stated that it will challenge the election results at the Constitutional Court.
Adi Prayitno, an expert on Islamic politics from the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, said that parties operate based on interests rather than ideology because Indonesia has a multi-party presidential system.
“There is a tendency that everyone is only chasing electoral votes,” said Adi.
“In Indonesia, everything is measured based on political interests and not ideology.”
PANCASILA, A TOOL FOR CONTROLLING POLITICAL IDENTITY
Ujang from Al Azhar University said that Islamic conservatism is not a selling point for most Indonesians.
“I think conservatism is not a threat in Indonesia because democracy in Indonesia is built on Pancasila,” said Ujang.
Pancasila is an Indonesian ideology which consists of five principles: Belief in One Almighty God, just and civilized humanity, Indonesian unity, democracy led by wisdom in representative deliberations, and social justice for all Indonesian people.
“Pancasila is the home for all religions in Indonesia, which creates harmony,” continued Ujang.
This was agreed by Ahmad Khoirul Umam, a politics lecturer from Paramadina Islamic University in Jakarta.
“This is what makes the character of Islam in Indonesia very different from Islam in other countries,” he said.
Umam said that Pancasila has become Indonesia’s identity, with its history starting from Indonesia’s first president, Soekarno.
The Dean of the Islamic Archipelago Faculty at Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama University, Ahmad Suaedy, told CNA that Pancasila is a reference point for every political group because it encompasses various ideologies.
“So in Indonesia, there are many religious elements used by the state. However, all of these are not part of political symbols because of Pancasila,” said Ahmad.
In Indonesia, which has around 1,300 different ethnic groups, observers believe that Pancasila has become an important element in maintaining the unity of the country.
“We are grateful that Indonesia has Pancasila which unites various religious communities. So there is no reason for Islam to become dominant and become a threat,” said Ujang.
