The activities of Islamist extremists in Indonesia “will be dispiriting to those who view democracy as an antidote to radicalism,” an analyst cautions today, as a “new generation of radicals use democracy and the symbols of Islam to erode and ultimately destroy Indonesia’s heritage of religious pluralism and tolerance.” Extremists have exploited recent moves toward regional autonomy to impose Shariah-based laws in nearly 70 of the country’s 364 local districts, notes C Holland Taylor of the LibForAll Foundation.
Indonesia is the most democratic country in Southeast Asia, according to Freedom House ratings, and the world’s most populous Muslim state is often cited as evidence to confirm that democracy, Islam and modernity can go hand in hand. Yet while the country’s transition from authoritarian rule may currently suggest that Islam and democracy can co-exist, there are no grounds for complacency.
The archipelago is home to the world’s largest mass Islamic organizations – Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah – with some 70 million adherents between them. Moderate Muslim leaders like former president Abdurrahman Wahid have “resisted the influence of radical Salafist elements and are positively projecting a model of democratic and civil Islam that, in time, could assume genuinely global significance.”
But the “democratic Indonesian tiger” has recently shown disturbing signs of religious intolerance and indications that authoritarian reflexes remain just below the surface of political life. Ignas Kleden of the Indonesian Community for Democracy (KID), writing in today’s Jakarta Post, is alarmed at recent state interference in religious affairs in curbing the rights and activities of the Ahmadiyah, a small Islamic sect.
A leading military figure, General Djoko Santoso, recently cited violence during local elections as evidence that the country was not ready for democracy. Thankfully, great strides have been made in reducing the armed forces’ political influence, including removing the military’s reserved seats in parliament.
The military-oligarch axis remains robust at local levels, the principal source of local officials’ corruption. Despite the landmark 2003 establishment of a constitutional court to oversee an independent judiciary, corruption and weak rule of law are real impediments to fostering public faith in democratic institutions. Nevertheless, some observers suggest, Indonesia has “almost certainly gone too far from the heavily centralized authoritarianism of the New Order to slide back into it very easily.”
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