Indonesia: Cut and Thrust of Political Debate Best Place for Hard-Liners to Test Their Ideas

...[T]he Indonesian Islamic State (NII), which has been charged with treason in the past, is suspected of being responsible for the disappearance of scores, even hundreds, of students who some say were brainwashed by the NII.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By Fajar Riza Ul Haq | March 06, 2012

The discussion about whether to disband anarchic mass organizations is raging again, with the stand by the Dayak community in Central Kalimantan last month against the Islamic Defenders Front being the trigger for the current round of debate.

Responding to such publicly voiced aspirations, Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi has said that the prevailing law on mass organizations is no longer relevant to the political dynamics of the post-New Order era. Now, the calls for the disbandment of the group known as the FPI are heard in tandem with the discussion of a draft law on mass organizations in the House of Representatives.

The issue of mass organizations being out of control is not new, however. Speaking at a ceremony to mark National Press Day last year in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked law enforcers to be firm in the face of any organization using violence. This statement was met with a threat from the FPI, which said that if the president dared to disband the organization, it would work to unseat him.

The FPI rose to particular notoriety when its Laskar Islam (Islamic Troops) attacked participants of a rally by the Alliance for the Nation and the Freedom of Religion and Faith (AKKBB) on June 1, 2008. In the wake of the incident, the government faced strong public pressure to disband the FPI.

However, after the verdict against FPI leader Rizieq Shihab was issued by the Central Jakarta District Court in 2008 — he was jailed for his role in the attack — his organization showed it wasn’t impressed by openly calling on Muslims to attack mosques of the minority Muslim sect Ahmadiyah. Last year, the FPI topped a list drawn up by the Wahid Institute, a think tank, of organizations engaging in religious-based violence.

But the FPI is not the only organization that some want banned.

First, the Indonesian Islamic State (NII), which has been charged with treason in the past, is suspected of being responsible for the disappearance of scores, even hundreds, of students who some say were brainwashed by the NII.

Many organizations, including Islam-based ones like the West Java Islamic People’s Forum (FUI), condemn the NII as blasphemous and have demanded it be dissolved. However, the head of Al Zaytun Islamic boarding school, Panji Gumilang, who allegedly sits at the center of the NII network, has avoided summons by the police for interrogation.

The National Police pledged to handle the case, but since July no new developments have been reported. In fact, the chief of the Central Java Police recently warned publicly that the NII had changed its name to Building Indonesia Community (MIM), the group behind mass demonstrations in support of Panji.

Second, there is the call from a number of hard-line organizations such as the FUI and FPI to disband the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI). More mainstream organizations, such as the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) and, in politics, the United Development Party (PPP), have made similar calls. This has resulted in persecution of the minority sect’s followers and even killings such as in Cikeusik, Banten, a little over a year ago.

Third, and more recently, the United States placed a ban on Islamist firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir’s Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid, tying it to several attacks in the country as well as branding it a “foreign terrorist organization.”

There are thus a variety of reasons used by local and international actors to demand the dissolution of organizations. Often, disagreements over religious views lie at the basis of such demands, like in the case of Ahmadis and recent cases involving Shiite Muslims. How should such demands be dealt with?

On one hand, to ask for the dissolution of an organization is anybody’s right, especially when it is seen as a threat to one’s own basic rights. After all, we live in a democracy.

But on the other hand, the disbandment process must go through a public discourse that is balanced and be examined by an impartial judiciary. Again, that’s the democratic thing to do. Letting two extremes clash in the public sphere will only add to the complexity of the problem, obscuring its roots.

An ideology, including one of violence and terror, cannot be eliminated by simply banning an organization. The ideology can be reproduced in a short time and the organization can be transformed. Rather, the government should eliminate sociopolitical conditions that may justify the existence of anarchist, unconstitutional and terrorist movements.

Thus, one thing the state should do is try to domesticate Islamic organizations and movements by encouraging their active involvement in our democracy.

Having Shariah-focused or Wahhabi-minded Islamic organizations participate in politics would be the best thing to do. The post-Mubarak embrace by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi movement of the electoral process in Egypt should serve as an example for Indonesia.

A democratic political system allows rigid political identities to become more dynamic, and this also goes for movements that aim to implement Shariah rule.

Take a look at the Tarbiyah movement, which started underground in the New Order era. The movement was very much influenced by the Egyptian Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. But since 1998, the most political among the Tarbiyah activists have formed first the Justice Party and later the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Now warp to 2012 and see the result. Political activism is the best way to accommodate and moderate hard-line views.

Fajar Riza Ul Haq is the executive director of the Maarif Institute in Jakarta.

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