At best, the harmony seemingly exists because minority religions sacrifice their own rights to keep the goodwill of Islam as the religion of the majority, and learn not to complain too loudly about it.
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By Johannes Nugroho | June 2, 2014
The currently raging tight race between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto for Indonesia’s presidency has regrettably degenerated into a smear campaign to establish better religious credentials by both sides. By setting one against the other as the better more pious Muslim, supporters of both presidential candidates unwittingly reveal the Achilles’ heel of the country’s brand of democracy.
The Indonesian democracy is far from being secular, despite rhetorical insistence by the government that there is no state religion under the constitution. As so often happens with flowery nation state theories in Indonesia, the practice presents evidence to the contrary.
By focusing on the religious credentials of the presidential candidates, the Indonesian constituency is going backward rather than forward in time as far as democratic maturity goes. Rather than competing with one another based on visionary approaches to the country’s fundamental problems and proposed development programs that could benefit the ordinary voter, the candidates are being judged according to their respective religiosity.
The recent corruption scandal involving former Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, known for his staunch defense of Islam as well as being the leader of an Islamic political party, should be an eye-opener for Indonesians that mistaking religiosity as a virtue in a political leader is indeed a misnomer.
The corruption indictment against the former president of the Islamic Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) in the state beef import tenders under the Ministry of Agriculture is further proof that even politicians who openly lead seemingly pious lives are not above embezzling money from the taxpayers.
However, judging from the heated debates taking place in social media across the country, religious issues are apparently considered important by many Indonesians. After all, most Indonesians claim to believe in God. The figure stands at 98.5 percent according to a 2009 survey by Lynn et al.
The problem is that many Indonesians tend to be fanatical about their religion, as evidenced by the outbursts of religion-based conflicts throughout its history. Religious harmony in Indonesia, if truth be told, is very much a myth perpetuated to keep the country’s peace.
At best, the harmony seemingly exists because minority religions sacrifice their own rights to keep the goodwill of Islam as the religion of the majority, and learn not to complain too loudly about it.
Religious intolerance continues to haunt Indonesia these days, and is one of the points highlighted in Joko Widodo’s political manifesto for the presidential election. Prabowo, on the other hand, has been criticized for his vow to “maintain religious purity” but later recanted by saying he is committed to religious freedom.
Again, as so often is the case, theory sounds better than practice. Despite the constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom, the Indonesian government has to date failed to extend this basic human right to all its citizens.
Instead of becoming a more secular society, the country’s record on religious intolerance shows an upward trend, with the state doing next to nothing to ameliorate the situation. In some cases, notably in the persecution of the followers of Ahmadiyya by hard-line Sunni Muslims, the government has clearly taken side by issuing regulations discriminative against this Islamic minority sect, going as far as banning openly practicing Ahmadis from embarking on the hajj pilgrimage.
The legislative election results in April show Indonesia to be a politically divided country, with no party emerging as a clear winner, making the business of governing the nation a tricky feat. Thus, the last thing the nation needs is to be further divided along religious differences.
Indonesians should remember the nation’s early history and the fact that the countrywas founded by people of different faiths and persuasions. The composer of the national anthem, WR Supratman, for example, was a practicing Ahmadi. Tan Malaka, a contemporary of President Sukarno, and undoubtedly one of the country’s founding fathers, was a known Marxist. Ki Hajar Dewantara, considered as the father of modern Indonesian education, was a practitioner of Kejawen, a brand of Javanese mysticism.
Judging from the political maneuvers, it seems that the supporters of Prabowo Subianto were the ones to start exploiting religious sentiments to score political points at their rivals’ expense.
Further, the fact that efforts are being made by Jokowi’s camp to prove his Muslim credentials indicates that both sides believe that religion remains a sticking point for most Indonesian voters.
Thus, if the final vote of confidence goes to Jokowi in July, it will have been a foregone conclusion that Indonesia is finally making strides towards a more secular and mature form of democracy. But if Prabowo ascends to the presidency by popular vote, Indonesia may be fated to be bogged down by sectarian issues for years to come.
Read original post here: For Indonesia’s Constituency, the Presidential Election Is Trivialized Into a Piety Pageant
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