Abstract
Religious populism has strong and profound influence in Indonesia. It challenges the rational foundation of the democratic structure of the Indonesian Politics. This populist political movement utilizes religious language and symbols as their language of political articulation, negotiation, and contestation, which then occupies the real and virtual public sphere of the politics of Indonesia. Therefore, this use of religious language and symbols has placed democratic system in a serious risk. This critical study is intended to investigate the disadvantages of the use of religious language and symbols in the political arena in Indonesia. I will employ Paul Ricour’s thoughts in his writing , The Fragility of Political Language , as a lens of analysis for that phenomenon. Through that analysis I argue that the use of religious language and symbols in political discourse contradicts the provisional character of political language in democratic political settings. I suggest, therefore, the reenactment of the constitutional and rational foundation of democratic structure of Politics in Indonesia is seriously required.
Highlights
In the constitutional nation-state of the Republic of Indonesia, Populism is a form of political regression
We find a paradox of the use of religious language in political discourse, due to the provisional character of political language, in one hand, and the orthodox-conservative character of religious views which are verbalized through religious language and symbols, on the other hand (Wijanarko, 2000)
Indonesia has committed to build a nation state under foundation of the democratic constitutional state. This is the rational foundation of the political public sphere in this multicultural country
Summary
In the constitutional nation-state of the Republic of Indonesia, Populism is a form of political regression. It could disrupt the traditional mechanisms and procedures of the democratic system It is obvious, that the use of religious language and symbols in political discourse, complicated with the development of virtual public sphere, has caused the rational dimension of political realm marginalized. I will utilize Paul Ricoeur’s thoughts on The Fragility of Political Language as the framework of this philosophical critical analysis (Ricoeur, 1987) Through this procedure I will exhibit that the rational (constitutional) foundation of the national state of Indonesia need to be rearticulated. It is only if this rational aspect of political system be strengthened, the aspiration to build a strong democratic system of politics will be possible. I will propose several solutions to overcome the disadvantages and problem of Religious Populism
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