The Shift of Kyai’s Roles in Kediri East Java in the Post New-Order Era: The contribution on local environment context

Abstract

This study discusses kyai’s roles in responding to the social, economic, and political changes in Kediri, East Java, in the post new-order era. Since the collapse of Soeharto’s power in 1998, Indonesia was viewed as a model of the unity of Islam and democration. Islam played important roles in the orientation of the political form in Indonesian. The stronger contribution of the Muslims after the new order can not be separated from the roles of kyai. To date, kyai has a role of selecting outside cultures that enter the society. Unfortunately, the capability of kyai to selesct outside cultures is often not comparable to the swift flow of culture that reduce the role of kyai. This study concludes that the ownership of all symbolic, social, economic, and cultural capitals, has not been able to lead kyai to be successful in all arenas of their struggle.This is because efforts to strengthen economic and social capitals, especially political capital, turned out to weaken symbolic capital. The further impact is that their followers do not provide adequate support when kyai develop their wings in economic and political affairs.