Indonesian Civil Society Research Articles

ISLAM AND NEO-MODERNISM IN INDONESIA: REVISITING NURCHOLISH MADJID AND ABDURRAHMAN WAHID’S THOUGHT ON CIVIL SOCIETY

Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid are regarded as two of Indonesia's most influential Muslim intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century. Adapting the concept of Barton (1997), both Madjid and Wahid are not only prominent public intellectuals but also can be considered intellectual ulama, scholars who combine the best of classical scholarship and intellectual leadership with modern secular and Islamic learning and participated alongside other public intellectuals in Indonesia's civil society forums. In addition, Greg Barton labels these personalities and characteristics of thought as Neo-Modernists or Neo-Modernist thinkers. This paper examines the interpretation of Madjid, who studied in a more Western academic culture, and Wahid, who studied in a Middle-Eastern country, on civil society as the manifestation of both Neo-Modernism's thought, followed by a discussion on the similarities and differences between the two ideas. Through an exploratory and comparative analysis, this study reveals that the Neo-Modernism interpretation of civil society articulated by both can be seen in their progressive thought towards Islam and society, Madjid with his idea of 'secularization' and further changed into 'de-sacralization'; while Wahid with his thinking on the indigenization of Islam (pribumisasi Islam). Their thoughts introduce an open, inclusive, progressive understanding of the relationship between Islam and civil society, asserting social pluralism and modernity and stressing the need for tolerance and understanding. Moreover, this paper also argues that both interpretations of Islam and civil society have been constructive for Indonesia in promoting democratic reforms, strengthening the importance of the Pancasila (the five pillars) foundation and state constitution, not religious sectarianism (theocracy), thus refuting the notion that Islam is incompatible with democracy and pluralism and assisting Indonesian society in the productive synthesis of Islamic ideas and modern concepts such as democracy, liberalism, and secularism.

Defending a Vulnerable yet Resilient Democracy: Civil Society Activism in Jokowi's Indonesia

For the first two decades after the end of the authoritarian New Order regime, Indonesian civil society was widely hailed as a bulwark against elite attempts to roll back the country's democratic achievements. More recent assessments, however, have highlighted how polarisation, socio-religious conservatism and growing state repression have increasingly restricted civil society's ability to defend Indonesian democracy against further backsliding. In the face of these growing pressures, political activists have nonetheless demonstrated adaptability, resourcefulness and resilience, and, despite the narrowing space for dissent and protest, occasionally succeeded in halting and even reversing anti-democratic trends. In this article, we focus on two segments of civil society – women's rights groups and environmental activists – to illustrate under what circumstances progressive political activism in contemporary Indonesia can still be effective in upholding diagonal accountability and defending human rights.

Indonesian civil society’s involvement in counterterrorism: between hope and risk

Indonesian civil society’s involvement in counterterrorism: between hope and risk

THE INFLUENCE OF SALARY AND HEALTH FACILITIES ON EMPLOYEE LOYALTY PT BINA INSAN KAMIL INDONESIA EAST JAKARTA

In today's competitive business landscape, employee loyalty and well-being are pivotal factors influencing organizational success. PT. Bina Insan Kamil Indonesia, situated in East Jakarta, operates within an environment where retaining skilled and motivated employees is essential. Employee loyalty, often impacted by compensation and workplace amenities, holds the potential to shape the company's performance and overall work culture. The primary goal of this study is to examine the impact of salary on employee loyalty, the relationship between salary and health facilities, and the correlation between health facilities and employee loyalty at PT. East Jakarta Kamil Indonesian Civil Society Development. This study employs a quantitative research approach, viewing reality as measurable and causal, aligned with positivism. Smart Equation Models based on Partial Least Square (PLS) are used for analysis, accommodating various data types and smaller sample sizes. The study covers all PT Bina Insan Kamil Indonesia employees (60 individuals) from February to April 2020, utilizing non-probability total sampling, while data collection involves the Likert scale. The outcomes unveiled significant findings: health facilities wield a substantial impact on employee loyalty at PT. Bina Insan Kamil Indonesia, supported by a T-Statistic test result of 2.323. Similarly, salary demonstrates a notable influence on health facilities, evident from a T-Statistic test result of 225.574. However, the study did not detect a significant effect of salary on employee loyalty, with a T-Statistic test result of 1.823. The study's findings contribute insights into the relationship between salary, health facilities, and employee loyalty in the context of PT. Bina Insan Kamil Indonesia.

Analysis of the existence of ecofeminism in Indonesian civil society in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic (2020–2022)

Analysis of the existence of ecofeminism in Indonesian civil society in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic (2020–2022)

In Permanent Evolution: An Epilogue

Abstract: Using Pierre Nora's notion (1989) that memory "remains in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, … vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, susceptible to being long dormant and periodically revived," this paper demonstrates that memories of Indonesia's anti-communist purge beginning in 1965 continue to fluctuate between remembering and forgetting. While vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, memories of the purge are also susceptible to periods of dormancy and revival. Against this backdrop, members of the Indonesian civil society attempt to produce "different kinds of memories" of the purge. They pursue the attempts through different kinds of initiatives, including music, art performances, studies on demographic changes, and hosting educational fora. Further research is needed to explore similar initiatives to study how the permanent evolution of the memories of the 1965-66 purge continues to produce negotiation between the purge's different narratives and their respective adherents.

The Indonesian Islamic Student Association's Idea About Civil Society

Students have an important role in the political system, because they have their own place for society. Students have four roles, namely agent of change, social control, iron stock, and moral force. To make citizens aware of their role, a student organization is needed as a real form of student forum so that they can explore their potential and abilities, achieve missions with one purpose of the organization. Commitment in the organization, as well as the knowledge base is able to build a student's frame of mind, so that he hopes to answer the problems that occur in society. One of the issues that is often discussed is building the concept of civil society in Indonesia. As a student organization, the Islamic Student Association based on Islam is able to assess civil society based on an integral understanding of Islam. The purpose of this service is to provide an understanding of the Indonesian Islamic Student Association's Ideas for Civil Society during the activities of the introduction of prospective members of the Islamic Student Association. The results of the service from this activity are: First, providing understanding and knowledge about the Indonesian idea of Islamic student associations to civil society. Second, interactive discussion between participants and presenters. Third, the presenter becomes the carrier of the discussion flow by solving problems.

Black Comedy Alike, How Indonesian Middle Low Citizens Communication Model Teasing about Lockdown

This paper aims to describe how the form of communication is used by middle and lower class civil society in Indonesia to respond to the government's call when it was first ordered to lock down when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in 2020 ago. This research was designed qualitatively and conducted through several stages of research. They were observation, data collection, data display and analysis, and conclusion. At the observation stage, researchers observed the linguistic phenomena appearing in various villages in Yogyakarta Special Region (DIY). DIY was independently performing a lockdown although the Indonesian government did not instruct to do that as what other regions did. The second step was data collection. The main source of the data was banners consisting of language content themed the lockdown as the main data. From the documented banners and transcription, the research came into the next stage of method that was data display and analysis. The language contents were classified into some categorizations of illocutionary acts through pragmatics approach.

Tinjauan Teologis-Etis dan Politik Wacana Perpanjangan Masa Jabatan Presiden

The discourse of extending the term of office of the president has become a classic phenomenon that keeps repeating itself. From the old order, the new order to the post-reform era, including during the current administration of President Joko Widodo. This paper describes the polemic of the discourse on extending the term of office of the president and discusses it with thoughts about politics, power, and democratic and theological-ethical government systems. This paper focuses on finding answers to the question, “How did the discourse on extending the presidency during the Joko Widodo administration finally fail in the middle of the road?” From a theological-ethical and political perspective, is it really only because of the better democratic system and the strength of civil society in Indonesia? Or is there another factor that will determine the success and failure of the discourse on extending the presidential term? Through this paper, the author argues that it is the ethical attitude of President Jokowi's leadership that will determine the end of the discourse.

Revitalisasi Civil Society Melalui Teologi Sosial Pasca Dua Dasawarsa Reformasi

This article discusses the importance of developing social theology to revitalize civil society. After two decades of reform, many people have stated that Indonesia's civil society was slowly fading. It was worried that it would reduce the power of democracy previously fought by all elements of society. The access opened to political articulation for political Islam groups is alleged to be the main reason. Islamic political parties or Islamic mass-based political parties are more attractive to Islamic activists. The articulation of Islam is finally understood only as a search for power accommodated in a subordinating manner. We must respect the participation of Nahdlatul 'Ulama and Muhammadiyah in taking part as a civil society power, especially during the New Order era, in which the articulation of Islam socially and culturally seems very strong. This is the bibliographical research with the method of meta-analysis or meta-synthesis. This meta-synthesis explains several syntheses that originate from the convergence of various qualitative reports that produce new interpretations. This research results in the importance of developing and spreading social theology in Muslim society. Social theology is understood as a belief that is in favor of humanity. This theology places the defense of society as the main thing. In this way, it is essential to develop social theology so that civil society always grows and develops alongside Indonesian democracy. The novelty of this research is the theological synthesis in developing Islamic social movements in making civil society.

ISLAM, (UN)CIVIL SOCIETY AND CHALLENGES FOR DEMOCRATISATION IN INDONESIA

This article tries to critically examine the idea of civil society in light of Indonesia's Islamist politics. This raises the question of how far the idea of a civil society in a democratic country leads to public civility. This is an important question that must be addressed. The Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI) is the main focus of this article. MMI, one of the most active Islamist organizations founded after the fall of the authoritarian regime of the New Order, develops political frameworks that endanger democracy and public civility. MMI became an organization that advocates for uncivil discourses of Islamic interpretation, thus representing Indonesia's (un)civil society. It is most visible in the organization's views on democracy and its interpretation of the "jihad" doctrine. As a result, the article concludes that the classification of Indonesian civil society should include both civil and (un)civil society. In addition to civil society, Indonesia should include uncivil society, even if their orientation is different. An un-civil society threatens democracy and public civility while civil society is fighting for it.

The limits of civil society activism in Indonesia: the case of the weakening of the KPK

ABSTRACT This paper examines the limits of Indonesian civil society activism in advancing democratic politics. This activism, mainly by middle-class reformers, has not only failed to prevent democracy from being hijacked by illiberal interests but also contributed to justifying the deepening of political illiberalism. A predominantly anti-political approach among civil society activists mainly aims to establish new institutions and policy designs to generate reforms, while allowing entrenched power relations to remain unchallenged and to pervade new institutions. Meanwhile, social protests mobilized by this kind of activism, both on the streets and social media platforms, also tend to be sporadic and have no clear leadership and structure, while protest demands are often contradictory, making these too weak to challenge anti-democratic interests. This paper challenges existing studies that extoll Indonesian civil society activists for their success in advocating certain legislation, policies, and institutions. The weakening of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, KPK) illustrates how even trusted democratic institutions equipped with extraordinary powers and capacities are vulnerable to vested interests. Not only have Indonesian civil society activists failed to defend the KPK, but many of them have justified attempts to paralyze this agency.

Civil Society’s Contributions and Challenges in the Development of Business and Human Rights Policy in Indonesia

Civil society greatly contributes to encouraging the adoption of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) into practice and legislation in Indonesia. This contribution can be seen from the various policies and actions taken by the Indonesian government in referring to the UNGPs when forming policies related to human rights or the operation of companies in Indonesia. This research aims to serve as a database and as consideration for civil society in Indonesia to advocate for business and human rights issues, especially the issues related to actions taken by civil society to influence Indonesian governmental policies and the challenges faced by civil society. As such, civil society will be able to measure the urgency of intervention in policymaking related to business and human rights. This research was conducted using qualitative and comparative approaches. The qualitative approach was carried out through studies of literature, both primary and secondary. The comparative approach aimed to analyse and compare two or more objects based on a theoretical framework. The comparison results can be in the form of similarities or differences in the aspects studied. This research process pays attention to certain sensitive contexts that require a context-sensitive approach.

Putusan MK Nomor 86/PUU-X/2012 Dilihat dari Perspektif Fiqih Siyasah: Respon Politik Hukum Masyarakat Sipil melalui Judicial Review UU No. 23 Tahun 2011 Tentang Pengelolaan Zakat

After the issuance of the Zakat Management Act No. 23 of 2011 as a part of which was intended to improve the previous Law (Law No. 38 of 1999) it still reaped contra from the community, especially private amil zakat institutions. Considering that the existing laws were deemed insufficient to accommodate the potential development of zakat in Indonesia, Commission VIII of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia formulated the new law on zakat management. However, since Law no. 38 of 1999, which previously had regulated the Management of Zakat, followed by a new law instead caused controversy among practitioners, academics, the public, the Amil Zakat Institution (LAZ) and other stakeholders. The fact that proves the existence of this controversy is the application for a judicial review to the Constitutional Court/MK. The applicants submitted a judicial review of several articles in the zakat management law based on four main points, namely the existence of criminalization, centralization, subordination, and marginalization. This effort is a legal political response and a manifestation of the role of the socio-political power of civil society in Indonesia, therefore this paper describes what and how the legal political efforts of civil society represented by several LAZ (Amil Zakat Institutions) respond through a legal effort called judicial review of Law No. 23 of 2011 concerning Zakat Management and proven successful with the issuance of the Constitutional Court Decision Number 86/ PUU-X/2012.

The Role of Nahdlatul Ulama in Strategizing Vaccine Communication during Covid-19

Nahdlatul Ulama, as the biggest Islamic civil society in Indonesia, has a significant contribution in managing the risks of the pandemic in Indonesia as Covid-19 affects adversely against Indonesian. The issue of Covid-19 and its development always ignites the debate in Indonesia, including the vaccination process to minimize the virus risks. A plethora of rumours related to vaccination is spreading widely among Indonesian society which is more likely leading to adverse attitudes and behaviour of the people against vaccination. This research will elaborate on the role of Nahdatul Ulama in managing public risk communication about vaccination. The Public Risk Communication concept will be used in this research as the main framework. Library studies and document analysis are employed in this research to explore related data and information. The data will be analyzed based on the framework suggested. The result shows that Nahdatul Ulama has sufficient public risk communication management as it fulfils the framework suggested in delivering the information about vaccination to penetrate the messages in a subtle way. In conclusion, Nahdlatul Ulama has a systematic public risk communication management in delivering the messages about vaccination for most Indonesians.

Keterlibatan Masyarakat Sipil dalam Pemilihan Umum: Peran Muhammadiyah pada Pemilihan Presiden 2019

The 2019 Presidential Election was a big challenge for Muhammadiyah. Apart from having to play its role as a civil society, Muhammadiyah faced an internal elite fragmentation and social conflicts that resulted from the 2019 Presidential Election. The purpose of this article is to analyze the roles played, elite fragmentation, and conflict resolution pursued by Muhammadiyah in the 2019 Presidential Election. The method used in this research was a qualitative case study. The results of this study indicate that in the 2019 Presidential Election, Muhammadiyah played its roles as a civil society including providing public services, being substitute for the government and keeping social-political balance. Moreover, Muhammadiyah attempted to manage the elite fragmentation within Muhammadiyah during the 2019 Presidential Election by separating its members’ personal political choices from its formal organisational political stance of neutrality. This article concludes that in the 2019 Presidential Election, Muhammadiyah emphasized its position as a power of civil society in Indonesia and strengthened its commitment not to engage in practical politics.

Pengembangan Kurikulum Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan dalam Kampus Merdeka Berdasar Optimalisasi Kompetensi Kewarganegaraan serta Pelayanan Berkualitas terhadap Mahasiswa

This research was conducted to provide argumentative information that Citizenship Education is able to collaborate with the independent campus policy, so that it has a positive impact on efforts to manage the nation's demographic bonus, through the development of the Citizenship Education Law on an independent campus, which leads to scientific efforts to optimize citizenship competencies and provide quality services for students. , in order to be a strategic step in realizing Indonesian civil society. This research was carried out through a qualitative approach with a literature study method, of course the data analysis in this study focused on: data reduction, data display and drawing conclusions. The results of the study are: 1) Citizenship Education curriculum development in an independent campus is a scientific effort in optimizing student citizenship competencies, namely: civic knowledge, civic skills and civic disposition, as social capital to realize civilized citizens (civic virtue), in the context of quality services. for students, of course based on the Among Ki Hajar Dewantara system, because it focuses on practical education that guides and serves, so that students develop optimally, 2) Citizenship Education curriculum development in an independent campus uses the Tyler model, because it focuses on curriculum orientation, so that the implementation and evaluation of the curriculum can be returned to each institution. Because the substance of the Citizenship Education curriculum development in an independent campus does not limit the innovation and learning characteristics of Citizenship Education at each institution, but becomes a national indicator, so that there is harmonization of the management of the demographic bonus.

The politics of civil society forms

Regardless of the debate on how and to what extent civil society contributes to enhance democratic practices, it is generally agreed that there is a reasonable link between civil society and democracy under certain conditions. The aim of this paper is to explore the politics of civil society forms and their contribution to maintain democratic practices in Jakarta. Building from the neo-Tocquevillean understanding of civil society, this article particularly analyses urban environmental activists’ strategy to adopt voluntary association and environmental spin off campaign as the forms of civic engagement to improve public policy in the province. Despite the lack of acknowledgement, this paper argues for the necessary inclusion and elaboration of spin off campaign and voluntary association in the Indonesian civil society literature because of their ability to facilitate diagonal accountability mechanism. Further analysis found that, however, the forms adopted by urban environmental activists suffer similar horizontal and vertical accountability problems frequently found in the more established civil society form (e.g. non-government organization). Nonetheless, the discussion in the paper provides an illustration about civil society’s ingenuity in pushing for democratic practices amidst the “democratic recession” in Indonesia.

CIVIL SOCIETY DI INDONESIA: SUATU KONSEKUENSI LOGIS TERWUJUDNYA GOOD GOVERNANCE

Civil society is one of the three important sectors of society, along with government and business. Civil society is one of the important elements of the democratization process in Indonesia. In accordance with the problems formulated above, the purposes of this discussion are to find out the description of civil society in Indonesia, and to find out efforts to strengthen civil society as a logical consequence of the realization of Good Governance in Indonesia. The development of civil society involves all aspects and dimensions of life. Therefore, efforts and commitment are needed to strengthen the community. Cooperation is needed because no party, organization, institution or anything even the government can carry it out alone. The relationship between civil society and good governance is symmetrical between the two. This is because the two concepts were born from the concept of democracy that upholds the values of justice, freedom, individual and group rights. Furthermore, democracy requires the state in carrying out its activities to be open to the public. Strengthening civil society in the flow of democracy must be realized as an absolute necessity for the implementation of a 'strong' and 'clean' government. The weakness of civil society in Indonesia is marked by widespread rejections of state/government policies by the people and these rejections have not received a meaningful response from the state/government. In the process of determining policies, the government bureaucracy still feels that citizens are used as objects of policy. This kind of narrow view will make the government anti-suggestions from citizens in determining policies.

THE URGENCY OF FORMING A SPECIAL POLICE FORCE IN COURTS AS AN EFFORT TO FULFILL THE RIGHT OF PERSONAL SECURITY FOR JUDGES IN INDONESIA

Special police force is not something new in Indonesia. At least there are four special police force in Indonesia namely Prison Guard, Railway Police, Civil Service Police, and Forestry Special Police. Those police force are separated from, but hand in hand with Indonesian Police Force in securing civil society in Indonesia. In regards with the security of judges in Indonesia, this paper tries to argue that they need special police force to guard and secure them. In this paper, it is concluded that it is required to change the Law regarding Judicial Power especially in the part concerning judge’s safety and security. If it is not probable, then creating a special police force in court is a must.