post-New Order Research Articles

Analysing the State’s Laws on Religious Education in Post-New Order Indonesia

This article aims to analyse the Indonesian State’s laws regarding models of religious education, by evaluating Law No. 20/2003, concerning the national system of education and other related laws. Two questions are highlighted: What type of religious education is favoured by Indonesian state? Does the preference for a certain type of religious education reflect a specific vision of the state-religion relationship? Our data consisted of two sources: the State’s law on national education system, Law No. 20/2003, and the minutes of the Indonesian parliament meeting approving the law. We found that Law No. 20/2003 expresses the preference of the government for a mono-religious model. Indonesia is categoreized as having preferred treatment for some religions or support for a particular religious tradition. This categorisation is confirmed by the results of our research findings indicated by the preferential treatment delivered by the State, and the State’s legislation and regulations on religion.[Tulisan ini menganalisis legislasi negara terhadap pendidikan agama dengan cara mengevaluasi UU No. 20/2003 tentang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional beserta perundang-undangan terkait lainnya. Dua pertanyaan berusaha untuk dijawab dalam tulisan ini, yaitu: Model pendidikan agama yang bagaimana yang menjadi preferensi negara? Apakah preferensi tersebut merefleksikan visi negara terhadap model relasi negara-agama tertentu? Tulisan ini merujuk kepada dua data utama, yaitu: UU No. 20/2003 tentang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional serta Risalah Rapat Paripurna ke-35 DPR RI tahun 2003 yang mengesahkan UU No. 20/2003. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa UU Sistem Pendidikan Nasional merefleksikan preferensi negara terhadap model pendidikan agama mono-relijius. Model pendidikan mono-religius ini merefleksikan preferensi negara terhadap model relasi negara-agama preferensial; negara mengakui lebih dari satu agama resmi dan memberi dukungan kepada institusi-institusinya, yang direfleksikan melalui legislasi dan peraturan terkait agama.]

The Indonesian Economy from the Colonial Extraction Period until the Post-New Order Period: A Review of Thee Kian Wie’s Major Works

This paper reviews some major works of Thee Kian Wie, one of Indonesia’s most distinguished economic historians, that spans from the Colonial period until the post-New Order period. His works emphasize that economic history can guide future economic policy. Current problems in Indonesia were resulted from past policy failures. Indonesia needs to consistently embark on open economic policies, free itself from "colonial period mentality". Investment should be made in rebuilding crumbling infrastructure, improving the quality of health and education services, and addressing poor law enforcement. If current corruption persists, Indonesia could not hope to become a dynamic and prosperous country.

Peasant Movements and State Elites in Post-New Order West Java: A Case Study of Sundanese Peasant Union

This article is an examination of the case study of the Sundanese Peasant Union (Serikat Petani Pasundan,spp) in post-authoritarian Indonesia. It aims to answer the question of whysppand West Javanese peasant movements in general are able to force local and national state elites to accommodate some elements of agrarian reforms promoted by the peasants. I argue that the new political opportunity structure provides a new opportunity for West Javanese peasant movements andsppto organize as a successful social movement.

Indonesia’s Media Oligarchy and the “Jokowi Phenomenon”

In post-New Order Indonesian politics, two distinct viewpoints concern the nature and influence of oligarchy. The first argues that while an authoritarian government no longer controls power or sets the agenda, post-1988 Indonesia is dominated by oligarchs. The second view focuses on the process of Indonesia’s democratic transition being a populace movement, and the result of the people’s struggles against power, class, and political forces. In 2014, Indonesians elected a new president, Joko Widodo (“Jokowi”). Relatively unknown and not part of the establishment, Jokowi’s ascendance to the presidency undoubtedly raises questions for the oligarchy thesis. This article examines the ways in which Jokowi became a media phenomenon and the most popular candidate despite his seeming not to be part of the oligarchic elite. In fact, Jokowi masterfully manipulated to his advantage the oligarchical powers of Indonesia’s media as well as individual citizens and community groups.

Indonesia's Media Oligarchy and the “Jokowi Phenomenon”

In post-New Order Indonesian politics, two distinct viewpoints concern the nature and influence of oligarchy. The first argues that while an authoritarian government no longer controls power or sets the agenda, post-1988 Indonesia is dominated by oligarchs. The second view focuses on the process of Indonesia’s democratic transition being a populace movement, and the result of the people’s struggles against power, class, and political forces. In 2014, Indonesians elected a new president, Joko Widodo (“Jokowi”). Relatively unknown and not part of the establishment, Jokowi’s ascendance to the presidency undoubtedly raises questions for the oligarchy thesis. This article examines the ways in which Jokowi became a media phenomenon and the most popular candidate despite his seeming not to be part of the oligarchic elite. In fact, Jokowi masterfully manipulated to his advantage the oligarchical powers of Indonesia’s media as well as individual citizens and community groups.

THE DISPUTE OF AMBALAT IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDONESIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE POST-NEW ORDER ERA

This article analyzes the Ambalat territorial dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia, viewing from the perspective of Indonesian foreign policy in the Post-New Order era. The writer argues that Ambalat is a typical case in which Indonesian foreign policy had been widely influenced by public pressures which force government to take a firm stance against Malaysia. The practices of democratic system, including free media, have become an important factor behind such firm stance, along with the growing nationalism amongst public in the Post-New Order Indonesia. However, in relations with the willingness to maintain a regional influence in ASEAN, the government actually does not really intent to involve in an open war.

Kuasa Rakyat Analisis Tentang Perilaku Memilih dalam Pemilihan Legislatif dan Presiden Indonesia Pasca Orde Baru by Saiful Mujani, William R. Liddle, and Kuskridho Ambardi

People Power Analysis of Voting Behavior in Legislative and Presidential Elections in Post-New Order Indonesia

Contesting Almsgiving in Post-New Order Indonesia

This article explores the origin and development of the ideas and practice of zakat (Islamic tax) on salary and identifies how it affects the nature of zakat practice in contemporary Indonesia. The recent trend suggests that Indonesian Muslims are attempting to translate and reinterpret the Islamic concept of social justice by utilizing zakat on salary (zakat profesi) as a discursive center. Despite the fact that this has been the subject of heated debate among Muslim scholars since the 1980s, the Indonesian state has attempted to make its payment mandatory by enacting zakat regulations at both the provincial and district levels. This new phenomenon is stimulating new debates among the country’s Islamic scholars over the legality, from a jurisprudential aspect, of imposing zakat regulations on civil servants. Some believe that zakat practice has been precisely prescribed in the Qur’an and Sunnah and thus such an “innovation” is not necessary; others consider zakat to belong to that part of the Islamic ethical and economic system that is open to reinterpretation and innovation. Disagreement among Islamic scholars, competition between civil society organizations and state agencies, and tension between the government (political authorities) as a policymaker and people at the grassroots level are indications of how almsgiving is contested in democratic Indonesia.

‘This is Not a Trivialization of the Past’

This article examines the revitalization of Jakarta’s colonial district, Kota Tua, as tourist site and lieux de memoire. After long neglect due to postcolonial silencing of colonial history, Kota Tua’s metamorphosis into a place of leisure represents a burgeoning tempo doeloe trend in post-New Order Indonesia. Yet Kota Tua is also a locus of clashing modalities of memory. While government tourism promotions produce a consumable spectacle of colonial aesthetics, a new generation of history enthusiasts intervenes with alternative, playful memory practices, in which the suppressed memories of the colonial past become a resource for critical awareness.

Violence and Vengeance: Religious Conflict and its Aftermath in Eastern Indonesia

Violence and Vengeance: Religious Conflict and Its Aftermath in Eastern Indonesia. By Christopher R. Duncan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013. Softcover: 239pp. Were the savage communal wars that broke out in the Moluccas after the resignation of President Soeharto in 1998 religion, or about access to state resources for predatory local elites? Most studies have argued that it was the latter, but for the non-elite farmers and small-town folk who populate Christopher Duncan's book, only religion mattered. As one Muslim man told the author personally think the conflict was definitely about religion ... If it was a political problem I would not have gotten involved.... We opposed Christians and I consider it a (p. 119). Violence and Vengeance is the best description we have of the post-New Order communal wars from the viewpoint of the participants. It focuses on the long-running fighting in northern Halmahera, part of the Moluccas. Sustained violence also took place in parts of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and elsewhere in the Moluccas, but this was the bloodiest episode of the turbulent years after the collapse of the authoritarian New Order regime in 1998. Fuelled by narratives of revenge and retaliation, Christians and Muslims developed a war-induced essentialism (p. 170) about the other. This had no room for tragedy or guilt, and justified one's own ferocity by the fact that started it. Once the violence had ebbed to exhaustion, participants engaged only reluctantly in rituals of reconciliation. At home many taught their children again to trust someone from the other faith. A religious war is over, said a Christian refugee who had fled to another island, You can have peace between countries, but between religions, never (p. 119). Violence erupted only after local elites--anxious to seize opportunities presented by the institutional chaos of fast-track democratization and decentralization--had continually upped the ante. But the weapons were seized by locals, who were moved by quite different concerns. They were engaged in a global, indeed a cosmic battle of the religions--even if that meant fighting neighbours and brothers. That is why the Christian villagers of Duma, near Tobelo, chose to stay and defend their historic church, at the cost of almost certain death. That is why young Muslim men from the comfortable town of Ternate signed up for dangerous jihad in the dry hills of northern Halmehera. Chris Duncan has spent years in northern Halmahera. He rightly criticizes existing research on the conflicts for trivializing non-elite experiences. He pointedly tells us that the locals appreciate being told that they don't understand their own experiences (p. 176). Where the political scientists and sociologists --myself among them--have written about causal mechanisms and chronologies, it took an anthropologist to discover that the participants themselves used a totally different language to describe the war. Indeed, it is their version of the story that future generations will remember. Concrete funeral monuments that they built afterwards honour dead fighters as martyrs who died for religion, not for bigger decentralization budgets. In aiming thus to go beyond causation (p. 7), Chris Duncan has done the field a service. Yet at the same time he has created a dilemma. Are we now condemned to have two irreconcilable interpretations of the same episode of violence? …

A Few Poorly Organized Men: Interreligious Violence in Poso, Indonesia by Dave McRae

Reviewed by: A Few Poorly Organized Men: Interreligious Violence in Poso, Indonesia by Dave McRae Muhamad Haripin (bio) Dave McRae. A Few Poorly Organized Men: Interreligious Violence in Poso, Indonesia. Leiden: Brill, 2013 (brill.com/few-poorly-organized-men, pre-print version). 152 pp. The result of a decade of research, Dave McRae’s A Few Poorly Organized Men offers vivid accounts of and interesting insights about the Poso violence in post-New Order Indonesia. By analyzing the organization of violence, the book is a valuable contribution to answering the fundamental question of how interreligious violence took place in Poso, a remote and relatively unknown town during the New Order era. McRae’s analysis is built on the notion that behind the violent event was Poso’s economic disparity as a result of the religious division between Muslims and Christians in the local government. However, after close examination of Poso’s violent events, the book finds that focusing on the leaders’ “goals, motivations, and actions” (p. 10) is more revealing than economic inequality to trace the contour of violence in Poso. The leaders of both rival religious groups were main actors behind the violence, which became an end in itself to preserve one’s religious identity. The conflict in Poso had become spiritual in nature, a holy war. What can be inferred from this book is McRae’s effort to shape the body of knowledge regarding the Poso conflict. He seems neither to agree nor disagree with existing literature on Poso, although he claims that A Few Poorly Organized Men is “the first comprehensive history of the years of violent conflict in Poso” (p. 11). However, I believe A Few Poorly Organized Men is not the first of its kind, and I wonder why McRae didn’t mention the other studies, albeit there are differences in the time frames of the studies, particularly the research reports published by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, LIPI).1 In general, McRae applies a comparative approach eclectically to use relevant information and theoretical elaboration from other studies, as well as data triangulation with news-media accounts and in-depth interviews with key informants. Both McRae and researchers from LIPI treat the Poso violence as interreligious in nature and share similar details regarding the same violent episodes. A Few Poorly Organized Men adds to the current—and immense—discussion on conflict in post-New Order Indonesia by taking into account the specificity of local conditions and local elites’ ability to generate violence. It also considers the role of rising militant Islamist groups—which, after Suharto’s resignation in May 1998, began openly to enter national politics—in accelerating the scope and pace of violence. The Poso conflict, marked by horrendous violence, occured over a period of nine years. Nonetheless, a majority of the Indonesian population were only made aware of [End Page 157] the conflict through the news. In general, Indonesians regard it as one of the “typical” conflicts that occurred during the early Reformasi period, a conflict with no distinctive feature whatsoever, compared to some other violence that occurred in Ambon and Sambas. Indeed, violence has marked many episodes of Indonesian history since 1945.2 In that sense, the Poso conflict, regretfully, seems to be seen as just another episode of Indonesia’s violence historiography. However, through McRae’s study, we see the Poso conflict in a different way. Though Poso shared similar features with other violent conflict areas in Indonesia, e.g., religious strife and the rise of local elites, McRae argues that the Poso conflict should be seen as the manifestations of an “evolving ‘division of labor’ in perpetrating violence between leaders and core combatants on the one hand, and ordinary community members on the other” (p. 9). This stance, however, criticizes the view that socio-cultural anomie in societies as a result of disputes based on ethnic or religious identity, and over old territorial disputes, is the basic tool of analysis for explaining the dynamics of violence. If there is such a socio-cultural factor inherently embedded within Poso that contributes to violence there, then we might want to ask why conflict only began to mount when...

Contesting Almsgiving in Post-New Order Indonesia

This article explores the origin and development of the ideas and practice of zakat (Islamic tax) on salary and identifies how it affects the nature of zakat practice in contemporary Indonesia. The recent trend suggests that Indonesian Muslims are attempting to translate and reinterpret the Islamic concept of social justice by utilizing zakat on salary (zakat profesi) as a discursive center. Despite the fact that this has been the subject of heated debate among Muslim scholars since the 1980s, the Indonesian state has attempted to make its payment mandatory by enacting zakat regulations at both the provincial and district levels. This new phenomenon is stimulating new debates among the country’s Islamic scholars over the legality, from a jurisprudential aspect, of imposing zakat regulations on civil servants. Some believe that zakat practice has been precisely prescribed in the Qur’an and Sunnah and thus such an “innovation” is not necessary; others consider zakat to belong to that part of the Islamic ethical and economic system that is open to reinterpretation and innovation. Disagreement among Islamic scholars, competition between civil society organizations and state agencies, and tension between the government (political authorities) as a policymaker and people at the grassroots level are indications of how almsgiving is contested in democratic Indonesia.

Faith and the State: A History of Islamic Philanthropy in Indonesia

Amelia Fauzia (2013). Faith and the State: A History of Islamic in Indonesia. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. ISBN: 9789004233973. i-xxxi + 346 pages.Amelia Fauzia's thorough analysis of Islamic philanthropic practices in Indonesia from the early decades of Islam in the archipelago to today is more than a timely review of a tradition that both perpetuates and influences state-civil society relations. Given their historical continuity, cultural tenacity, and social, political, and economic relevance, these practices - also referred to as zakat (almsgiving), sedekah (donation, giving), and waqf (religious endowment) - play a vital role in Indonesian society today.As a lecturer of Islamic History and Civilization at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta and holding a PhD in Indonesian history and Islamic studies from the University of Melbourne, Amelia has been working on the topic of Islamic philanthropy since 2002, when she engaged with a global research project on Philanthropy for Social Justice in Muslim Societies. This project brought together researchers from six different countries under her leadership, supported by a team of experts at the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture (CSRC) in Jakarta (in- cluding Chaider S. Bamualim and Irfan Abubakar, with whom she co-edited Filantropi Islam dan Keadilan Sosial [Islamic philanthropy and social justice] in 2006). Following several publications on the above-mentioned topics as well as on Islamization, Islam- ic identity, and civil society, Faith and the State is the subsequent publication of her PhD thesis - extensive review and detailed analysis of the practices of zakat, se- dekah, and waqf in Indonesia and their role in shaping the between the state and Muslim civil society. Her central argument is that Islamic philanthropic ac- tivities, including the establishment of educational institutions, the provision of com- munity services, or the financial support of community development projects, repre- sent element of a strong civil society and grow in the face of a weak state (p. 7). Amelia maintains this idea throughout her book without ignoring the complexity of the specific historical, socio-political, and cultural contexts.Faith and the State deals exclusively with Islamic philanthropic practices in Indone- sia and their development from the early centuries of Islamization to the more recent events of the post-New Order regime. It looks at the social and cultural consolidation of different forms of giving against the background of Islam and at various processes of reformation, (re)organization, and legislation of these practices. Islamic philan- thropy is presented as a dynamic and a highly contested space between the private and the public realm, between faith and the state (p. 6). Both a part of civil society (following Kathleen D. McCarthy, author of the American Creed: and the Rise of Civil Society) and an indicator of the state-civil society relationship (p. 9), philanthropy renders a neat separation between the private and public as well as between the state and society hard to achieve. Avoiding structural and conceptual di- chotomizations, Amelia indicates how, regardless of the role played by Muslim elites, religious authorities, or the state, Islamic philanthropy will never be fully formalized or regulated, mainly because of its authentic origin in the altruistic and reciprocal nature of people (p. xvii) and in the collective awareness and concern for the wel- fare of others (p. 1). And, although Islamic philanthropic activities are every so often used as a tool to communicate advanced ideas of social justice and to promote social change, the majority of philanthropic practices remain mostly traditional and self- contained, performed by Muslims motivated mainly by their faith.The book is chronologically structured around three major periods in the history of Indonesia. …

Identitas Tionghoa Muslim Indonesia Pasca-Orde Baru: Melampaui Batas-Batas Kategori Peranakan dan Totok

The dramatic change in some important aspects of this country after the collapse of New Order Regime, primarily in the political aspect, provided larger opportunity to Indonesian Chinese in constructing their real identity, included to the Indonesian Chinese Muslim. In one hand, Indonesian Chinese Muslim tended to re-strengthen their cultural identity shown by articulating some features of their ethnic identity, and they show more the involvement in developing discourse of national building and the life of majority group by using their Islamic identity in the other hand. At this point, they then could not be categorized as ‘peranakan’ and ‘totok’, the binary category which is often used to refer to the asimilated and unasimilated Chinese into the cultural system practized by the native majority. After the state launched the new regulation of citizenship No. 12/2006, they were then positioned by the state as the ‘real’ citizen who had the same civil rights before the law as well as the other groups. The implication of this legacy in the social and cultural context is that they then developed the inclusive identity, such as absorbing the categories and features of identity of other group, involved in the activities of majority group, and occupied the same kind of majority group profession, until they felt that those had become part of their own identity. By sharing their identity with non-Muslim Chinese and majority group, they could take a strategic role as cultural mediators, political brokers and bridge builders. Keywords: Chinese Muslim, Identity, Peranakan, Totok, Hibridity, Post-New Order Indonesia.

Kebersamaan di Ruang Publik pada Pawai Perayaan Gotong Toa Pe Kong Berbasis Masyarakat Majemuk di Slawi Pasca Orde Baru 2010

This article observes collective action of Toa Pe Kong celebration in the public space during Post-New Order era in Slawi, Central Java. This celebration involves local people from different religions and cultures. Why this celebration can be done after New Order? What aspect functions as collective bond among Slawi plural society? Using historical and cultural sources, this study analyses function and meaning of the ritual in relation to the collective aspect of Toa Pe Kong celebration. Keywords: collective, public space, Toa Pe Kong, Slawi

Towards a Political Economy of Human Rights Violations in Post-New Order Indonesia

This article reviews the literature on human rights violations in Indonesia during the post-New Order period, evaluates the explanations it provides, and suggests avenues for future inquiry drawing on insights from Richard Robison's Indonesia: The Rise of Capital and his subsequent book with Vedi Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets. It is argued that this literature either gives insufficient attention to the nature of the Indonesian state or does so in a way that obscures the interests of the country's powerful politico-business oligarchy. Future research thus needs to examine the role of these factors, taking into account the way in which the oligarchy's interests vis-à-vis human rights are mediated by the type of right and the structure of the economy.

CULTURE CLASH

International media training has become popular in post-New Order Indonesia. Educational organizations have focused on training radio journalists, reflecting the accessibility of radio stations across the nation. This study investigated the training effectiveness and consequent adoption of Western journalism practices in the context of Indonesian radio journalism. Five focus groups were conducted in five Indonesian cities with distinctive media markets, populations, and city sizes. Findings illustrate that the adoption and dissemination of training materials were made more difficult by the widely differing values and backgrounds of journalists as well as a lack of funding from radio stations.

Revisiting the Islamic Policies during the New Order and Post-New Order Eras in Indonesia

Revisiting the Islamic Policies during the New Order and Post-New Order Eras in Indonesia

Laskar Jihad: Islam, Militancy, and the Quest for Identity in Post‐New Order Indonesia – By N. Hasan

Laskar Jihad: Islam, Militancy, and the Quest for Identity in Post‐New Order Indonesia – By N. Hasan

Processes of disembedding and displacement: anomie and the juridification of religio-ethnic identity in post-New Order Bali

This article applies Karl Polanyi's observation of a double movement of law in the history of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe to an analysis of Bali's integration into the global cultural economy. It describes how the increasing disembedding of the island's tourist industry from local norms and institutions, and the parallel disjuncture between Balinese religiosity and Indonesian state religion have created a condition of increasing collective anomie that has in turn provoked endeavors to juridify the Balinese religio-ethnic identity. Conceding the partial success of the juridification process that has been facilitated by the recent governance reform, and that has indeed effected a significant degree of re-embedding both tourism and religion into local culture, the article argues that not only has the anomic condition not been attenuated; the potential for internal conflict and division has even been enhanced.