'Democracy can thrive with Islam'

'Democracy can thrive with Islam'

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Fears of religious extremism in Indonesian politics have become
quite strong following recent terror attacks, but it should not
pose a threat to the fledgling democracy in the predominantly
Muslim nation, analysts here said on Wednesday.

They believe that Indonesia will survive the struggle for
democracy and be able to withstand the challenge by Islamic
militants, given their relatively tiny minority within the
country.

Rizal Sukma, a director of studies at the Centre for Strategic
and International Studies (CSIS), said the emergence of several
Islamic parties campaigning for the implementation of sharia law
should not be perceived as a serious challenge to the frail
democracy here.

"Those who support the agenda of sharia through constitutional
means remain a tiny minority group," he told a three-day seminar
on Islamic militant movements in Southeast Asia, organized by the
Center for Languages and Cultures at the State Islamic University
(UIN).

He said public support was very low for Islamist ideas,
although Indonesia is home to a majority of Muslims.

This could be seen through the results of the 1999 elections,
in which the parties that advocated sharia law -- the United
Development Party (PPP), the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the
Justice Party (PK) -- seized less than 15 percent of votes in a
total, Rizal added.

The three parties had sought the inclusion of the Jakarta
Charter to the amended 1945 Constitution in a bid to promote
sharia in the country, but failed in their struggle at the
People's Consultative Assembly as major political groups opposed
the idea.

Opposition also came from the largest mainstream Islamic
organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, which
embrace a moderate brand of Islam and support the idea of
democracy.

However, Rizal said supporters of sharia law should not simply
be branded "militants" as long as they went about it in a
peaceful, constitutional way.

Bachtiar Effendi, a lecturer from Jakarta's UIN, was of a
similar opinion that political Islam would not be detrimental to
democracy.

"As long as Islam is being used only as a party symbol, then
its impacts on the structure of the country's politics are
insignificant," he said.

He claimed that political Islam did not necessarily mean
authoritarianism, and that a symbol is merely a matter of human
necessity.

"If one party employs the politics of symbolism, one cannot
jump to a conclusion that such a party will automatically resort
to reactionary methods," he added.

After the downfall of authoritarian, but secular, president
Soeharto in 1998, Indonesia saw a number of Islamic political
parties, including the major ones -- PPP, PBB and PK -- grow in
strength. However, they have no structural links with other
extremist groups such as Laskar Jihad and the Islam Defenders'
Front (FPI).

Laskar Jihad was notorious for sending Muslim mercenaries to
fight Christians in Maluku, while many FPI leaders have been
formally charged with vandalism following dozens of violent raids
on gambling dens and bars that serve alcohol.

Both of the militant groups have essentially the same goal as
the major Islamic parties -- to struggle for the enforcement of
sharia in the country.

Speaking at the same seminar, American scholar Elizabeth
Fuller Collins acknowledged that a more extreme version of Islam
was a growing force in Indonesia due to a large population of
young people facing economic difficulties.

She added that the people's hopes, for democracy to bring
about a better future, were being undermined because of
widespread frustration with President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
government, which includes a lack of support for true reform and
increasing corruption.

Rizal gave another reason to believe that Indonesia would
remain resilient to the challenge of religious extremism and said
the majority of Muslims did not see Islam as contradictory to
democracy.

American democracy and its political process, with some
qualifications, still is a source of inspiration for many key
moderate Muslim leaders, including NU's Hasyim Muzadi and
Muhammadiyah's Syafii Maarif and scholar Nurcholish Madjid, he
added.

Moreover, Rizal said the growth of extremist discourse was not
without a countermovement from within the Muslim community.

The challenge included the establishment of the Liberal Islam
Network (JIL) by a number of young moderate Muslim thinkers led
by Ulil Absar Abdalla from the 40-million strong NU.
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