Excessive fear on fundamentalism harmful: Scholar

Excessive fear on fundamentalism harmful: Scholar

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Needlessly excessive fear over Islamic fundamentalism will
only deepen political cleavages within Indonesia's pluralistic
society, scholars warned on Wednesday.

The factional rifts were susceptible to sectarian and
political conflicts which could, eventually, pose danger to the
consolidation of democracy in this country, according to noted
Indonesian political expert R. William Liddle.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an international
conference here, Liddle offered convincing arguments to the
Indonesian public that imminent threats of Islamic fundamentalism
were merely widespread pseudo-beliefs.

"It is astonishing that the Indonesian public, the majority of
whom are Muslims, and even moderate Muslims at that, do not
appreciate the high degree of moderation within their own Muslim
communities," said Liddle, a political professor at Ohio State
University.

In the conference, entitled "The Challenge of Democracy in the
Muslim World," Liddle and his Indonesian counterpart, Saiful
Mujani, presented a paper discussing the Islamic challenge to
democratic consolidation in Indonesia.

According to Liddle, there is powerful evidence to suggest
that Indonesians are moderate in terms of religion.

"In the last 1999 election, the secular and nationalist
parties garnered the most votes, compared with the Muslim
conservative parties, such as the Justice Party," he said.

The nationalist parties, such as the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Golkar Party and the National
Awakening Party obtained the most votes with 34, 22, and 12
percent of the vote, respectively.

The Justice Party and the Crescent Star Party, both Muslim
conservative parties, each grabbed just one and two percent of
the overall vote, respectively.

Based on these figures, Liddle concluded that fears of Muslim
fundamentalists taking control here are manifestly false.

Liddle characterized perceptions that society was highly
divided between the conservative and the marginal Muslims -- in
which the latter included the nationalists -- as misguided.

It is a "reckless categorization ... among the nationalists,
there are many devout Muslims, while otherwise, the devout
Muslims do not necessarily intend to create an Islamic state,"
said Liddle.

According to Liddle, this false, clear-cut categorization
could divide and, perhaps, later intensify tensions in the
country's heterogeneous and plural society.

The evidence that the pseudo-beliefs had tarnished
consolidation of democracy have taken place here, as the
followers of Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP) and the
nationalist PDI Perjuangan were involved in a bitter conflict in
Yogyakarta last month.

Brawls between dozens of respective party supporters occurred
after a rally by PPP supporters left several people wounded, and
several vehicles damaged.

Liddle said that this was ridiculous, since some 63 percent of
PDI Perjuangan voters in the last election were also Muslims,
including those who were devout Muslims.

The clash occurred since each camp perceived that they were
"truly different ideologically" from each other, he said.

Despite the gloomy assessment, Liddle said that he believed
the tools of democracy would later be a medicine to dim the
excessive fears for Islamic fundamentalism.

"The repeated elections -- in 2004, 2009, and so forth -- will
eventually convince mainstream Indonesians of all religious
persuasions that Indonesia will not be an Islamic state," he
said.

Besides, Liddle urged the political elite to show themselves
to be front-runners to create pluralistic states.

"The conservative Muslims might follow Amien Rais, who has
chosen to seek the ideological center, by establishing the
National Mandate Party," he said.