Muslim voters and Islamic parties in Indonesia

Muslim voters and Islamic parties in Indonesia

Mochtar Buchori
Legislator for
Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle
Jakarta

What do Muslim voters want to see as the outcome of their
support for the political struggle carried out by their country,
Indonesia? Do they want to have an Indonesian Islamic state, or
an Islamic society in Indonesia, or an Indonesian society where
Islamic values are observed? These are three different things,
and the country will be spared much unnecessary pain if Muslim
voters can be clear about their preferred choice in this regard.

It is hard to answer these questions in a short or concise
manner. The reason is that Moslem voters in Indonesia make up a
huge but heterogeneous political entity, and within this entity
there are differing political visions based on Islam. The
political aspirations of the group of young Moslems within the
Jaringan Islam Liberal (the Liberal Islam Network), for instance,
will in all likelihood be radically different from the ones
entertained by young Moslems within the Front Pembela Islam (the
Islamic Defenders Front).

And among Islamic political parties there are also different
perceptions regarding the kind of Indonesian society each one of
them would like to establish. If they wanted the same kind of
Islamic society or state, I think they would not be working so
hard to outdo each other and establish their own cultural and
political identities. And neither would it be so difficult to
establish a more lasting alliance among them.

But there must surely be some common elements among these
differing kinds of political views derived from Islam. And if I
am not mistaken, one such common element is the idea of justice.

To ordinary Muslims in Indonesia the most important thing in
life is, I think, the idea of justice. Deep within the heart of
every Indonesian man or woman with a sufficiently strong Islamic
feeling, there is a desire to see justice observed and defended.
Every act of injustice committed by any person or any government
anywhere in the world is felt as an affront to this Islamic
feeling. I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that
every pious Muslim feels that creating a just society is the
mission of Islam. Accordingly a good Muslim feels that he or she
has the obligation to observe and defend justice.

To Muslims like these, the one unforgivable offense is when
one Muslim commits an injustice toward another Muslim. In this
regard it is not surprising to see that the act of evicting
people from areas where they have lived for years or decades,
even though they were living on the land illegally, upset so many
people. One such victim said in a radio talk show that what
really broke her heart was that she and her family were being
treated unjustly by a government consisting of fellow Muslims.
And when another listener, apparently a well-to-do Muslim, tried
to intervene by saying that the first speaker had no right to
complain as she was occupying the land illegally, he was
immediately attacked by other panelists on the talk show. They
accused him of lacking empathy for the poor and siding with the
rich who hold power. Another participant added cynically that
apparently being rich had blunted his Islamic feeling. This was
not the way Muslims should feel about justice.

To me, this particular episode threw a new light upon one
important thing, viz. that political solidarity based on the
Islamic faith is not as solid as many of us have supposed. In
real politics there is always another factor that proves to be at
least as equally important as the faith factor. Whether justice
should be established through the creation of an Islamic state,
or whether it should be acquired through the implementation of
Islamic rules and laws does not, in my understanding, seem to
matter too much. What is most important is that efforts to
establish justice should take into account all the requirements
stipulated in Islamic law, and that it also satisfies the sense
of justice prevailing in the hearts of Muslims affected by the
decision, especially the ones that can be considered as the
losers in each case. Within this atmosphere of morality what
Muslim voters despise most in their hearts are people who use
flowery words to wax lyrically on about justice in their
speeches, but who in their daily lives do not give a damn about
justice.

Are these basic realities well understood by our political
leaders, especially the leaders of the Islamic political parties?
And do the Islamic parties have enough sensibilities regarding
the various things in the country that have made Muslim voters
unhappy and crave for justice?

What Muslim voters in Indonesia are craving is that for once
in this world they will be able to live in an environment where
justice is observed. They have been craving for just leaders and
just government. And their understanding of justice is, of
course, determined by their understanding concerning the
teachings of Islam. They want to experience all of these
beautiful dreams in this present world, not in the other world of
the life hereafter.

Unless these things are well understood it will be impossible
for any political leader or any political party to attract the
support of Muslim voters.