Nurcholish' new book focuses on formation of civil society

Nurcholish' new book focuses on formation of civil society

Cita-cita Politik Islam Era Reformasi (Islam's Political Ideals
in the Reform Era)

Nurcholish Madjid

Paramadina Jakarta, March 1999

xiv + 278pp

Rp 31,700

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Since the fall of the New Order regime last
May, the political and constitutional institutions it created,
including the People's Consultative Assembly, the House of
Representatives and political parties, have been demoralized.
This shows the New Order regime failed to keep up with the fast
changing political current.

A major "blessing" resulting from the political crisis
following the regime's fall has been the advent of unprecedented
political freedom, as evidenced by the mushrooming political
parties. Another striking result is the emergence of religious-
based political parties with nationalist agendas.

Needless to say this is an interesting development because a
nationalist orientation has always been a center of conflict
between fundamentalist and nationalist Muslims. Now, the debate
on nationalist orientation has led the conservative and
fundamentalist camps to deal with so-called "Islamic politics".

The scope of Islamic politics is no longer limited to the
formalization of Islamic values in political organizations, but
has been expanded to include Islam as the source of inspiration
for democratization.

The fall of the New Order regime has not only given rise to
political and moral reform movements but also has brought about a
fragmentation in Islamic politics.

There are at least two reasons for this fragmentation. First,
there is the belief that Islam offers political vision and that
it can become an ideology itself. Second, Islam is a source of
political ideas. It offers a political platform which is open to
people from any background.

In this book, Nurcholish shows the Indonesian people have
everything needed to create a civil society based on Islamic
values. But the question is, are Muslims, who constitute the
majority of the Indonesian population, able to make this
political, and also religious, move possible? This, Nurcholish
argues, is the biggest challenge facing Indonesian Muslims.
Nurcholish's ideas follow the theological principles laid out in
the Koran.

In his opinion, when one talks about Indonesia, one talks
about Islam in Indonesia. This, Nurcholish argues, is a result of
mere statistics because some 90 percent of the population is
Muslim. By the same token, a vision about Indonesia is basically
a vision about Islam in Indonesia. The same is true of one's view
about civil society.

According to Nurcholish, Islam's involvement in politics dates
back to the time Prophet Muhammad moved from Mecca to Yastrib
(Madina). The Prophet gave his personal views on the relationship
between Islam and the state after he moved to Madina.

"Madina state", as Nurcholish quotes theological sociologist
Roberty N. Bellah, "serves as the model for the relationship
between Islam and the state". Nurcholish calls this model in
upholding civil society the "Madina Experiment", which is
characterized by, among other things, egalitarianism, reward
based on merit (rather than on ethnicity, etc.), public
participation and elected leadership.

In the Indonesian context, Nurcholish analogizes Pancasila,
the state ideology, and the Madina charter because the two offer
a common platform for people of different religions. Pancasila
can be enriched with Islamic values.

The Madina charter, which has become an important source of
Islamic political ethics, is worth reviewing in view of modern
political ethics. It provides guidelines for the relationship
between Islam and the state, which -- from the modern political
point of view -- is still amazingly relevant. It deals with
issues such as the freedom of religion and human's basic rights
to economy, which are quite similar to the ones prescribed in the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Obviously, it was the Madina charter which inspired Nurcholish
to write this book to express his longing for a civil society to
take root in Indonesia.

-- Arief Fauzi Marzuki

The reviewer is a freelancer.