Radicalism no threat to Indonesia: Crouch
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Religious radicalism has no place in the world's most populous Muslim country due to the fact that the sociocultural diversity of the people here would discourage such extremist movements, analysts said on Friday.
Harold Crouch, a prominent Indonesianist from the Australian National University (ANU), told a two-day seminar titled Indonesian Update 2002 in Canberra that reports of radical movements in Indonesia were "exaggerated" by foreign media.
He was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying it was a "misperception" to consider that campaigns for the implementation of Islamic sharia law in Indonesia were a radical movement.
Such campaigns could not be accused of embracing and promoting radicalism since they were conducted through peaceful ways, Crouch added.
Similarly, international relations expert Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) told the seminar that radical movements were no threat to Indonesia, arguing that the nation's diverse culture would not support their growth.
There were no Islamic organizations in Indonesia which could be considered "real radical groups", she said.
Crouch further said there had been a tendency that hardline groups campaigning for the adoption of Islamic sharia law in Indonesia had ceased using violence to achieve their goals, like what the now defunct Darul Islam radical movement did in 1950s.
Crouch said the radical movements had significantly declined in Indonesia since then.
Darul Islam, led by Marijan Sukarmaji Kartosuwiryo, fought for sharia in the country in the 1950s. Established in West Java, the group declared an Indonesian Islamic state on Aug. 7, 1949 and waged a rebellion against government forces.
Kartosuwiryo allowed his members to rob, kill and rape other Muslims and non-Muslims in their violent struggle. The religious rebels even attempted to assassinate founding president Sukarno before their notorious leader was captured and killed.
The rebellion spread to three other provinces -- South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and Aceh.
Following the downfall of former strongman Soeharto in 1998, Islamic extremism emerged once again.
Hardline groups like Laskar Jihad, the Islam Defenders' Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MII) have openly campaigned for their causes: the adoption of sharia.
The three groups, along with the United Development Party (PPP) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB), were the most prominent to demand the inclusion of sharia, contained in the Jakarta Charter, in the amended constitution.
The demand was rejected by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) during its Annual Session last August.
"We cannot label legislators calling for the inclusion of the Jakarta Charter as those of radical groups because they struggle for their aspirations through democratic channels," Crouch said.
He said followers of radicalism were often connected to violence to achieve their goals.
He added that it was not the case in Indonesia.
Even though religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians were raging on in the Maluku islands and the Central Sulawesi regency of Poso, they had nothing to do with radicalism.
"They are fighting against each other but it is not the problem of radicalism," he added.