Sharia has 'little chance in the country'

Tarko Sudiarno and Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Jakarta

Sharia, or Islamic law, has little chance of being adopted in Indonesia, politicians and a Muslim figure said.

People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais said on Wednesday that being a pluralistic nation, Indonesia would have tremendous difficulties in applying sharia.

"People tend to simplify things and think that if sharia is implemented everything will be fine and social welfare will improve. Well, it does not work that way all the time," Amien told The Jakarta Post at his house in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

Amien was commenting on reports that a number of regencies in the country had begun enforcing sharia to different degrees.

Besides in Aceh, sharia also has been introduced in Pamekasan regency in East Java; Maros, Sinjai and Gowa regencies in South Sulawesi; and the regencies of Cianjur, Indramayu and Garut in West Java.

In Indramayu, sharia has been implemented in the form of requiring civil servants to wear Muslim clothes on Fridays, to recite from the Koran for 30 minutes before beginning work and to fast every Monday and Thursday.

In Gowa regency, South Sulawesi, it has been ruled that thieves will have their hands amputated, as required by sharia. However, no one in the regency has yet been punished in this manner.

Amien said Indonesian Muslims should give careful consideration before implementing sharia because it could taint the image of Islam, as happened in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

However, he did not rule out provinces implementing Islamic law, as long as they met certain requirements.

"Provinces that wish to implement sharia in their regions should meet some requirements, such as at least 95 percent of the population is Muslim and all of the members of the provincial legislature endorse the proposal," Amien said.

But he doubted that the regions would be able to implement sharia because they did not have the same historical background as Aceh.

Noted Muslim intellectual Azyumardi Azra said in Jakarta that it would be difficult to implement sharia here because of the absence of a common platform and significant political and legal support.

He also said that those regencies that were implementing Islamic law had narrowed the concept of sharia.

"Sharia is mostly interpreted as the obligation to wear a jilbab (headdress) for women or a koko (shirt) and kopiah (hat) for men. Actually, it is more than just rulings on physical appearance," Azyumardi, rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, told the Post.

From the Islamic point of view, sharia touches on all aspects of Muslim life, including establishing a criminal code, he said.

Azyumardi added that the implementation of sharia, especially the criminal code, would create problems because Indonesia did not have the legal framework to support such a move.

"Regions that apply sharia's criminal code are violating the Constitution, and it is the obligation of the Supreme Court to ban them from enforcing such a criminal code," he said.

Another Muslim figure, Rusjdi Hamka, said the regencies introducing sharia interpreted Islamic law differently.

"So far, the implementation of sharia is just a slogan. I myself have yet to find a suitable concept that can be applied in Indonesia," Rusjdi, co-chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), told the Post.

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest legislative body, dejected during its Annual Session in August a proposal from Muslim-based parties, including the PPP, to include sharia in Article 29 of the Constitution.

Rusjdi and Azyumardi agreed that a lack of support from political parties and the Assembly limited the possibility of implementing sharia in the country.

"Campaigners for sharia account for only 4 percent of the MPR's (700) members. It is not really significant. And some parties are campaigning for the adoption of sharia out of political interests," Azyumardi said.