Sharia movement may have negative economic impact on Indonesia

Lambert J. Giebels, Historian, Breda, The Netherlands

After the fall of president Soeharto the sharia movement did revive in the political field. The sharia question has been haunting Indonesia from the beginning of its existence.

When on June 1, 1945 Sukarno had delivered his famous Pancasila speech to the preparatory committee of the Constitution and it was decided that the Pancasila would be included in the preamble of the Constitution, orthodox Muslims among the founding fathers made it clear that they would only accept the inclusion of the Pancasila under certain conditions: Sukarno's last pillar, Believe in God, had to become the first; a sentence of seven words should be added to the preamble, stating that all Islamic Indonesians were obliged to follow the Koranic laws; only an Indonesian Muslim might become president.

Bung Karno accepted the "Djakarta Charter", as it was named, with tears in his eyes, for he was well aware that the seven words could undermine his concept of Pancasila.

Then came Aug. 18, Constitution day. In the evening and night of the 16th a Japanese vice-admiral, Maeda Tadashi, had put his house on Nassau boulevard at the disposal of the preparatory committee for the drafting of the Declaration of Independence on Aug. 17, Maeda protected Sukarno's declaration in his front garden against intervention by the Japanese army, and prevented a bloodbath.

In the course of the evening of Aug. 17 the Japanese warned Hatta that if the seven words were included in the Constitution, several non-Muslim islands of the archipelago would refuse to become part of the sharia state, Indonesia. Mohamad Hatta, a dedicated Muslim, but also a realistic politician, as well as Sukarno decided to drop the seven words.

As Sukarno's biographer, I have become impressed by the cleverness with which he was looking for western thinking that could benefit his beloved country. Also his approach of the sharia issue was based on western thinking. Being a western educated man Sukarno understood, earlier than many western thinkers, that the Enlightenment may have brought the separation of church and state, but not the separation of religion and politics.

He understood that during the 19th and 20th centuries, when democracy settled in the western world, Christian parties played a dominant role in the formation of the politics of their countries -- like the CDU in Germany still does. He thought it was an example to be followed by the Muslim world.

In his Pancasila speech Bung Karno emphasized that Muslims, rather than demanding a sharia state, had to accept the separation of church and state, but build strong political parties which should fight in government to permeate the laws "with the spirit and soul of Islam".

Again and again the sharia discussion created political tension in the newly born state. The climax came, when on June 1, 1959 the Constituent Assembly, assembled in Bandung, had to make a decision on the replacement of the Dutch-fabricated constitution of 1950 by the 1945 Constitution.

One part of the Assembly wanted a sharia state, the other a Pancasila state. In the thrilling voting of that day, which was radioed all over the archipelago, neither the one, nor the other got the required 2/3 majority. The deadlock forced the strong man of those days, Gen. Nasution, to take action. He dissolved the Assembly, sent its members home and summoned president Sukarno, who was in Japan, to come home. Back in Jakarta, Sukarno on July 5, 1959 reinstated his Dekrit Kembali ke UUD 1945 (Back to the 1945 Constitution) without the seven words.

Soon after that he proclaimed the "Guided Democracy". From then on Bung Karno ruled like a enlightened despot. With his intoxicating charisma, he persuaded the nation to accept with heart and soul his Pancasila state; he even forced the atheistic PKI to swallow his Pancasila, complete with "Believe in God."

After the fall of president Sukarno, the Pancasila state was continued by Soeharto, and any political discussions about sharia were suppressed. Underground, however, the sharia movement continued with its activities. Some orthodox Muslims found an outlet for their frustrations in violence. Several churches were burned down or destroyed.

The violence against Christian belongings did not stop with the fall of Soeharto. The reader will remember the bomb attacks on churches at Christmas 2000. The violence was now meant to support the revived political sharia movement.

It seemed that the movement would fizzle out, when in 2000 the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) with a big majority rejected a move to have the sharia embedded in the Constitution. The supporters of sharia shifted for some time their activities to the local level.

At present the political movement for sharia is back at the national level. Widespread Muslim magazines are promoting a sharia state and political parties are trying to win votes by promising it. In case one of those parties wins 3 percent in the general election, the sharia discussion will also affect the presidential election in July.

The fact that sharia is an issue raised in this campaign hurts the traditional image in the west of a tolerant Indonesia. It would become much worse if sharia gained the support of the majority, and Indonesia became a sharia state. A sharia state is, rightly or wrongly, seen in western eyes as the bulwark of Islamic fundamentalism and a hotbed for terrorism.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, when it became apparent that a "clash of civilizations" was underway, the western world became inclined to isolate sharia states and to separate them from the world market economy. The isolation of Indonesia would be a great loss to many, particularly Indonesians.