Sharia movement may have negative economic impact on Indonesia

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.