South Sulawesi's quiet resistance to syariah

South Sulawesi's quiet resistance to syariah

Hasanuddin Hamid, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi

To date, there is no conclusive proof of a connection to
terrorism by the three Indonesians arrested in Manila on March 13
-- Agus Dwikarna, Tamsil Linrung and Abdul Jamal Balfas. On
Saturday it was reported that Tamsil and Abdul Jamal were to be
released.

Agus and Tamsil are well known in Makassar, as Islamic leaders
supporting the implementation of syariah law (strict Islamic
laws) in South Sulawesi.

Representing the Committee of Preparations for Enforcement of
the Syariah (KPPSI), which Agus leads. they say they speak for
many in the province who want the implementation of the syariah.

Quite a number of people do not agree, though only a few
openly express opposition. Agus and the Committee have lately
become quite popular.

When news of their arrest in March reached their hometown,
there were continuous phone calls to their office, located in a
small room on the second floor of the Sultan Alauddin Mosque at
Makassar's racing center.

Born on Aug. 11, 1964, and a graduate from the Technical
School of the Indonesian Muslim University, Agus also leads the
Jundulah paramilitary group, which protested at a number of
hotels and entertainment places in Makassar, during last year's
Ramadhan, the Muslim fasting month.

Agus and Tamsil are inseparable from the struggle to adopt
syariah in the province, though Tamsil's name is not included in
the KPPSI structure. Tamsil, a businessman and former deputy
treasurer of the National Mandate Party (PAN), was the lobbyist
between KPPSI and authorities, as he is close to PAN chairman and
Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais,
and another PAN figure, AM Fatwa who is an MPR deputy.

Tamsil has established networks overseas with those with
experience in the implementation of the syariah, including in
Trengganu and Kelantan in Malaysia.

Demands for the syariah here followed the formal introduction
of autonomy in mid 2000, following the granting of the
implementation of the syariah for Aceh.

Several meetings between former activists of the splinter
group of the Islamic Students Association (HMI MPO), led by Azil
Kahar -- the son of the rebel, Kahar Muzakar, leader of Darul
Islam/Indonesian Islamic Army (DI/TII) in South Sulawesi -- and
Agus himself, were held to discuss the possibility of syariah in
the province.

Ideas to make preparations for the syariah strengthened
following the first Muslim Congress in October 2000, which led to
the Makassar Declaration, and the next congress, which issued a
recommendation to demand the syariah.

The Congress' decisions included one to set up the KPPSI. Its
branches were then established in all regencies, except Tana
Toraja and Mamasa, where the majority are Christians.

The KPPSI founders have brought together hardline Islamic
leaders, intellectuals and activists in South Sulawesi. In its
two-year struggle the KPPSI has acquired recommendations from the
provincial administration, the regional legislative council
(DPRD) and South Sulawesi legislators.

Governor H.Z.B. Palaguna and Council chairman Amin Syam said
they had forwarded to Jakarta the proposal to grant special
autonomy to the province, to enable the syariah's implementation.

Agus has earlier said that past kingdoms here were based on
the syariah. Those kingdoms gave top positions to religious
leaders, like Syeh Yusuf during the Tallo Kingdom.

Preparations for the syariah, he says, were made long ago. The
country's largest Islamic organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),
introduced the idea in 1908, followed by the second largest,
Muhammadiyah, in 1912, according to Agus.

William Liddle, a long time Indonesianist from the Ohio State
University in the United States, said at a recent international
seminar on democracy in Muslim countries in Makassar, that it was
ironic that demands for the syariah in South Sulawesi were based
on the approval for such special autonomy in Aceh.

The Acehnese, he said, asked for independence -- but instead
they were given special autonomy for the implementation of the
syariah -- which they never requested.

It is necessary to examine whether Acehnese are really
satisfied with the enforcement of the syariah, and whether its
implementation may indeed bring about unrest.

In South Sulawesi so far the demands have come from the KPSSI,
who have been louder than those who are content with the present
condition.

Among the few who have rejected the idea is a post-graduate
lecturer at the Alauddin Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) in
Makassar and chairman of the Makassar-based Al Furqan Institute
of Islamic Science, Qasim Mathar.

Qasim said the KPPSI had dragged people into a political
dispute with Jakarta. He cited the need to hold a referendum and
to conduct a thorough study to find out whether people at large
indeed want the syariah.

The KPPSI cannot claim that the majority of people in South
Sulawesi are demanding the implementation of the syariah, only
based on 2,000 people participating in their congress, nor can
they claim to represent all Muslims in the province.

"There are many schools of thought concerning the syariah,"
Qasim said.

Two Christian clergymen, Zakaria J. Ngelow and M. Soepamena,
both lecturers at the East Indonesian Institute of Theology in
Makassar, were apprehensive.

Zakaria said that the non-Muslim community would refuse to
become a second class community in the province.

"We can tolerate the wishes for the syariah as long as the
enforcement is for the common interest and without
discrimination, and not deviating from the country's aspiration,"
he revealed. "Of course, it is unfair if the implementation of
the law is only for the sake of their own benefit," he added.

The non-Muslim community was worried, he said, amid the
conflicts between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia. Christians
were nervous as they feel they are no longer protected from
authorities, Zakaria said. "Thus, the best way forward is to seek
friends and actively build togetherness and tolerance with other
religious adherents," he stressed.

Soepamena said that Christians and the church circles are
studying what Muslims in South Sulawesi really want regarding the
syariah. He questioned whether such aspirations "are in the
context of preserving the Unitary State of the Republic",
implying the possibility of wanting to set up a separate state.

Ishak Ngeljaratan, a cultural observer and lecturer at the
Hasanuddin University here, said he feared that Islam would be
abused by authorities, given the experience of officials accusing
and punishing people of dissent against the national ideology
Pancasila.

Opposition against implementation of the syariah also comes
from Andi Jamaro of the NU executive board. He cited the need to
carefully explore public opinion on the issue.

He said development of an Islamic society was more important
than the formalistic application of the syariah.

Since demands for the syariah had been gathering momentum in
the last year and a half, there were as yet no reports that the
KPPSI had asked for the view of non-Muslims, who make up 10
percent of the local population of 8 million.