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.