Chapter 1 - Introduction

Summary

The intellectuals have created the political life of the underdeveloped countries; they have been its instigators, its leaders, and its executants.

Edward Shils (1972)

The intelligentsia stratum develops…when educated members of the establishment are unable to face and solve the nation' growing problems. In response, the intelligentsia appears as a new element of the social structure, as a stratum placed between the ‘power establishment’ on the one hand, and all other classes on the other.

Aleksander Gella (1976)

Indonesian Islam is a reality that scholars can no longer ignore. The wave of Islamic resurgence that has swept the country in the past two decades makes it increasingly difficult to portray Islam as a marginal force on the edges of Indonesian civilization.

Mark R. Woodward (1996)

Out of the galactic crisis of the Indonesian polity at the twilight of the previous century, a new crescent began shining in the sky of Jakarta: the emergence of the Muslim intelligentsia as the rising political and bureaucratic elite.

In the late Suharto era, following the demoralization of Muslim politics from the 1960s, various figures of the Muslim intelligentsia surprisingly took centre stage in Indonesian socio-political discourse. About the same time, many other members of the Muslim intelligentsia were appointed to the upper echelons of the government bureaucracy. Issues surrounding this Muslim intelligentsia produced extensive media coverage and provoked public debates following the establishment, in December 1990, of the Ikatan Cendekiawan Muslim Se-Indonesia [ICMI, the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intelligentsia].

By the time of the emergence of the reform [reformasi] movement in 1997/98, some figures of the Muslim intelligentsia played crucial roles in the process of President Suharto' resignation. This political significance of the Muslim intelligentsia was accentuated during the period of President Habibie' interregnum when the cabinet and senior administration were composed largely of ICMI members. At the same time, the leadership of the Golkar party (as the heir to the New Order' political machine) came to be dominated by former activists of the Islamic University Students’ Association (HMI). This culminated in the selection of Abdurrahman Wahid (former chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama) as President succeeding Habibie, along with the appointment of Muslim figures as senior state officials.