1 - Introduction

Summary

No idea has been as vibrantly debated and contested in post-New Order Indonesia as the notion of democracy. The collapse of Soeharto's authoritarian regime in 1998 paved the way for all elements of society to actively reconsider what constitutes the public good for the country. The regime shift — from Soeharto's authoritarian regime to the so-called Era Reformasi — accordingly unleashed once-idle Islamist movements to become actively engaged in public debates over the ideological foundations of the country. Islamist social organizations such as MMI (Majlis Mujahidin Indonesia, or The Council of Indonesian Muslim Holy Warriors), HTI (Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, or Indonesian Islamic Party of Liberation), FPI (Front Pembela Islam, or Front of the Defenders of Islam), FKAWJ (Forum Komunikasi Ahlussunnah wal Jama'ah, or Communication Forum of Ahlussunnah wa al-Jama'ah), and others have come to the fore, with the agenda of replacing Pancasila, the philosophical foundation of the country, with Islam. In a development reminiscent of the multiparty era in the 1950s, Islam-based political parties mushroomed during this early transitional period. Pancasila has come to face sustained challenges and attacks from the Islamists. The Jakarta Charter, which had been included in the first draft of the constitution's preamble but which was eventually left out of the document, has been put back on the parliamentary agenda by Islamist parties, but their repeated efforts to reinsert the Charter into the preamble through constitutional amendments have failed.

Attempts at incorporating Islam into the state constitution did not stop there; the Islamists have tried incessantly and through various means to replace Pancasila with the ideology of Islam and to make Indonesia more Islamic. Having failed at the political and structural level, many Islamists turned to a cultural struggle by attempting to Islamize society from below. Starting at the individual level, they hoped that the cells of Islamic society could be expanded more broadly into the state structure. Propagating Islam by means of religious gatherings all over the country, and by infiltrating local organizations or bureaucracies, the Islamists hoped to boost their strongholds in gradual steps towards the national level. Islamizing the state constitution was no longer regarded at the rhetorical level as an urgent priority. Rather, the Islamization of society and culture was now considered more important.