1 - The Waning of the Masyumi Tradition

Summary

This chapter examines the re-formation process of Islamist politics in the years 1998 and 1999. I argue that an associative spirit of what I term the “Masyumi tradition” was sustained during the New Order. In the early phase of democracy, however, this spirit did not lead to joint political action. Practical considerations determined the re-formation of political parties after the fall of Soeharto in May 1998, which led to small support for the establishment of Masyumi legatee parties. Moreover, despite claiming ongoing adherence to the ideals of Masyumi, the devotion of main sections of today's legatees to the party's goal of involving the state in enforcing shari'ah on Muslims has largely been formalistic and symbolic. It is especially this part of Masyumi's ideology which is becoming increasingly hollow. Tensions among the legatees also revealed a lack of clarity on what behaviour, both politically and personally, the dedication to lofty Masyumi ideals has to entail. Overall, the type of Islamism represented by Masyumi and a number of affiliated organizations has gradually diminished in significance and is likely to decline further in the future.

The Masyumi is the historical focal point of several of the Islam-based parties formed in the immediate post-New Order era. From 1949 to 1958 Masyumi was headed by Mohamad Natsir (d. 1993). For later generations of Masyumi adherents, Natsir became the paragon, and intellectually, the most dominating figure. He and other Masyumi leaders consented to a number of programmes and ideas that set them apart from Islamists such as Maududi or Qutb. Most importantly, Masyumi took on Western concepts such as a multiparty system, the separation of powers, and parliamentary rule. It deemed free speech and a formal opposition in parliament mandatory for a democracy. These were not inherently Islamic issues, but denoted the impact of reformist ideas on Indonesian Islam, in which the “Masyumi tradition” came to grow as an innate, undisclosed component.

At the same time, Masyumi took the offensive against Western-style liberal democracy. It contested suggestions that Islam was somewhat faulty if it could not prove congruity to a concept of democracy grounded in Western norms and philosophy. Attempts were made to reconcile a variety of European political conceptions with the ongoing sway held by Islamic doctrinal models over Muslim thought.