Introduction
Just recently in October this year, a dozen members of an
organization called the Anti-Communist Front attacked a group of victims and their
families of 1965-1966 political violence, who were gathered in Yogyakarta, at
the heartland of Java, Indonesia. This attack occurred during a national gathering
organized by one human rights organization to discuss the social discrimination
faced by the participants of the meeting and the problems they have over the
time by being labeled as communist or communist sympathizers. Five people were
seriously injured in this incident, whereas the others were threatened with
more violence. Some politicians, political analysis, scholars, human-right
activists and ordinary citizens who were pro-pluralism and democracy, including
the Indonesian Diaspora (the overseas Indonesian) criticized the violence and
act of anarchy done by the organization who claimed representing Muslims in
Indonesia. The protesters further demanded the government to take action
against the attackers and the organization, and to seriously protect the
freedom of expression and diversity within the nation.
Not so long prior to the incident, on August 19, about
2,500 residents of Lenteng Agung sub-district in Southern Jakarta protested and
demanded the Jakarta Governor to dismiss and replace the newly appointed head
of the sub-district, simply because she was not a Muslim. In their petition,
they rejected to have a leader from different faith and to be governed by a
non-Muslim, neglecting the fact that the governor appointed the sub-district
head after passing a series of competency tests and examinations in an
open-call selection.
Although Indonesia is not formally a Muslim state and in
general the constitution, most laws and policies are committed to protect the
religious freedom of its citizens, numbers of intolerance and radicalism acts are
increasing in the country, especially during the last one and a half decade. The
Wall Street Journal Report states that radicalism due to religious intolerance
is on the rise in Indonesia. The radical voices and actions continuously
dominate public spheres. Assault on people from different faiths or even
Muslims from different schools of thought are becoming every day news on TV and
other media. Moreover, those holding inter-religious and pluralism values are considered
a threat in their own community. There is a little room for minority groups to
freely express their differences and to practice what they believe. For
example, for years many Christian churches face opposition from the majority of
Muslim community in their neighborhoods.
The Taman Yasmin Church in Bogor and the Batak Protestant Church in
Bekasi are among those battling for their right to have places to worship and
practice their belief. Fundamentalist Islamic groups, such as the Lasykar Jihad, the Council of Indonesian
Jihad Fighters, the Indonesian Muslim Communication Forum, the Islamic Reform
Movement and the Islamic Defenders Front are continuously harassed and openly showed
their hostilities, including threat of violence, towards the members of the
church and those they consider against their goals. Examining this, a study
done by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released in
mid of 2012 confirmed the crisis in tolerance and increase of radicalism due to
religious differences (asa,
tas, & aml, 2012). The finding of the study states that almost 70 percent of the
respondents strongly disagree for allowing a place of worship for other faiths
in their neighborhood. The study also points out that 91.5 percent from total
2,500 respondents interviewed across the country said that people from different
religion must get a local community approval prior to building a worship place.
In addition, 80 percent objected to inter-religious marriage and their presence
within the community. Pluralism and diversity are under threat.
Whereas the world knows Indonesia has very diverse ethnics,
cultures and embraces diversity, the society is now in danger as radical and
extreme groups that strongly pushed their own values and disregarded others
increasingly influence it. This paper sees this issue as the contemporary
social problem in Indonesia. To understand what is the problem, why does it
happen and how to solve it, specific theoretical sociological perspectives will
be used in here. Those are the value conflict and social disorganization.
Public discourse and what are the current debate on the issues of intolerance
and radicalism will also be explored in this paper.
Literature Review and Current Debate: Crisis in
Tolerance. Increase Radicalism.
Maslathif Dwi Purnomo (2012, pp. 74-79) describes in his qualitative research that every year since 2000,
numbers of various terrorist attacks and radicals acts continuously occurring
in Indonesia, mostly under the name religion or extreme groups. It started with
bomb attacks to the Philippines and Malaysian embassies in Jakarta at the
beginning of the year, the icon of Indonesian business (the Jakarta Stock
Exchange) in the mid of the year, and a series of bombing during Christmas Eve
and 2001 New Year’s praying in some Christian and Catholics churches across
Sumatera and Java, two of the largest islands in the country. In 2002, the first
Bali bombing killed more than 200 and injured more than 300 people, with most of
the victims were Westerns (Finnegan, 2003). Ever since, a wave of intolerance actions and radicalism were growing
in the country. The Pew Research Center in 2010 indicates that the symptoms of
violence act in Indonesia is the worst happened than in other countries,
including in Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, and others in the Middle East and North
Africa (Grim, 2010). From the study, it claims that radicalization in Indonesia is
more widespread than in the other 64 countries that had globally surveyed. It
further shows that among other countries, Indonesia has the highest levels of
social hostilities involving religion combined with severe government
restrictions towards religious practices.
Andrew
Cohen (2004, p. 69) defines toleration as an agent’s intentional act in a diversity
situation, that despite he or she believes that they have power to interfere,
but decided to principally refraining from interfering with the opposed and
their behavior. In Indonesia, despite religious diversity guaranteed by the
constitution and laws, religion is seen as social identity that shapes social
processes and guides the society. Therefore anything that threatens the sacred
of its concepts and values can be justified as deviance and even war against
hostile infidels. Whereas majority of the population are Muslims, classical
Islamic doctrines believe to the concept of jihad
(holy war or struggle against unbeliever), and considered it as war in the ways
of God. In addition to this, a rector of State Islamic University in Indonesia,
Professor Asyumardi Azra (2005, pp. 18-20) states that radical groups in Indonesia are strongly oriented to
the Middle Eastern ideology of Khilafatism
which aims for the establishment of a single and universal governing system (khilafah) for all Muslims in the world,
and especially in Indonesia. He further points out that even not so long after
the Indonesian independence in 1945, the idea to transform an Islamic state in
Indonesia among Muslim groups and communities strongly voiced and demanded, and
it remains continually arisen in today’s discourse.
On
the other side, Asyumardi Azra also argues that western political, economic and
cultural domination especially in the Southeast Asia region is identified as another
factor causing the increase of radicalism, especially in Indonesia where
majority of Muslims of the world domicile (Azra, 2005, pp. 12-15). The American invasion and military operation in Afghanistan, as
a response to the attack to the World Trace Center in New York and the Pentagon
in Washington DC, on 11 September 2001, had fuelled the anger and resentment
among radicals individuals and Muslim groups in Indonesia. They then throwing
their hatred by attacking or harming any symbols representing Western values
which were considered imperialistic and arrogance, which then extend to include
a strong stance against more liberal values such as pluralism and tolerance
within democracy concept.
The
Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra and the Centre of Excellence
for National Security in cooperation with the S. Rajaratnam School of
International Studies in Singapore undertook a joint research during 2010-2011 to
understand radicalization in Indonesia. Among others, the study found that poverty
is not the only caused to the increased of radicalism act and religious
intolerance (ASPI & RSIS, 2011, pp. 9-11). The recent perpetrators of violent acts, including the homegrown
terrorists, are people with middle class background, even with university education
and frequent overseas travel, including to Western countries. During in-depth
interviews with some of the respondents from this type of group whom currently
in prison, they justified their radical actions with the spirit of doing good
things for their religion, defending their Muslims brothers and sisters who become
victims due to social inequality and exclusion within society, or just because
of the spirit of solidarity to fight against Christianity during communal
tensions and conflicts within the region. Nevertheless, the research further highlights
that religious radicalism and intolerance in Indonesia occur as a result to the
strong and lasting influence of charismatic religious leaders and Muslims elders
to their followers. As an example, the personalities of a Muslim leader like
Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Habib Rizieq Shihab, whom always voicing intolerance and
the importance for all Muslim to support and take jihad into actions, are
continuously gained sympathy and support from wider Indonesian Muslim
communities.
Philips
J. Vermonte, a political analysis and international relations director of CSIS,
a Jakarta-based think tank, states that there is a serious gap between
political freedom and religious tolerance in Indonesia (Post, 2012). It is true that since the fall of the New Order regime,
Indonesia is enjoying its democratization by having more freedom to express their
opinions. Furthermore, the experiences from national legislative and presidential
elections have marked the progress in Indonesian democracy and political system.
However, as according to Vermonte, the progress of democracy in one side is not
in tune with the decreased of religious tolerance, in the other side. Despite the government can be blamed for the
rising of intolerance, he points out some of the CSIS’s research finding that shows
that the real cause of problem still lies within society. The fact that some
groups are becoming more dominant and playing a greater role in causing
intolerance and radicalism acts within society, and the weakening of moderate
Muslim leaders and followers whom remain silent towards the abusing and
manipulating of Islamic doctrines. In regards to this, Jennifer Yang Hui (2013 ) from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in
Singapore, argues that law enforcement authorities in Indonesia should start to
improve their view and involvement to address inter-religious and communal
conflicts, especially whenever provocation and act of violence deploy within
society. In addition, she recommends the need to reform national education
system and curriculum to incorporate inter-faiths teaching modules and
perspectives to promote tolerance and respect diversity in the long run.
Value Conflict in Society: Islamic Values
Against Western Values?
To
understand the contemporary social problem occurring in the Indonesian society
in regards to the growing intolerance against minorities and increase
radicalism, this paper will first analyze the issue by using the value conflict
approach. This perspective is seeing social problem as a result of conflicting
values among groups within society. Furthermore, whenever consensus and trade
of values cannot be achieved to resolve the conflict, the strongest and
powerful group will usually take control over the society (Rubington & Weinberg, 2003,
pp. 97-99). Similarly this happens in Indonesia, as describe below.
Following
Richard C. Fuller and Richard R. Myers’ (1941, pp. 320-323) argument as stated on their 1941 publication, this paper also
argues that there is always a natural history underlying every “moral social
problem”, and in all stages of the problem, groups clash and conflict occurs
due to different interest and values that people hold. Whenever it happens,
some may disagree to see it as problem or to the need to take action to change
and solve it (Irvine, 2006, pp. 117-118). In Indonesia, the
ideological underpinning the radicalism and intolerance was first started not
so long after the Indonesian independence in 1945 with the strong
disappointment and protest of one largest Islamic-based organization during
that era, the Dar al-Islam (DI). The
organization objected the new founded republican state, instead of their
aspiration for an Islamic state, and rejected the doctrine of the national
ideology of Pancasila, which recognized religious plurality and granted equal
rights for all other religions than Islam. Radical movements with a series of
violent insurgency and spreading provocation messages among Indonesian Muslims to
support Islam theocracy were distributed across the country. In their
understanding, the national ideology did not represent but instead stand against
the purity of Islamic values. From that history, it was shown that radicalism
within Indonesian society has actually not a recent phenomenon, but has long existed.
However, the spectrum and effect of radicalism due to religious intolerance can
be controlled during the time when the earlier regimes still in power, this was
due to their strong government and military dominance over the society. Interestingly
to note and this is as refer to the Marxist concept of ideology, the struggles
of the subordinate groups tend to bring impact to the latter political,
ideological and cultural power, especially whenever conflict just temporarily
resolved (Clarke, 2001, pp. 9-10), and this is the case in Indonesia at the earlier years post its
independence. Furthermore, as points out
by Donileen R. Loseke (1999, pp. 292-293) that this Indonesian case is just a like a piggybacking, where the new constructed problem has actually arises
from the existing one. Only it may create new types of victims and
villains.
Over
the time, and this is especially marked with the fall of the New Order regime in
1998 and the followed by the diminished presence of military power that previously
control society, the strong demand from Muslim groups who wanted to keep alive
the idea to transform Indonesia into Islamic state could no longer be controlled.
In one hand, this is due to a continuously spreading of the message to protect
and defend the purity of Islamic values by those unhappy with the national
ideology and political system, and the newly democracy system as adopted by the
state, on the other hand. Both have resulted in the increasing numbers of new
radical Muslim groups within society. The Lasykar
Jihad, the Islamic Defense Front, and the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia are among those exist during the new
reformation era and they successfully gain support from wider Muslim
communities (Azra, 2005, pp. 24-25; Post, 2012). Whereas the established and mainstream Islamic organizations
such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah which shares different
values as they are proponent of Pancasila, can no longer stop the expansion and
movement of those radical groups. Along the way, clashes due to different
values and interests between these groups and their followers cannot be
avoided. The radical groups seeing the established organization are too compromising
with non-Islam values and too accommodative with the world changes such as
globalization and modernization, which they believe as the Western products and
disvalued Islam. The condition has became worst with different interests from
other new groups exist within society. In this context, globalization has contributes
in creating new form of groups in Indonesia, which are more profit and business
oriented, such as the Chinese, migrant and urban communities. All are sharing
similar neighborhoods with different views and values, and intersecting the
lines to one another within community. On the other side, the new democracy in
the country after the fall of the New Order regime has also play role in
opening new room to freedom of expression and voices differences. Whereas
Duntley and Buss (2004 pp. 112-113) argues that intolerance caused as a manifestation from a subtle
discrimination to outright aggression which sometimes adaptive in the intergroup
competition over resources, in Indonesia, as it difficult to avoid, competition
arises among group wanted to keep traditional religious values alive and to
those wanted to form new values in order to adjust with the globalization and
democratization.
Referring
to the above description this paper argues that the growing radicalism and intolerance
society in Indonesia occurs as a result of conflicting values within society,
both in regards to religious and political values. Related to religious values,
the conflict mostly found in between internal Muslims groups and followers, and
their differences in interpreting and understanding Islamic concept. Whereas in
regards to political values, this is sharply seen among those groups wanted to
put Islamic values as the only foundation for the state and those defend the
national ideology, which place paramount respect for pluralism and diversity. In
addition to this, the problem is also formulated due to the lacking involvement
of law enforcement action due to the degradation of military and police power
from public spheres. In supporting this, experts and political analysts studying
the growing radicalism in Indonesia state that the newly found democracy in
Indonesia, supported with the annulment of the anti-subversion law by the new
regime, has provided a foundation to express radical discourses and extremist
acts in a more openly manner by the radicals groups (Azra, 2005, pp. 18-20).
Social Disorganization: The Rise of Radical
Islam
To
understand social problem in relation to the crisis in tolerance and increase
radicalism, the perspective of social disorganization, especially with the
concept introduced by Thomas and Znaniecki (1927) will be applied in this paper. According to them, social problem
is conceived as a failure or breakdown of the rules. Both can be because either
too many rules or no rules (Rubington & Weinberg, 2003,
pp. 53-54). As a result, dynamic
equilibrium can get upset and affected. In relation to the society, this perspective
views it as a complex and dynamic system. Furthermore, whenever social changes occurred
within society, it may be possible to impact the existing norms and cultures. Because
of that, social disorganization perspective seeing social problem more complex than
the value conflict perspective.
After
the fall of the 32 years authoritarian regime under Suharto, many changes
happened in Indonesia. The political system has shifted into a new democratic
state and generally a larger freedom for communities and individuals. Whereas
social structure and system have also changed due to Indonesia recognizes
freedom of expression and allow greater involvement of its people into many
public spheres, including in politics and political discourses where it
previously strongly controlled by the authoritarian regime. On the one hand,
the rise of democracy has forced government bodies, including military and
police forces, to protect and be more sensitive with the human rights issues.
On the other hand, however, this has caused uncontrolled mass power within
society. As an example, from only a few of mass-based organizations presence during
the old regime, the number has significantly increased into more than a hundred
thousands groups which established during the new era (Ibrahim, Suryaningati, &
Malik, 2006 pp. 16-17). Most of those organizations are social-religious based.
With
all of those changes rapidly started on the same period of time and most
importantly with the fact of the almost absence of law enforcement have contributed
to the breakdown of social system. The radical groups easily lead unlawful
actions such as sweeping, closing down and burning targeted places, public or
private, which they believe as the sources of social ills, too western and
disrespect Islamic values. With almost no sanctions by the law, those radical
groups enjoy the impunity with the weaken law enforcement in the country. The
perpetrators of violence were almost never brought to justice. Series of
bombings and violence attacks to Christian churches, Buddhist temples, Ahmadiyah
and Shia mosques, and other public facilities that occurred over the years for
the last decade and a half. According to the Setara Institute (2012), numbers of violent and radicalism acts due to religious intolerance
are growing by every year in Indonesia. Many churches have been closed down despite
they already have legal permits. Whereas the national constitution and laws
protects citizen rights to practice religion, the local mayors, governor or
other authorized government officers including law enforcement officers failed
to protect the people’s rights and respect the law. The Setara Institute
further claims that based on their 2011-2012 research, they found that the
Indonesian police were involved in about 121 cases of religious intolerance in
Java Island only, whereas local mayors in several cities involved in more than
50 cases. The pressures from the radical groups have forced them to
discriminate the rights of minority groups. Nevertheless, the 2008 national
government decree by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which obligates
official permission to build religious places of worship has played a role on
the decrease of minorities’ right on freedom of religion. Above all, the
breakdown of law together with the weakness of government power has created
broader room for the radical groups to exist and operate within the society and
take over the law into their own hand. Regarding this, Azra (2005, p. 26) states that radicalism in Indonesia has a lot to do with the
disruption of both political and social system. He further argues that this
problem happened not just because due to the breakdown of law and
discriminative attitude by the law enforcement, but also on the absence of the
moderate Muslims in responding to the development of Islam in the region. Other
than those mentioned, the changes within Indonesian society, especially with
the emergence of urban societies, has also contributed to the disruption of social
system and structure. This is similarly as states by Robert E Park (1967, pp. 57-58) that industrialization, immigration and urbanization influence
the stability of the social system and organization. Also as claimed by Faris and Dunham (1965, p. 61) on the strong relationship between urbanism and social
disorganization in shaping social problem within society, such as on the case
of crisis in tolerance and increase of radicalism in Indonesia.
Conclusion
It
is always a significant challenge to understand and uncover the contemporary
social problems in Indonesia, especially whenever they relate to the religious
intolerance and radicalism within society. Some view the problem has become the
greatest threat to the current Indonesian effort in transitioning to democracy
and undermines the spirit of tolerance and pluralism as enshrined in the
national principles of Pancasila. However, to have a better understanding to
view the problem, the perspective of value conflict and social disorganization
can be use to analyze and resolve the problem effectively. The conflicting
values highlight the differences which different groups in society hold, the
traditional Islamic values and the desire to keep its purification into daily
lives, with the new spirit of democratization, which promote tolerance and
pluralism. Whereas the social disorganization perspective points out the
breakdown of rules within society, especially after the fall the New Order
regime and the absence of law enforcement in ensuring stability and social
structure within societies. In order to reestablish the peaceful inter- and
intra-religious relations and their nature in the country and the society, and to
recognize the rights on freedom of religions to its citizen, a combine role of
a strong and fair government, non-discriminative law and respect to justice,
and the proactive attitudes from all of the diverse groups within society are
need to ensure and work side by side in promoting and strengthening the
democratic values and practices, especially on tolerance and pluralism.
(Melbourne, Spring 2013)
Lia Marpaung-Abidin
