Introduction

Indonesia has been well known for decades as the largest Muslim nation in the world. According the 2000 population census, there were a bout 87 ,55% of more than 200 million o f Indonesians were Muslims. This figure has not changed so far, though other faiths have freedom to multiply their disciples, provided the method they use to achieve their goal is not against the constitution and other state regulations. Quite distinctive from other Muslim nations in the Arab world that still has difficulty to accept democracy and modernity, the main streams of Indonesian Islam have shown their positive attitude to welcome these aspects of  modem civilization on the condition that they do not lead to eliminate the doctrine of the oneness of God and His intrinsic attributes, such as compassionate, gracious, eternal, just, and forgiving; and also the concept that humanity is one is maintained and defended at all costs. The focus of my paper today is to elucidate some important salient phenomena of Indonesian Islam in
its relation to the idea of democracy and modernity.

The spread of Islam en mass through penetration pacifique and the present security condition in Indonesia.

As to when Islam penetrated to the archipelago for the first time in history is debatable. No one knows for sure the date when this youngest monotheistic faith gained the lasting victory in its heroic long spiritual journey to the east from Arabia, its birth place. But the people's conversion to Islam en mass through penetration pacifique only occurred in the 17th century, as many historians have rightly recorded. The peaceful nature of the Indonesian Islam has survived until now. However, we cannot deny that emergence of some Muslim radical splinter groups recently has slapped the peaceful face of Islam in this archipelago. The most radical wing has been involved in some inhuman
actions, such as bombings, terrorism, and other forms of uncivilized manoeuvre. Very possible that this frustrating group has connection with what has happened in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Unfortunately, the members of this group have misused Islam in this dangerous political game. During the Cold War, the C.I.A. had trained some of them in Afghanistan in the U.S. effort to defeat the Marxist regime who was in power there. From this perspective, the phenomenon of terrorism in our era is quite complicated like a tousled thread which is certainly hard to loosen. It has local, national, and global dimensions.

    Though Indonesia has become the attack targets of terror, the main stream of Islam here as represented by Muhammadiyah and NU (Nahdha al­`Ulama) remains peaceful, moderate, tolerant, and openminded. These two Islamic movements have done their best to fight against any kind of terrorism and destructive radicalism. But, of course, their effort was and will be never effective as long as the government has no firm and clear strategy to counter the Muslim destructive splinter groups. Morever, after the police are no longer part of the Indonesian Armed Forces, the security problem becomes more complicated. Right now, only the unprepared police who are fully in charge in dealing with the domestic security which is indeed beyond their limited capacity. In my phone
conversation with a retired general, he explained to me that the army have no legal umbrella to cope with domestic security matter (1) . They can only take a legal preemptive action when the police require them to do so. In other words, at present times, between police and the army there is no mutual understanding and effective coordination to deal with the internal security problem. If this condition does not change in near future, domestic terrorism will be very hard to stop, because the intelligence networking cannot function well, and the atmosphere of a rivalry between the police and the army continues. This situation gives chance to terrorists to operate. They are well trained and indeed determined. According to the doctrine they received from their spiritual leaders, death is no problem, because paradise is waiting for them whenever it comes.
    What about the moderate Muslim groups? With their limited funds and resources, however, Muhammadiyah and NU will never keep silent t o deal with this terrorist threat in Indonesia. They are deeply concerned with the fact that the act of terror will be interpreted by those who have the elements of Islam-phobia in their mind as the picture of true and authentic Islam. Among the Muhammadiyah and NU youth movements, the idea to formulate a theology of terrorism is now under discussion. The aim of this formulation is to find out a necessary and clear-cut method to combat against terrorism theologically(2). But by moving to this direction, the moderate should certainly be alert, because the risk is always there.
    With regard to the relations of Islam and the West, the global Muslim communities are not yet happy. Even until now, unfortunately, there are still views a ired by some that Islam is the religion of terror and Muslims are
terrorists, only because those who were involved in that inhuman acts and tragedy in New York and Washington D.C. were Arab Muslims. In line with this turbid and illogical argument, can we say, for instance, the atomic bombings dropped by the U.S. in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, as the Christian  bombings, only because those who carried out the attacks were the American Christians? The normal person will give the negative answer to such a question. But those who have something wrong in their mind might say that bombings must
have connection with religion.
    But, to be fair, I should accept the fact that some Muslims have interpreted wrongly their religion to achieve their political objectives by misusing it. Historically, such cases actually not only happened in Islam, but unfortunately
they happened in all religions in certain periods of history when religions were subordinate to politics. Indonesia in recent times has become the victims of terror conducted by misleading Muslims due to their destructive and political
interpretation of the Islamic teachings. By suicide bombing, the act of terror hit the front part of Australian embassy in Jakarta on September 9. This was the latest example of the brutality demonstrated by these abnormal people. They often said that they hated Australians, but the victims of their inhuman act were all innocent Indonesians. Nine were killed and tens wounded. What types of personality do these terrorists have? I do not believe they have true faith in their heart. This terror has caused not only foreigners but also Indonesians restless.

Therefore, it is high time for the Indonesian government and its apparatuses to
be alert and watchful all the time to cleanse this nation totally from the
terrorist activities. This is the only way open for Indonesia to declare to the
world that this country is serious indeed to fight against terrorism.
What is the relations between terrorism and democracy? Amid the wave of terror
threatening us, Indonesia has never hesitated to show to the world that
democracy is the future of our political system. The 2004 elections which were
safe and peaceful, are the authentic evidence of how deep this nation has total
commitment to implement the principles of democracy, as we will elaborate
further below.

   

Indonesia, Islam, democracy, and modernity

   Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States and chairman of the Carter Centre, after conducting his direct observation on the electoral process in Indonesia recently, has come to an optimistic conclusion about the future of democracy for this Muslim nation: Despite strong differences among the candidates and intense campaigning throughout the enormous archipelago, there have been no reported instances of  violence. This happens to be the 50th election monitored by the Carter Centre in different parts of the world, all of them in nations that were facing some kind of crisis or problem in their electoral process - either a form of dictatorship making a transition to democracy or an established democracy under serious threat. A milestone for us, this election also was a significant step forward for democracy worldwide. The people of Indonesia are providing a dramatic example of peaceful political change, and firmly negating the claim that Muslim societies are antidemocratic(3).
    What Carter witnessed in his observation during the electoral process in Indonesia was to refute the "belief that Muslims are averse to truly democratic governance",(4) as many of the American political elites in Washington and in media reports that remain distrustful that Islam is compatible with democracy. This climate of distrust might be true if one refers to many instances in the Arab countries until now, but not to the present political development in Indonesia. As a belief system, Islam is one, but as a political expression, Islam has never been monolithic. Only those who are simple-minded will come to the view that Islam as a political force should share the same phenomena all over the world. This simplistic conclusion is not only dangerous but is totally unfounded sociologically. Indonesian neighbour, Malaysia, as a Muslim nation too, has practiced democracy for decades which to some extent is different from other countries. Like Islam, democracy in reality should not be monolithic either. To impose democracy in uniform is totally anti-democratic and will not work, as what Mr. Bush has tried in Iraq. By the same token, to invade another nation to introduce democracy is none other than the repeat of practicing old imperialism in its new mantle, and it will, for sure, come to failure.
    Then let's touch a little bit upon the Muslim's developing condition. That the stage of Muslim civilization as the whole is still backward, no one will deny, due to the Muslims' uncreative thinking and cultural ignorance for more than 3 hundred years. As if, the Muslims now are practicing a different kind of Islam, not Islam as taught by the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad which is full of élan vital in order to create a just-ethical society with the help of modern positive scientific innovation. From the perspective of Indonesian Islam, democracy, as just mentioned, is expected to be an effective political vehicle to move to better future. Why? Because democracy offers full freedom without discrimination to all citizens to actualize their human potentials. Long before independence in 1945, some sectors of Muslim community in Indonesia, had implemented democracy, though the term democracy was not in use yet, as we shah elaborate below.
    The idea of democracy was not only taken over from western Europe during colonial era, but the Qur'anic injunction of shura (mutual consultation)(5) also played a considerable role in assuring Muslims to appreciate democracy to be the future of Indonesian political system. Because of this Qur'anic justification, the Indonesian Muslims since the early decades of the 20th century have had no hesitation to accept democracy. Muhammadiyah for example had put the majority's right as the method of electing top leadership in its first constitution of 1912.(6) Surprisingly enough to note that the founder of Muhammadiyah, Ah mad Dahlan (1868-1923), was never trained in any western type of educational system. He was purely a pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding school) product. Therefore, very likely, Dahlan took the inspiration of the idea of majority's right primarily from the Qur'an as just mentioned. This example alone would be more than sufficient to indicate that democracy in practice was
not alien in the vocabulary of Islam in Indonesia.(7)
    In course of time, the rise of various political parties, started from the second decade of the 20th century, was only to deepen the roots o f democracy in colonized Indonesia. T hat is why, w hen t he independence of the Republic of Indonesia was declared on August 17, 1945, the only choice of political system open was democracy. Theoretically, therefore, democracy has been deep-rooted in  the political culture of Indonesian Islam. But honestly, I have to admit that under the nations two first presidents, Soekarno and Soeharto, democracy was killed on behalf on Guided Democracy (1959-1966) and Pancasila Democracy (1966-1998), which lasted almost forty years. This was the tragedy in our experience in trying to live with democracy. Fortunately, the idea of democracy never died out from the mind of the majority of the Indonesian people, as we have observed it since 1998, after Soeharto's regime collapsed dramatically.
   Now we move to another important part of our discussion: the idea of modernity in its relations to Islam, as I understand it. Muhsin Mahdi in his classical article wrote: "Modernity began as, and its main characteristic continues to be, an attempt to dispense with transcendence, whether philosophically or religiously conceived. Its aim is to make man feel at home in this world."(8)  With its own solid theological filter, I can assure you that Islam, particularly Indonesian Islam, has no objection to accept the idea of modernity as long as it does not lead humanity to the brink of bankrupt nihilism, as sharply defined by F. Nietzsche in which `man rolls from the centre toward
X.»(9).

    As an open religion, Islam in its historical long experience interacting with alien ideas and aspirations in the past had demonstrated its positive and creative cultural attitude. The cultural elements descending from classical Greek, Roman, Persian, and Indian legacies were adopted creatively, though not without internal conflicts. But, it worked amazingly. Thus, if that was the case, for a thinking Muslim at present, any idea or cultural aspiration, eastern or western, does not matter, provided they do not undermine his/her faith in the doctrine of the oneness of God and his/her belief in the concept of the unity of humanity, as stated earlier in this paper.
    Of course, there is a problem. The difficulty met by many Muslims today to accept the idea of modernity is first due to their ignorance of past history, when Islam had to adjust itself to new challenging complex intellectual environments. The other reason is the fact that modernity as developed in the West has, to a great extent, been deeply blurred with nihilism in which the notion o f God h as dramatically been separated from human daily life with all its consequences for human spiritual domain, or, in Heidegger's words, “there is nothing left” of Being as such.(10) But the other dimension of modernity saying that man has to feel at home in this worldly life is fully Islamic, no doubt. The Islamic mission is not "merely to adjust to history and the world", but also “to challenge and reshape them in the direction of what it conceives to be the best human society.” The Indonesian Muslim intellectuals having been familiar with the atmosphere of Western learning centres, domestic or abroad, are well aware of the threat of this nihilistic modernity. But, they have, for sure, no objection to live side by side with modernity, on the condition that the Transcendent and Just God remains intact in human individual and collective life.
    Though Islamic civilization, and the Indonesian Islam is included, at present era lags far behind compared to the superiority of Western technological and materialistic civilization, its inner dynamic elan vital has never disappeared. Almost all Muslims believe that if they are ready to correct their past mistakes and ignorance, they have no doubt the future. The Muslim's strong faith in God's mercy and justice have so far prevented them from cultural and intellectual suicide (12).

  A concluding remark.

   For the majority of Indonesian Muslims, democracy and modernity are not to oppose, but to accept their positive elements regardless of their origin and background. The Indonesian Islam which was never involved in the philosophico-theological controversy during the middle ages seems to be more conducive to deal creatively and critically with the cultural challenge of the present age. What it still lacks is in mastering science and technology necessary for winning the global fair competition. If this shortcoming can be met, Indonesian Islam with its moderate and open-minded characteristic has chance to lead the Muslim world as a whole. Here the true and great challenge certainly lies.


Padang (Indonesia), Sept. 19, 2004.

Brussels, Oct. 7, 2004


 

(1) My conversation with General Muchdi on September 15, 2004.
(2) The intellectuals who will take part to write this concept are Ulil Absar Abdallah, Abdul Mukti, Suyoto, and Saifullah Yusuf.
(3) Jimmy Carter, "Surprisingly Fair Elections in Indonesia", International Herald Tribune, July 15, 2004.
(4) Ibid.
(5) See thé Qur'an, III: 159 and XLII: 38.
(6) See M. Djaldan Badawi (ed.), Anggaran Dasar dan Anggaran Rumah Tangga Muhammadiyah ("The Statue and Regulation of Muhammadiyah"), 1912-1985. PP Muhammadiyah, 1998, pp. 2-3, articles 6, 10, and 11.
(7) For those who want to know in more detail the actual actors of democracy in contemporary Indonesia, consult Anders Uhlin, Democracy and Diffusion:  Transitional Lesson Drawing among 1ndonesia Pro-Democracy Actors. Sweden: Lund University, Department of Political Science, 1995.
(8) Muhsin Mahdi, "Modernity and Islam" in Joseph M. Kitagawa (ed.), Modern Trends in World Religions. La Salle, Illinois: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1959, p. 5.
(9) See Gianni Vattimo, The End of Modernity, tr. by Jon R. Snyder. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991, p. 19.
(10) See Vattimo, op.cit., p. 19.
(11) Mahdi, op.cit., p. 16.
(12) Some part of this section is derived from my paper presented in a seminar at the Pyramid Club organized by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, on Nov. 20, 2001, not long after the W.T.C, tragedy.