Dialectics between Islam and the State In the ideological context, dialectics between Islam and the state is a crucial matter for Indonesia since this is where the sources of the nation's energy that determine the future are stored. This dialectics should be elaborated out of its historical roots, contemporary conditions, and core problems and we can then propose a rational, mature, and permanent solution that may be carried out.
The first is the historical aspect of dialectics between Islam and the state. Islam entered the Nusantara archipelago through Malacca Straits into the Java island in the cities Jepara and Gresik. From there, Islam spread through Banjarmasin, Goa, Ambon, and Ternate. In turns, structurally Kingdom of Pasai, Kingdom of Malacca, Kingdom of Aceh, Kingdom of Demak, Kingdom of Pajang, Kingdom of Mataram, Kingdom of Banten, Kingdom of Goa, Kingdom of Ternate and other kingdoms were established. Islam peacefully, dialogically, and culturally spread through all over the Nusantara archipelago. As a popular and egalitarian with the trade ethos and culture, Islam had encouraged its adherents the spirit of entrepreneurship especially those living in coastal areas. The early Islam adherents in the Nusantara archipelago were rich, prosperous, and well-educated traders. It would immediately attract the attentions of native inhabitants. Islamic development then created what was called centers of civilization circles namely palaces, pesantren, and markets. With characters that did not differentiate religious activities from political and even economic ones, this religion had traditional structures from pesantren, madrasah, meunasah, majlis taklim, trade organizations, Sufis' tareqat, Islamic teachings, youth organizations, to hajj institutions. Traders, Mubalig (Religious Propagators), religious teachers, native kings, princes, clerics, leaders of Sufis' tareqat, wali, wandering Sufis, artists, men of letters, scholars, physicians, played important roles in the social and cultural transforms of the Nusantara societies.
Social, religious, and cultural institutions created by the Nusantara Islamic communities and writings of religious books in Malay language were effective as the driving factor for the Indonesian nation's integrity. Since the sixteenth century the Nusantara archipelago had practically been integrated by Islam, a relatively new religion and far away from regions up till now deemed the centers of Islamic world. In three or four centuries, Islam is capable of becoming the people's religion embraced by the majority of Indonesian people. Very little Hindu heritage in the past remains even in the interior of Java island and questions on how Islamic victories were so complete arise (Religion of Java, Hodgson, 1974). When colonialism rocked the Nusantara archipelago, the religion and soul of Islam that defied oppressions, injustices had directly move defiance stance against the imperialists. Muslim Ummah awareness of nationalism in the early phase in practice took various forms from physical resistances against colonialism (at the latest since the beginning of the nineteenth century in a form called pre/proto nationalism), anti-capitalism stance, struggle to develop an identity different from the other nations' ones, to enhance the quality of education and the native society's economy.
This happened due to the emergence of awareness of long Islamic history in the Nusantara archipelago. This awareness created Islamic nationalism that was different from secular nationalism that had nothing to do with religion. That proto nationalism showed its face during the era of direct confrontations against the Dutch starting since the middle of the seventeenth century with the outbreaks of Ternate War(1635 – 1646), Makassar War (1660 – 1669), Trunojoyo War (1675 – 1679) in Java, Banten War (1680 – 1682), and especially in anti-colonial wars since the end of the eighteenth century when VOC went bankrupt and surrendered all of its colonies to the Dutch-Indies government.
The most ferocious battles that inflicted heavy casualties and losses to the Dutch were Cirebon War (1802 – 1806), Palembang War (1812 – 1816), Paderi War (1821 – 1837), Diponegoro War (1825 – 1830), Banjarmasin War (1859 – 1862), and Aceh War (1872 – 1908. All of these armed actions were led by kings, princes, tareqat leaders and their students.
In the history of modern movement on the verge of the independence, other important Islamic institutions were Syarekat islam (SI) that ran in the political field, Muhammadiyah that ran in the social and educational fields, And NU that mainly ran in pesantren education field. Syarikat Islam that was the metamorphosis of Syarikat Dagang Islam (SDI) was organization that had political agendas other than economic ones. This modern and national-level organization desired self-rule by the Indonesian people and demanded full independence from the Dutch occupation.
Another goal was to generate entrepreneurship spirits of the indigenous people and develop cooperation against foreign traders that secured privileges by the Dutch colonizers. From those historic facts mentioned above, it is very apparent that Islam does not hamper nationalism, but even through the womb of Islam, Indonesian nationalism could grow healthily. Islamic movements had already had nationalism ties. Compared to regional organizations that were ethnic-based including Budi Utomo (basis of the Javanese upper class interests, SI movement was in fact had a national character. Islam proved to function as a factor for integration, and even further root of nationalism and the establishment of nation-state for the Indonesian case. SI had managed to drive traders, urban workers, clerics, even a number of nobles and farmers into the first mass political movement in the colonial era (Benda, 1858).
The second is facts and conditions of contemporary relations between Islam and the state. Many of developing countries including Indonesia that is relatively a newly independent country are still haunted with a fundamental problem with their nation's and state life namely ideological stability problem. Historical consensus to determine the state ideology often ended without total acceptance of all of the nation's components. When the state ideology that based nationalism in the Indonesian case was democratically negotiated on the political stage, it was apparent that those dialectical processes took place very toughly. It could be seen in the first phase of the dialogs during the discussions at BPUPKI and continued at PPKI in 1945, and in the second phase of the dialogs in the Konstituante (parliamentary) sessions in 1956 – 1958.
In the first phase of the national dialog, Jakarta Charter containing seven words, “Divinity with obligations to carry out Islamic Sharia to its adherents� that was previously approved by BPUPKI before this institution was dissolved by the Japanese colonial government, was successfully crossed out during PPKI sessions. History has shown that politically, total acceptance on that Jakarta Charter's crossing out has never happened. Islamic components have not wholeheartedly accepted this nationalists-secularists' interpretations on the state's fundament. Therefore, struggle to make a religious faith of the majority population in this country as the state fundament still took place either through movement struggle made by NII since August 17, 1045 or constitutionally through Islamist-Nationalist parties like Masyumi, NU, and PSII. On the dialogs in the second phase, the Islamist parties the votes of which accounted for 40% of the total votes in the parliament retried very toughly to maintain the concept of the state fundament based on the religious faith. Eventually, there were no agreements reached among them, and it made President Soekarno issue a Presidential Decree in 1959 to return to the 1945 Constitution. Through the Led Democracy System, matters on ideology were emphasized through efforts to build the state. Crushing NII rebellious movements (1949-1965) was initiated.
History showed that these two ways of efforts to raise the state fundament failed. During Soeharto's administration, this ideological trauma was manifested in the form of marginalizing political parties and stressing on quasi-ideology, namely pragmatism through economic developments that furthermore created ideology-free technocratism. Floating mass policies, development's hectic activities, military monitoring up to the lowest governmental level. The peak of all of those was the enactment of Pancasila as the single principle to all of the social-societal organizations and political organizations. Hence, the end of ideology was really completed. However, Islam was still nourished and grew well in Indonesia especially culturally. Social, cultural, and political facts of Muslim Ummah show that Muslim Ummah accounts for the majority of the population in this country. They are well resided all over the archipelago.
Islamic cultures have been acculturated in the Indonesian cultures. Islam as a cultural factor has united Nusantara consisting of 250 ethnic groups into a “new nation� namely Indonesia. Politically, although the Republic of Indonesia is not based on Islam, but even our nationalistic and secular founding fathers were convinced that Islam was a catalyst agent of nationalism and the nation's unity; Islam became a factor of integration and social cohesion as well as a national symbol. Islam was fire, spirit, and soul of the Republic of Indonesia; Islam became the source of characters and the nation's and state's moral basis. Those matters were proven and soldered in the preamble of the 1945 Constitution textually stating: With the blessing of Allah's rahmat (mercy) andBelief in the one and only God� (the first verse of Pancasila) showing Indonesia's Islam based on tauhid principles.
Moreover, the fifth paragraph of the 1959 Presidential Decree stated,� That we are convinced that the Jakarta Charter dated June 22 1945 inspirits the 1945 Constitution and is an inseparable series of that constitution. As a continuation of these political achievements, the state's attention to the religions is a dialogical process going through high and low tides. The existence of the Ministry of Religious affairs arranging hajj matters and Islamic educations ranging from ibtidaiyah (Islamic elementary school) to Islamic university, Religious Court and Compilations of Islamic Laws, management of Islamic Banks and Amil Zakat (Zakah Organizing) Bodies, stipulation of the enactment of Islamic Sharia in Aceh put in effect by the Law Number 18 of 2001 and implementations of Islamic Sharia in other regions based on Regional Regulations. Political facts on the verge of the downfall of the New Order, the Muslim ummah previously always marginalized started to get attentions.
The impression of “mushrooming green� in the House of Representatives and especially the establishment of ICMI with BJ Habibie as the head indicated that politics of approaching the Muslim Ummah started to be carried out. Muslims' vertical mobility in the bureaucracy was seen along with their levels of educations that were the fruits of the Islamic cultural movements. However, the Ummah's human resources vertical mobility to take part in determining the content and course of development was often deemed by other nation's components improper or politically, socially and economically inappropriate. After the reform, with the more broadened freedom, political parties were more easily established, and more Islam-based parties were established especially after the People Consultative Assembly's (MPR) decree on Pancasila as the single principle had been annulled. Rediscovery of established ideology and element of ideology from Pancasila verses took place, including the apparent emergence of Islamist parties.
The results of democratic general elections in the reform era showed that politically the Muslim Ummah's votes declined compared to that of the 1955 general election. Although political Islam tended to go up in the 2004 general election compared to the 1999 one, the fact that the majority of Indonesian Muslims are moderate and cultural rather than political seems to be still valid. This is perhaps due do the fact that around 75 % of Indonesian Muslims are affiliated to NU or Muhammadiyah, the two biggest Islamic mass organizations that deem the Unified State of the Republic of Indonesia and Pancasila are already final to Indonesian Muslim Ummah. Therefore, it was understandable that why after the 1945 Constitution had been amended for four times, the People's Consultative Assembly did not intend to amend the 1945 Constitution Preamble. The third is the actual core of the problem. Judging from historical backgrounds, facts and conditions of Ummah's life in the state and nation, it was seen that solutions to this crisis of ideology that had inflicted a lot of casualties were really not permanent.
Fire of nationalism that had been overcast by pragmatism had generated separatism and radicalism as a result of developmental and ideological gaps. The most grievous thing was that the Ummah's energy in the nation's and state development become idle. The Muslim Ummah was marginalized by political-ideological trauma of the past. Islam that was quantitatively majority was not represented in the social-cultural and social-political aspects. Historical facts that were plastered were the political elite's barrenness to make pro-Islam policies. The government policies either in the Soekarno or Soeharto administration tended to get rid of Islam's roles from the state domain. As a matter of course, If Islam is the religion of the majority of the people, it must have been the major religion of the regional cultures. If the national culture is the peak of regional cultures as mentioned in the 1945 Constitution, since this Republic was established, Islam should have been the paradigm in developing the national culture.
In fact, the government ignored these very crucial anthropological and cultural facts. In the new Order, Islam was not allowed to color itself freely, let alone others. What was promoted was non-Islam nationalism such as GajahMada-Majapahit exemplifying the unification through violence, not the history of Islamic spread around the Nusantara archipelago through dialogical and peaceful ways. As a matter of fact, the Indonesian nation built the Unified State of the Republic of Indonesia through dialogs, not through violence- conquests like the Majapahit's unification model. Historical processes that gave birth to Islamic influences in the Nusantara archipelago were often reduced as merely “History of Islam in Indonesia� and not History of Indonesia� itself. So deeply-rooted and so broad were Islamic influences in the Nusantara archipelago, but they were not deemed important in the construction of the modern state of Indonesia. In official or unofficial history books, Islam is positioned marginally and insignificantly in developing the nation state. Islam's roles in uniting emotional bonds and struggle heroism to expel the colonialists and establishing the Nusantara archipelago into Indonesia tried to be ignored too. Indonesia owes nationalism one; nationalism itself in the Indonesian context was identical to Islam.
Secular nationalism came late since 150 years before its emergence, fundaments of national superstructure had been paved by Islam's power and Muslim leaders that gave birth to a unique proto-nationalism. The fourth is that solutions that can possibly be taken. In order to find the solution to that ideological problem, basic awareness of all of the nation's components including Muslims themselves should emerge, that the future of democracy in Indonesia is really determined by the Islam factor. That thing shall succeed if values of explicit democracy are compatibly articulated in the Islamic doctrines ideologically (Islam in Modern Indonesia, 2002). Progress of the Indonesian national developments are really determined by how determining Muslims' roles are since Indonesia is a Muslim nation where the state's cultural, social, political, and economic resources potentially reside in and are adhered to Indonesian Muslims. The Indonesian nation's energy resides in Muslim's body. As the majority, Muslims are fully responsible to the continuity of the Unified State of the Republic of Indonesia that was formerly striven for with blood and tears. Collaborations between local cultures and Islam that have taken places for ages have paved strong fundaments to a modern building of Indonesia. Islam is the most dominant factor in supporting the Indonesian identity. That is the Islam's factor of Indonesia. Therefore, marginalizing Indonesian Muslims is the same as stunting the glory of the Indonesian nation itself.
We should give our best efforts to make permanent solutions with the mature and rational ones. This course shall lead the Indonesian nation to a stable state based on the acceptance of the nation's component rationally, objectively, sincerely, and comprehensively. Not on repressive exhortation under the force of arms or on marginalization of the very abundant Ummah's energy resources that will eventually produce Indonesia as a weak state since it not supported by the majority of its citizens. If what is wanted is a strong Muslim Ummah in the strong state of Indonesia where Muslims become the agents who determine the course of the state, and who become the backbones of the state in the context of ethnically and religiously pluralistic Indonesia, the format of Ummah's struggle must have Islamic (peaceful and nonviolent), rational, objective, cultural, structural, and constitutional characters. With the format of struggle as mentioned above, the course of Ummah's struggle shall take structural and cultural Islamization forms. Indonesian Muslim ummah has the right to Islamize their life structurally and culturally in its positive and objective meanings since religion affects humankind individually and collectively which furthermore shall affect the public and the environment.
Cultural Islamization is carried out through various da'wa media and cultural institutions in order to strengthen the Ummah's cultural and intellectual basis to promote the Ummah's vertical mobility in various fields such as bureaucracy, economic, cultural, intellectual, social and political fields. With universal Islamic teachings of morality, a strong moral basis which furthermore shall create a healthy ideological and political system to a nation. Besides, Islamization shall be accelerated if carried out through civilization vehicles (science and technology). The cultural basis shall spread together with the material advancement of civilization. The speed of material basis distribution shall become much faster than the cultural basis since material civilization shall penetrate very deeply into humankind's pragmatic life. Cultural Islamization mentioned above also has a historic footing in the Indonesia's context like the presence of wayang, batik, and other various cultural heritage endowed by Wali Songo. It is a concrete manifestation of Islamic Syumuliyah (Comprehensiveness) of its risalah (message) that is “Rahmatan lil Alamin� (blessing for the universe). Therefore, this agenda is absolutely not meant to present cultural conflicts let alone justifications for Islamic stigma connected to Arabism and terrorism, while structural Islamization is carried out through political corridor.
Islam is indeed inseparable with politics as it is form of implementing Shura, Amar Ma'ruf Nahi Munkar, striving for justice and propagating good deeds. Politics is beneficial to close in Muslims' struggle on undergoing life, and propagating their cultures and creative solutions that they have in order that they can realize those Islamic values after doing that in the level of individual, family, societal, organizational, and state life. Either through legislating activities by making laws, government regulations, and other public policies. In this context, the option is not about an Islamic state that implements Sharia or a secular state that refuses Sharia, but what we aspire is the State of Indonesia that realizes religious teachings that present venerable and universal humanity values through constitutional and democratic struggles in order to create the civil society that we aspire.
Separating the Muslims who are the majority population in Indonesia from their involvement in the political and state lives is an impossible, absurd and even unhistorical matter and not in accordance with the basic principle of constitutional democracy itself. Therefore, it is very proper if in the early establishment of this Unified State of the Republic Of Indonesia, Bung Karno clearly allowed Indonesian Muslims to strive for their ideology and aspirations constitutionally through the parliament. And the Muslim Ummah has and will continuously strive through the political path rationally, objectively, and constitutionally in order to take part in establishing independence of the Republic of Indonesia, thwarting the PKI (the Indonesian Communist Party)revolt that would like to change the state ideology with communism, and creating The Reform Era, and so on.
In order to create the civil society as exemplified by the Prophet PBUH who positively and constructively accepted and respected the principle of plurality either due to ethnic, religion, origin, or even occupation factors to be synergized for the sake of a society that respects one another, strengthen one another, cooperate and get together defending the state's sovereignty, enforcing laws, holding high morality, presenting a dynamic society in Ukhuwwah Islamiyyah, Ukhuwwah Wathaniyyah, and Ukhuwwah Basyariyyah and to actuate them in the context of contemporary Indonesia. Therefore, structural Islamization still has to present just and wise attitudes towards non-Muslims and those with different political organizations from the Prosperous Justice Party and has to refer to constitutional, proportional, and democratic principles in order to generate results of struggle that can really realize the aspirations of the establishment of the Unified State of the Republic of Indonesia and realize the reform era. Islamic objectivity is not a disintegrative opposing force or an alternative ideology. Islam is an integrative force of the nation and state. The format of Islamic struggles is full participation in shaping a strong, just, prosperous, and dignified Indonesia. The Ummah's main struggle is making Islam an integrative force in the nation and state life.
Therefore, the Ummah's struggle is an effort to uphold Islamic universal values in the society and the Indonesian nation in order to spread rahmat (blessings) to all of the universe and to become a teacher of civilization that are carried out culturally and structurally. Objectivity of Islamic values is a transposition process of concepts or ideology from the personal-subjective domain to the public-objective domain, from the internal domain to the external domain in order to be able to be widely accepted by the public, Picture 2-11. Subjectively, every Muslim desires that Islamic Sharia should be implemented by the state. However, that in order to win that subjective desire in the public domain, it should meet certain criteria such as: harmony in terms of space and time; having rational-organic relations; complying with the rules of the game; complying with plurality and coexistence (non-discriminative) principles, and; conflict resolutions, in order that that concept or idea meets the principle of “public justice�. Virtues of Islamic universality capable of penetrating dimensions of age, generation, and life as rahmat (blessings) to the universe shall become an idea or concept easily accepted by the public. At this point, it is not a matter of debates on who rules the country or what is the form of the state, but on how to uphold Islamic universal values in this biggest Muslim country.
Thus, idea of amar ma'ruf nahyi munkar is objectively formulated not only as efforts to eradicate gambling activities, alcoholic beverages, prostitutions and encourage Muslims to mosques, to give infaq (charity) and shadaqah, to perform fasts in Ramadan, to make hajj (pilgrimage) and so on, but also as efforts to eradicate corruption and courtroom mafia, alleviate poverty and unemployment, to advocate labors, farmers and fishermen, to uphold Human Rights, to nurture democratization and develop the Ummah's economy, reduce discrimination before the law, to preserve the environment, develop science and technology, and so on. If these movements are encouraged, what shall actually happen in the field is that we generate the Ummah's energy and spirit to solve our own problems. Those approaches if summarized and associated with the form of Islam's early struggle shall be similar to the concept of the State of Madinah with its Madinah Charter. This is the basis for the pluralistic, religious society in practicing their religions and preserve them in accordance with their own beliefs considering religious plurality of the Indonesian society is an irrefutable reality. If this is the course that we expect to take on, the political Islam is going to move on the right track. A strong political Islam's movement in the democratic system shall directly reduce non-constitutional Islamic radical movements. If that thing is realized, Indonesia's political stability and security shall become more firm, the Ummah's energy shall positively be channelized, and a great synergy in this nation shall take place.
Characteristics of Developments
The Prosperous Justice Party regards that development should be based on three realistic thinking characteristics namely integral, universal, and total participation.
Firstly, it has the integral character where development programs in one sector are inseparable from development programs in other sectors. For instance, economic developments are inseparable from quality human resources developments, just and honest political developments free from deviations, just legal development, scientific and technological development based on our own power and virtuous social and cultural developments. In these insights, there are no spaces for sectorial arrogance that narrow down developments to only one sector. These things all at once require harmonious coordination among developmental sectors since the core of developments is human either as the agent, object or purpose of the development.
Secondly, the Prosperous Justice Party is convinced that success of developments depends on the Indonesian nation’s viewpoints towards various assets it owns such as its natural resources, social, political and cultural assets. Developments shall not achieve optimal results if various available capitals are deemed only enough to be exploited for one generation. Therefore, universal viewpoints which are viewpoints covering inter generations, inter territories, and inter-lives, namely hereafter life should be developed. With inter generations’ viewpoint, it means that development should be maintained in order to be sustainable to the next generation. Same things apply to inter territories’ viewpoint where a development in one territory or region in Indonesia is not recklessly conducted by ignoring its impacts on other territories and regions. With inter lives’ viewpoint, we believe that agents of development shall make all of their developmental activities as part of their religious expressions. Even, the Indonesian nations shall be recognized by the world as a nation that brings rahmat (blessings) to the entire universe due to those universal viewpoints.
Thirdly, the Prosperous Justice Party thinks that development is not only the state’s right and obligation but also the society’s ones. Therefore, empowering the society both politically and economically shall lead the people into equal position as the government’s partner, that work together to formulate common interests. Therefore, the Prosperous Justice Party sees that the society’s, the business people’s and the government’s total participations and international cooperation that is inter components and inter agents are a necessity in managing developments with integral, global and universal viewpoints toward justice and prosperity.
These three components – the government, the business people, and the society – should cooperate equally without having to try to dominate others. In that frame mentioned above, as much as possible the government should minimize its roles and should just become the facilitator and dynamicist through various important and strategic regulations.
Those principles mentioned above are carried out with clean, caring, and professional spirits and commitments as a morality form and integrity of the Prosperous Justice party. On those principles and thinking paradigms this Development Policy Platform of the Prosperous Justice Party is formulated.