Introduction
For over a decade, religion continues to be integral to Indonesians. Since 2008, at least 90% of Indonesian respondents believed that religion is “very important” in their lives. In 2020, 98% of Indonesian respondents believed this to be true with the remaining 2% believing that this is “somewhat” true. This, thus, ranks Indonesia as one of the most religious countries in the world.
“Supply” from the Indonesian Government
There are two takeaways from this trend. The first is the state’s continued success in the religionization of public affairs. Here “religionization” is defined as the process of framing public issues such as government regulations as religious issues. Religionization is not a new phenomenon for Indonesia. This can be seen from its formulation of the Pancasila, the state ideology. Recently, 96% of Indonesian respondents stated that “belief in God is necessary in order to be moral and have good values.” This is aligned with the first principle of Pancasila, namely “the belief in the one true God”, which was ostensibly aimed at cultivating good citizens.
It can be argued that religionization intensified during Era Reformasi (Reformation Era). Unlike the Soeharto’s authoritarian New Order which was generally secular, the government administrations of the Reformation Era were accommodative towards religious symbolism. Building such an atmosphere was the numerous years of Soeharto’s suppression of political Islam while only co-opting Islamic political leaders in the last decade of his rule. Additionally, during the Reformation Era, political elites regarded religion as a mobilizer for their political careers. Religion would award them public support at all levels of society.
Keeping to this, Wahid Foundation’s One Decade Report on the Monitoring of Freedom of Religion and Beliefs found that religious events such as mass recitation of the Quran were one of the most organized by the two government administrations in the past decade. These were during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s and Joko Widodo’s second and first term in office, respectively. Additionally, during Joko Widodo’s term, there was a new phenomenon of announcing religious instructions for civil servants in several regions. In 2018, a total of 13 instructions were uncovered. These instructions included requiring civil servants to pray together once the call to prayer has been delivered. Such instructions may be a new support-seeking tactic in preparation for the 2019 legislative and 2020 gubernatorial elections. Unfortunately, one drawback of mixing religion with public affairs is the prevalence of discrimination. During the two terms (2009 – 2018), 88 discriminative regulations at the provincial, district and city levels were uncovered.
“Demand” by Society
Secondly, in addition to this “supply” from the government, it is important to consider how the demand by society contributes to this phenomenon. Indicators for this demand is evident from the increasing popularity of Islamic clothing, Muslim-only residential complexes and Syariah-compliant banks.
Driving this demand is the middle-income group whom a majority does not possess religious education backgrounds. Instead, they minimally graduated from public high schools. Insecurity and anxiety have been cited for this increase in religious identity. These sentiments may be due to diverse factors including economic-social insecurity and the politization of numerous issues such as intolerance and inequality. Interestingly, it was shown that there is a negative correlation between a country’s religiosity and GDP. Countries with lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita are more likely to tie belief in God to morality as seen with Indonesia. In these situations, religion becomes an important institution to allay these sentiments.
One concern, however, is the demand’s potential to drive the growth of conservative and hardline groups in Indonesia. The mobilization of conservative and hardline Muslims in Indonesia has been gaining traction since 2016. An explanation for this is that conservative and hardline groups have become more coordinated in simultaneously mobilizing their members and affiliates. Having a higher turnout while organizing such demonstrations to be held after Friday prayers, further empowers sympathizers to participate. This led to large-scale demonstrations as seen since 2016. Additionally, by calling themselves Alumni 212, not only does it serve to create a common shared memory for participants, it also enables the growth of such movement under a single banner. Such growth is further assisted as no formal memberships are required. In other words, any like-minded individuals will be accepted.
Rising Tide of Intolerance in Indonesia
Taken together, moderate Islam is at risk of weakening its position in Indonesia, and thus signalling a rising tide of intolerance. There is preliminary evidence that found higher level of self-declared religiosity to be negatively correlated with a tolerant attitude in Indonesia. Additionally, the same study found that a higher income inequality and extent of poverty are associated with higher level of religious intolerance.
Curbing this rising intolerance, however, cannot be achieved simply by allaying the insecurity and anxiety of Indonesians such as the provision of economic assistance. It should also be through eradicating state-perpetrated discrimination. Allowing and even encouraging discriminative actions by the state provides fodder for intolerance. And there have been studies that indicates how an individual’s behaviour may be an outcome of state policies and society’s corresponding response towards them. By taking a tougher stance on intolerance, it may aid in removing the legitimacy of hardline groups. However, the decentralization of power in Indonesia may prevent this from cascading to the local levels where the influence of Islamic leaders on politicians are still strong.
Despite this emerging trend, the worry that Indonesia may develop into an Islamic state with the imposition of Syariah laws maybe baseless. Though seen in Aceh, it has yet to become a source of inspiration for other localities. Even in Aceh, despite reports of public flogging for unacceptable behaviours, they have not implemented new religious regulations since 2007 while most of the current regulations are centred on the use of Islamic clothing.
