Page 45 - AEI Insights 2019 - Vol. 5, Issue 1

Arnakim, 2019

discourse are Nurcholish Madjid with his theme “Desacralisation”; Abdurrahman Wahid with
his own language of nationalisation (pribumisasi) or Islam as the complementing factor;
Dawam Rahajo with his expertise on ‘village society’ development through the Islamic
boarding schools (pesantren); and Munawir Sjadzali with his call on looking at Islam from the
Indonesian context (Effendy, 2000). Nurcholish Madjid, Harun Nasution, Djohan Effendy,
Ahmad Wahib, Munawir Sjadzali gave theological foundations on the new “cultural” Islam.
Their colleagues, Dawam Rahardjo, Abdurrahman Wahid, and Adi Sasono on the other hand,
contributed to the sociological foundations for those involved in politics (Ali & Effendy, 1986).

With the emergence of cultural Islam, the Suharto government implemented two inter-linked
approaches: Firstly, supporting the religious institution and encouraging the Muslims
community to think of political participation in terms of developing programs rather than
religious affiliation (Watson, 1994). As such, the development of religious institutions through
the Ministry of Religion was taken care of by the New Order government. Under the Old Order
government, this ministry was accused of lacking professionals (Noer, 1978). Under the New
Order, greater emphasis was given to modern professional skills and accordingly reorganised.
The ministry has been entrusted to manage the administration and management of hajj (Noer,
1978).

In terms of social programs, the New Order government implemented what became known as
the ‘neo-association’ policy, almost in the same way that Snouck Hurgrounje designed the
association policy during the colonial era (Watson, 1994). If Snouck Hurgrounje had advised
the Dutch governor to establish an education system that gradually integrated the culture of the
Indonesian people with the Western, especially Dutch, culture, Suharto in his early leadership
adopted the policy of seeking to turn people away from the emphasis on Islamic ideology and
urged them to contribute to national development by joining the development programmes of
the New Order government (Suminto, 1985).
The government subsidised many religious institutions such as mosques and Islamic schools
from the primary and higher learning institutions such as the National Islamic Religious
Institution (IAIN- Institut Agama Islam Negeri). Some of the institutes have been transformed
into the National Islamic University (UIN- Universitas Islam Negeri). This policy was
manipulated and propagated in every electorate campaign, whereby the Golkar tried to
persuade Muslims to vote based on the government’s performance rather than religious
sentiments (Suminto, 1985). Secondly, a new strategy of employing political rhetoric to gain
people’s support for the New Order government was put in place to assimilate all Indonesians
under Suharto’s leadership, whereby Suharto himself was known as ‘father of development’
(Suminto, 1985, p. 180). If the Old Order government used revolution as part of its political
rhetoric, the New Order government used development.
As such, Indonesia in the late 1970s saw a rejuvenation of Islam among Indonesian just as it
occurred elsewhere in the Muslim world. Islam gradually became a popular source of
Indonesian social, ethical and spiritual life. As a result, many Indonesian Muslims, as
highlighted by William Liddle (1999, p. 174), looked for a new understanding of their religion
that gave them a more realistic set of guidelines, a real code of ethics for private and family
life, and for dealing with the outside world.
Robert W. Hefner (1997a, p. 5) observes that in the 1970s, Indonesia witnessed the
proliferation of mosques, religious schools, and devotional programs, the emergence of a vast
market of Islamic books, magazines, and newspapers has developed, and a well- educated
Muslim middle class that had begun to raise questions about modern issues, including the role
and rights of women, the challenges of pluralism, the merits of market economies, and more
generally, the proper relationship of religion to the state. To Hefner (1997a), Islam in Indonesia

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