Religion and the Indonesian Constitution: A recent debate

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 419-440

  Hosen, Nadirsyah ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM; ISLAMISM; RELIGION;

EID: 33644603964     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463405000238     Document Type: Article

References (103)

1. For a full account of this historical debate see M. C. Ricklefs, A history of modern Indonesia, c. 1300 to the present (London: Macmillan, 1981);
2. Endang Saefuddin Anshari, 'The Jakarta Charter of June 1945: A history of the gentleman's agreement between the Islamic and the secular nationalists in modern Indonesia' (M.A. thesis, McGill University, 1976);
3. H. Muhammad Yamin, Naskah persiapan undang-undang dasar 1945, vol. I (Jakarta: Yayasan Prapanca, 1959);
4. Adnan Buyung Nasution, The aspiration for constitutional government in Indonesia: A socio-legal study of the Indonesian konstituante 1956-1959 (Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 1992);
5. B. J. Boland, The struggle of Islam in modern Indonesia (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982);
6. and Faisal Ismail, 'Pancasila as the sole basis for all political parties and for all mass organizations: An account of Muslims' response' (Ph.D. diss., McGill University, 1995).
7. Nadirsyah Hosen, 'Constitutionalism and syari'ah', Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, 11, 1 (2004) available at http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v11n1/hosen111.html;
8. and Hosen, 'In search of Islamic constitutionalism', American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 21, 2 (2004): 1-24.
9. For instance, Muhammad Sa'id Ashmawi takes the view on the evolution of the meaning of syari'ah that the original meaning of syari'ah in the Arabic language can be traced to the meanings of 'the path' (al-thariq), 'the method' (al-manhaj) or 'the way' (al-sabil). He refers to the fact that the term syari'ah means the path of Islam consisting of three streams - worship (al-'ibadat), ethical code (al-akhlaqiyat) and social interactions (al-mu'amalat)-but not the imputed meaning of 'legal system' in an 'Islamic state'. This original meaning of syari'ah was initially applied by the first generation of Muslims; over time its meaning was expanded to include the legal rules found in the Qur'an and finally to incorporate the whole body of legal rules developed in Islamic history, including all the interpretations and opinions of the legal scholars. See Muhammad Sa'id al-Ashmawi, Al-Sya'riahal-Islamiayah wa al-Qanfn al-Mishr (al-Qahirah: Makatbah Madbuli al-Shaghir, 1996), pp. 7-21.
10. The MPR is constitutionally the highest authority of the state and is charged with meeting every five years to elect the president and vice-president and to set the broad guidelines of state policy.
11. The amount of literature on separation of church and state is staggering. For instance, see Robin Gill, 'The future of religious participation and belief in Britain and beyond', in The Blackwell companion to sociology of religion, ed. Richard K. Fenn (Oxford: Black-well Publishers, 2001), pp. 279-91
12. Darren E. Sherkat and Christopher G. Ellison, 'Recent developments and controversies in the sociology of religion', Annual Review of Sociology, 25 (1999): 363
13. Dwight B. Billings and Shaunna L. Scott, 'Religion and political legitimacy', Annual Review of Sociology, 20 (1994): 173
14. and Steve Bruce, Religion and modernization: Sociologists and historians debate the secularization thesis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).
15. Ira Lapidus, 'State and religion in Islamic societies', Past and Present, 151 (1996): 3.
16. Jose Casanova, Public religions in the modern world (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 215.
17. Mark Juergensmeyer, The new Cold War? Religious nationalism confronts the secular state (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), p. 4.
18. Casanova, Public religions in the modern world, pp. 10, 69-207.
19. It is interesting to note the choice of title of Rodney Stark's 'Secularization, R.I.P. - Rest in Peace', Sociology of Religion, 60, 3 (1999): 249-73. At the end of the article, Stark writes: 'After nearly three centuries of utterly failed prophesies and misrepresentations of both present and past, it seems time to carry the secularization doctrine to the graveyard of failed theories, and there to whisper "requiescat in pace".'
20. Peter Berger, 'Protestantism and the quest for certainty', Christian Century, 15, 23 (1998): 782. Berger also states that 'I think what I and most other sociologists of religion wrote in the 1960s about secularization was a mistake. Our underlying argument was that secularization and modernity go hand in hand. With more modernization comes more secularization. It wasn't a crazy theory. There was some evidence for it. But I think it's basically wrong. Most of the world today is certainly not secular. It's very religious.'
21. Peter Berger, 'Epistemological modesty: An interview with Peter Berger', Christian Century, 114, 30 (1997): 974
22. see also Berger, 'Secularism in retreat', The National Interest (Winter 1996/97): 3-12.
23. Casanova, Public religions in the modern world, p. 15.
24. David Hollenbach, 'Politically active churches: Some empirical prolegomena to a normative approach', in Religion and contemporary liberalism, ed. Paul J. Weithman (South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), p. 301.
25. David Hollenbach, 'Contexts of the political role of religion: Civil society and culture', San Diego Law Review, 30, 4 (1993): 878.
26. Casanova, Public religions in the modern world, p. 219.
27. Such developments in the Muslim world resemble what the German sociologist Jürgen Habermas described some years ago as the emergence of the 'public sphere' in the West; Robert W. Hefner, Civil Islam: Muslims and democratization in Indonesia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 11.
28. Saiful Mujani, 'Religious democrats: Democratic culture and Muslim political participation in post-Suharto Indonesia' (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 2004).
29. 'UUD bukan Kitab Suci' [The Constitution is not the Holy Book], Sabili, 23, 16 May 2002.
30. Documents from the Kongres Mujahidin (Yogyakarta, 5-7 August 2000) are available at http://www.geocities.com/kongresmujahidin/.
31. Tempo Interaktif, 28 February 2000.
32. Generally it can be said that there are two groups of Indonesian Muslims: The traditionalists and the modernists. The traditionalists are mainly concerned with pure religion, din or 'ibadah. Islam for them is mostly fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence); they recognise taqlid (the obligation to follow the 'ulama's opinion without reserve) and reject the validity of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). In other words, they tend to restrict the role of ijtihad in favour of, and out of deference for, the established opinions of the masters of the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The traditionalist Muslim is represented by the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), at the moment, the biggest Islamic organisation, numbering 30 million supporters. More information can be found in Nahdlatul Ulama: Traditionalist Islam and modernity in Indonesia, ed. Greg Barton and Greg Fealy (Monash: Monash University Asia Institute, 1996);
33. and Nadirsyah Hosen, 'Collective ijtihad and Nahdlatul Ulama', New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 6, 1 (2004): 5-26.
34. The modernists are concerned with the nature of Islam in general; to them Islam is compatible with the demands of time and circumstance. They recognise the Qur'an and Hadis as the basic sources of their ideas and thought. Furthermore, they maintain that 'the gate of ijtihad' is still open and they reject the idea of taqlid. Muhammadiyah is the organisation which represents modernist Muslims; it has 28 million supporters in Indonesia, and has built many schools, universities and hospitals. Moreover, it reinterprets Islam within the modern context. More information can be found in M. Sirajuddin Syamsuddin, 'Religion and politics in Islam: The case of Muhammadiyah in Indonesia's new order' (Ph.D. diss., University of California at Los Angeles, 1991)
35. and Nadirsyah Hosen, 'Revelation in a modern nation state: Muhammadiyah and Islamic legal reasoning in Indonesia', Australian Journal of Asian Law, 4, 3 (2002): 232-58.
36. Jakarta Post, 30 Dec. 2002.
37. Jakarta Post, 25 July 2002.
38. Abdurrahman Wahid also 'does not aspire to an Islamic state for Indonesia, and therefore rejects any "formalization" of religion within the state'; Mujiburrahman, 'Islam and politics in Indonesia: The political thought of Abdurrahman Wahid', Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 10, 3 (1999): 344.
39. Amien Rais reaffirmed that the Islamic state is not the appropriate model for Indonesia, given its diversity (Tempo Interaktif, 11 Jan. 1999).
40. Anies Rasyid Baswedan, 'Political Islam in Indonesia: Present and future trajectory', Asian Survey (forthcoming).
41. Kompas, 25 July 2002.
42. Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, personal communication, 10 Dec. 2003. He was a Member of Parliament (1999-2004) from PPP.
43. Mutammimul Ula, personal communication, 5 Sept. 2003; he was a Member of Parliament (1999-2004) from PK.
44. Hamdan Zoelva, personal communication, 15 Dec. 2003; he was a Member of Parliament (1999-2004) from PBB.
45. Numerous parties received votes in the election. Besides Golkar, PDI-P and PD, only parties mentioned in this article are listed. For a full account of the 2004 General Election see National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), 'Advancing democracy in Indonesia: The second democratic legislative elections since the transition', June 2004, available at http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/ 1728_id_legelections_063004.pdf
46. See the statement by Minister for Religious Affairs Alamsjah Ratuperwiranegara in Pelita, 12 June 1978.
47. 'Pendapat akhir fraksi persatuan pembangunan MPR RI', Sidang Tahunan MPR, Jakarta 15 Aug. 2000 in Risalah sidang tahunan MPR tanggal 7 sampai dengan tanggal 18 Agustus 2000, 3, 9 (Jakarta: Setjen MPR, 2000), pp. 477-9.
48. Asghar Ali Engineer, The Islamic state (New York: Advent Books, 1980), p. 199.
49. One of the leading modernist expositions of Islam international law dismisses the dar al-Islam/dar al-Harb distinction as an idea introduced by certain medieval legal thinkers in response to their own historical circumstances, but which has no basis in Islamic ethics;
50. Mohammad Talaat al-Ghunaimi, The Muslim conception of international law and the Western approach (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1968), p. 184. Further countering this classification, Taha Jabir al-Alwani points out that scholars in the past were unanimous in their view that the Earth was the land of Allah and was not divided into separate spheres;
51. Taha Jabir al Alwani, 'Globalization: Centralization not globalism', The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 15, 3 (1998): Vii.
52. al-Mawardi, Al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyah (al-Qahirah: Mustafa Babi al-Halabi wa Auladuh, 1996), p. 138.
53. For a full account see Majid Khadduri, The Islamic law of nations: Shaybani's siyar (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1966).
54. Habib Rizieq Shihab, 'Jika syariat Islam jalan, maka jadi negara Islam', Tashwirul Afkar, 12 (2002): 104. The FPI arose almost at the same time as the fall of the New Order regime and the birth of the Reformation (Reformasi) movement. It has carried out many actions of defence in the interests of Islam and its people. FPI troops in a number of cities (particularly Jakarta, Tangerang and Solo) have conducted many actions aimed at 'preventing evil' in the form of 'sweeping' (raiding) places of iniquity, prostitution, gambling, alcohol and drugs.
55. Daniel Price, Islamic political culture, democracy, and human rights: A comparative study (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999), p. 145.
56. Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Principles of Islamic jurisprudence (Cambridge: Islamic Text Society, 1991).
57. Saifuddin, personal communication.
58. Zoelva, personal communication.
59. Ibid.
60. Kenneth W. Simons, 'Equality as a comparative right', Boston University Law Review, 65, 37 (1985): 387.
61. For instance, Gregorius Seto Harianto of the PDKB (Partai Demokrasi Kasih Bangsa) faction has stated that the inclusion of Islamic law in the Constitution will discriminate against other religions; see 'Piagam Jakarta terganjal lagi', Suara Hidayatullah, Sept. 2000.
62. However, it should be noted that the final position of the PKB (Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa) is not to amend Article 29.
63. T.B. Soemandjaja, personal communication, 30 Nov. 2003; he was a Member of Parliament (1999-2004) from PK.
64. Hidayat Nur Wahid, 'Mewujudkan konstitusi yang adil dan demokratis (kasus amandemen pasal 29 ayat 1 UUD 1945)', paper available at the official website of Partai Keadilan at http://www.keadilan.or.id. I also phoned him to confirm this position (1 Dec. 2003). He was president of PK and has been elected recently as speaker of the MPR.
65. The full text of the Madinah Charter can be found at http://msanews.mynet.net/books/lessons/constitution.html
66. Ula, personal communication.
67. Saifuddin, personal communication.
68. Zoelva, personal communication.
69. The full text of the Code of Canon Law can be read at http://www.vatican.va/archive/cdc/index.htm
70. H. Patrick Glenn, Legal traditions of the world (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 251-78.
71. See Sekretariat Jenderal MPR, Risalah rapat panitia ad hoc I badan pekerja MPR RI ke-21 s.d 30 tanggal 28 Maret 2002 s.d 19 Juni 2002 (Jakarta: Setjen MPR, 2002).
72. T.B. Simatupang, 'Sebagai penutup: Sepuluh dalil', in Iman Kristen dan Pancasila (Jakarta: BPK Gunung Mulia, 1985), p. 206.
73. Eka Darmaputera, 'Aspek-aspek etis teologis hubungan gereja-negara', in Hubungan gereja dan negara dan hak asasi manusia, ed. Weinata Sairin and J. M. Pattiasina (Jakarta: BPK Gunung Mulia, 1996), pp. 19-20.
74. Eka Darmaputera, 'Prinsip-prinsip hubungan agama-negara', in Pergulatan kehadiran Kristen di Indonesia: Teks-teks terpilih Eka Darmaputera, ed. Trisno Sutanto (Jakarta: BPK Gunung Mulia, 2001), p. 367.
75. For a full account see Eka Darmaputera, Pancasila and the search for identity and modernity in Indonesian society: A cultural and ethical analysis (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988).
76. Frans Magnis Suseno, Kuasa dan moral (Jakarta: Gramedia, 2000), p. 104.
77. Ibid, pp. 110-15.
78. Th. Sumartana (et al.), Agama dan negara perspektif Islam, Katolik, Hindu, Buddha, Konghucu, Protestan (Yogyakarta: Interfidei, 2002) compiles articles from prominent scholars in Indonesia on the relationship between state and religion. In general, they support the notion that Indonesia is neither a secular nor a religious state.
79. Majid, Islamic law of nations, p. 32.
80. Mawardi, Al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyah, p. 59.
81. Karen Armstrong. 'The curse of the infidel', The Guardian, 20 June 2002.
82. See Fahmi Huwaydi, Muwatinun la zimmiyun (Cairo: Dar al-Syuruq, 1985).
83. Qur'an, 2:126.
84. Zoelva, personal communication.
85. According to Islamic jurisprudence legislation must not contradict the general spirit of syari'ah. One of the most important and fundamental principles of the law is the principle that no law should create hardship (masyaqqah) for people. See Clark Benner Lombardi, 'State law as Islamic law in modern Egypt: The amendment of Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution and the Article 2 of jurisprudence of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt' (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 2001) and Lombardi, 'Islamic law as a source of constitutional law in Egypt: The constitutionalization of the sharia in a modern Arab state', Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 37 (1998): 82.
86. and Lombardi, 'Islamic law as a source of constitutional law in Egypt: The constitutionalization of the sharia in a modern Arab state', Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 37 (1998): 82.
87. Bernard Botiveau, Al-syari'ah al-Islamiyah wa al-ganun fi al-mujtami'at al-'Arabiyah, translated from Loi islamique et droit dans les sociétés arabes (al-Qahirah: Sina li al-Nasyr, 1997), pp. 238-41.
88. Tamir Moustafa, 'Law versus the state: The judicialization of politics in Egypt', Law and Social Inquiry, 28 (2003): 833-69.
89. Lombardi, 'Islamic law as a source of constitutional law', p. 121.
90. Khaled Abou El Fadl, 'Islam and the challenge of democracy: Can individual rights and popular sovereignty take root in faith?', Boston Review, Apr./May 2003, available at http://bostonreview.net/BR28.2/ abou.html
91. Ihsan Abdul Bagby, 'Utility in classical Islamic law: The concept of mashlahah in Ushul al-Fiqh' (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1986).
92. 'Abdul Wahab Khallaf, Al-Siyasah al-Syari'yyah (al-Qahirah: Salafiyah, 1350 H), p. 5.
93. Most jurists classify mashlahah into three categories, each of which must be protected: (1) the daruriyyat (essentials), (2) the hajiyya (complements) and (3) tahsiniyyat (embellishment). Each divine ruling aims at one of these three. See Husain Hamid Hasan, Nazhariyyah al-maslahah fi al-fiqh al-Islam (al-Qahirah: Dar al-Nahdah al-'Arabiyyah, 1971).
94. One should not confuse mashalah al-'ammah with mashalah al-mursalah. The latter is one of the methods in Islamic legal theory, supported by Hanafi, Hanbali and Maliki theorists but rejected by the Syafi'i and Zahiri schools. Al-Ghazali illustrates mashalah al-mursalah with this example: 'If unbelievers shield themselves with a group of Muslim captives, to attack this shield means killing innocent Muslims - a case which is not supported by textual evidence. If the Muslim attack is withheld, the unbelievers will advance and conquer the territory of Islam. In this case it is permissible to argue that even if Muslims do not attack, the lives of the Muslim captives are not safe. The unbelievers, once they conquer the territory, will root out all Muslims. If such is the case, then it is necessary to save the whole of the Muslim community rather than to save a part of it.' Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, Al-Mustasfa min 'Ilm al-Usul, vol. I (Al-Jami'ah al-Islamiyah al-Madinah al-Munawwarah, n.d.), pp. 294-5.
95. El-Fadl, Islam and the challenge of democracy.
96. Casanova, Public religions in the modern world, p. 61.
97. Robert W. Hefner, 'Islam, state and civil Society: ICMI and the struggle for the Indonesian middle class', Indonesia, 56 (1993): 1-35.
98. Robert W. Hefner, 'Secularization and citizenship in Muslim Indonesia', in Religion, modernity, and postmodernity, ed. Paul Heelas (Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 1998), p. 148.
99. Zoelva, personal communication
100. see also 'Pendapat akhir fraksi Partai Bulan Bintang MPR', in Amandemen UUD 1945 tentang Piagam Jakarta, ed. Ramlan Mardjoned and Lukman Fatullah (Jakarta: DDII, 2000), pp. 3-26.
101. M. B. Hooker, 'The state and shari'a in Indonesia', in Shari'a and politics in modern Indonesia, ed. Arskal Salim and Azyumardi Azra (Singapore: ISEAS, 2003), p. 38.
102. I am not suggesting that Indonesia should adopt Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution (either before or after the 1980 Amendment) as a replacement for Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution. I have shown only that there is another alternative for the PPP and PBB: Instead of insisting on the use of the phrase from the Jakarta Charter, to propose the inclusion of syari'ah in the Constitution.
103. Hollenbach, 'Politically active churches', p. 301.