Islam has become an important symbol in post-Suharto Indonesia, and political figures or parties feel they cannot afford to be seen to be against the religion or be considered unfriendly to it. Islamism emerges to challenge Pancasila (or cultural pluralism) again. Islamists already challenged Pancasila soon after Indonesian independence. But during that initial era under Sukarno, this challenge was already under control. Under Suharto, Pancasila as an ideology was effectively used to govern Indonesia, and political Islam was suppressed. However, Suharto began to co-opt Islamic political leaders during the last decade of his rule. Religious Islam grew significantly during the Suharto era and would gradually transform itself into political Islam after Suharto’s fall. Nevertheless, the electoral strength of “Islamic political parties” remained relatively low. But since then, Islam has been used as an effective tool to undermine political rivals. The pluralists who are now in power continue to promote Pancasila, and combining with moderate Islamic organizations and through laws and regulations, have tried to hinder the further development of Islamist organizations. The future of Pancasila depends on whether the Indonesian government and other pluralist forces are able to control the Islamists and provide political stability and economic development in the country.

Politics in Indonesia describes the attitudes, aspirations and frustrations of the key players in Indonesian politics as they struggle to shape the future. The book focuses on the role of political Islam; Douglas E. Ramage shows that the state has been remarkably successful in maintaining secular political institutions in a predominantly Muslim society. He analyses the way in which political questions are framed with reference to the national ideology, the Pancasila.

In most Islamic societies, freedom of religion or belief is not a reality for religious minorities. Indonesia, home of the biggest Muslim population in the world, is a positive exception in this regard. The country was always a role model for the peaceful co-existence of diverse religious and cultural traditions, but in recent years, Islamic fundamentalist groups challenge the country’s tolerant and pluralistic identity. This book inquires the development of freedom of religion or belief from a political, legal and religious perspective. It analyzes the laws and mechanisms that protect the rights of minorities and traces the role of the country’s most important Islamic organizations and the influence they have on national policy-making. It finally points out possible future developments and how the government can counter the threat of militant Islamism and preserve Indonesia’s tolerant traditions.

"The main objective of this study is to analyze three major Indonesian Muslim responses to the Pancasila, the state ideology of Indonesia. The first Muslim response occurred when the Secular Nationalists proposed, shortly before Indonesia's independence in 1945 and again later in the Constituent Assembly debates (1956-1959), that the Pancasila be the basis of state. The second Muslim response to the Pancasila took place in 1978 when the New Order government proposed that the P4 (Guidelines for Understanding and Practicing the Pancasila) be legalized. The Muslims at first objected to both the proposal of the Pancasila as the foundation of the state and that of the P4, but finally acquiesced. Each stage in this process was marked by debate over the role of Islam in Indonesian society and politics, which often led to antagonism between the government and the Muslim community. When the government proposed in 1982 that the Pancasila serve as the sole basis for all political and mass organizations, the third Muslim response occurred. The Muslims' acceptance of this policy marked the end of the government's application of severe policies towards them and has resulted in the former being allowed to play an even greater role in Indonesian politics than had previously been the case." --

For decades, scholars of Indonesia have rejected the religious claims of the Darul Islam movement, interpreting the antagonism between the Islamic state and Soekarno's republic as a fight for power, self-assertion, or land rights. Recently Kartosuwiryo and the Darul Islam have become heroic symbols of the local Islamist struggle, offering an alternative vision of this politician. The author looks beyond this dichotomy between rebel and martyr to unveil a 'third' dimension of Kartosuwiryo"a politician whose legacy has been shaping the role of Islam in Indonesian politics for over fifty years. In a blend of archival sources, printed material, and oral accounts, the author follows the career and ideology of Kartosuwiryo, nationalist leader of the Sarekat Islam party and later Imam of the Islamic State of Indonesia. Following the trajectory of a political activism that was consistently dedicated to the formation of an independent Indonesian state, the chapters delineate the gradual radicalization of the Islamic party and of Kartosuwiryo's own ideals from the 1920s until the 1950s. Focusing on the dialectic between the religious and secular anti-colonial movements, this book explores the failure of political Islam in the mid-1950s; the consolidation of the Pancasila state under Soekarno's and Suharto's regimes; the latter's attempt to co-opt what was left of the Darul Islam in the 1970s; and the re-emergence of political Islam and Kartosuwiryo's memory in the post-1998 era. A testament to the relevance of historical enquiry in understanding contemporary politics, Islam and the making of the nation guides the reader through the contingencies of the past that have led to the transformation of a nationalist leader into a 'separatist rebel' and a 'martyr', while at the same time shaping the public perception of political Islam and strengthening the position of the Pancasila in contemporary Indonesia. Chiara Formichi (1982) has a PhD from the Department of History of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2009, and she is Assistant Professor in Asian and International Studies at City University of Hong Kong. This monograph was drafted during a post-doctoral fellowship at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Her interests include the political history of Indonesia, Islam in Southeast Asia, transnational Islamic movements, and inter-Asian intellectual flows. In addition to several articles, her publications include Beyond Shi'ism: Alid piety in Muslim Southeast Asia (London: I.B. Tauris, 2013), Formichi and Feener eds.

The fall of President Soeharto in May 1998 and the introduction of multi-party democracy by President BJ Habibie have unleashed religious parties (both Islamic and Christian) in Indonesian politics. This study shows that the Islamist agenda of the Islamist parties is overshadowed by their political pragmatism. This book is a must-read account on the rise and failure of the Islamist struggle in Indonesia's emerging democracy. Platzdasch's work is without a doubt a significant and timely contribution to a better understanding of Islamic politics in contemporary Indonesia. - Professor Azyumardi Azra, Professor of History & Director, Graduate School, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Most scholarly works conducted within the period of post-New Order Indonesia have underlined the fact that Indonesian Islamists reject the notion of democracy; no adequate explanation nonetheless has been attempted thus far as to how and to what extent democracy is being rejected. This book is dedicated to filling the gap by examining the complex reality behind the Islamists' rejection of democracy. It focuses its analysis on two streams of Islamism: the two Islamist groups that seek "extra-parliamentary" means to achieve their goals, that is, MMI and HTI, and the PKS Islamists who choose the existing political party system as a means of their power struggle. As this book has demonstrated, there are times when the two streams of Islamism share a common platform of understanding and interpretation as well as an intersection where they are in conflict with one another. The interplay between contested meanings over particular theological matters on normative grounds and power contests among the Islamists proves to be critical in shaping this complexity.