This book examines the failure of Islamic politics in becoming a hegemonic force in Indonesia and the far-reaching consequences for current practices of democracy and of Islam itself. In contrast to the thesis of compatibility between Islam and democracy following the dominant discourse of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and neoliberal democracy, this study situates Islamic politics in broader social settings by examining its nature and trajectories throughout Indonesia’s modern political history. The book thus investigates how the practices of Islamic politics, or Islamism, have shaped and been transformed through political contestations and the formation of coalitions of multiple forces in constructing Indonesia’s socio-political landscape.
Using the concept of hegemony from poststructuralist discourse theory, the analytical framework applied in this book goes beyond liberal epistemologies of Islamism that prescribe the separation of religion from politics and treat Islamism as an object of intervention. Instead, the book is premised on the contention that Indonesia is a political construction, in which Islam has become one of the major discourses that have defined and transformed Indonesia’s nation-state throughout history. In this view, it is argued that the nature and dynamics of Islamism are not driven primarily by different interpretations of religious doctrines, cultural norms or by the imperative of institutions. Rather, the struggles of different Islamist projects in their quest for hegemony are contingent on the outcomes of socio-political changes and contestations that involve multiple political forces, both within and beyond the Islamists, in specific historical conjunctures.
Author(s): Luqman Nul Hakim
Series: Contestations in Contemporary Southeast Asia
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 298
City: Singapore
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Islamism in Indonesia: Setting the Stage
Islamism and the Epistemological Critique
Islamism as Ideology
Islamism as Culture
Islam and Institutionalism
New Departures: From Political-Economic Conditions to Hegemonic Struggles
Political Economy of Islamism
Islamism as Discourse
Outline of the Book
Bibliography
2 Islamism and the Politics of Hegemony
The Ontology of the Social: Hegemony and Social Transformation
Contentious Issues
Politics of Hegemony and the Studies of Islamism
Gramsci’s Breakthrough
Dislocation, Islamism, Hegemony: Towards a New Framework
Discourse as Conceptual Category
Linking Discursive Formation to Structural Conditions
Conclusion
Bibliography
3 Islamism and the Making of Indonesia
Dislocations and Anti-Colonial Discourses: Islamism, Communism, Nationalism
Islamism and Anti-Colonial Outlooks
The Rise and Fall of Islamist Hegemony: Sarekat Islam and Its Adversaries
Pancasila as a Foundation: Islamic Nationalism Versus Secular Nationalism
Islamism and the Postcolonial Nation-State Formation
Pancasila Versus Islam: Islamism and Parliamentary Politics, 1949–1957
Politicising Identities, Coopting Representation: Islamism and the Guided Democracy, 1957–1965
Conclusion
Bibliography
4 New Order and the Politicisation of Islam
Islamism and the New Order Formation
Anti-communism and the Regime Change
Islam in the New Order Discourse: Strategies of Exclusion and Accommodation
In Search of a Political Format: Pancasila Democracy and Developmentalism
Disciplining Islamism and New Order Developmentalism: The Consolidation Period
Universalising Pancasila Democracy: A Master Signifier
Islamic Developmentalist Subjects
Islamism and the New Order’s Hegemonic Crisis: The Negotiation Period
Pancasila as the Sole Ideology: Three Forms of Islamism
Islamism in the ‘Political Openness’: Towards the New Order’s Hegemonic Crisis
Political Unravelling and Soeharto’s Fall
Conclusion
Bibliography
5 Islamism and Its Hegemonic Failure in Democratising Indonesia
Political Liberalisation and Fragmented Islamism
The Islamists and Political Representation
Conflicts and Consensus: Caught Between Reform and Status Quo
Decentralised Development: Islamism and Localisation of Power
Islamism and Decentralisation
Islamising Local Politics: A Symptom of the Islamists’ Hegemonic Failure
Islamism and Multiculturalism in an Age of Terror
GWOT and Securitisation of Islamism
Multiculturalism and Politicisation of Difference
Conclusion
Bibliography
6 Neoliberal Hegemony and the Populist Moments: Whither Islamism?
Democratisation Without Hegemonic Forces
Post-Democracy and the Disappearance of the Political
The Making of the Electoral Ummah
Islamism and the Populist Moments: Representation and the Politics of Inequalities
Islamism and the Politics of Populism
Aksi Bela Islam and the Ahok Saga: Competing Forms of the Electoral Ummah
Politicising Identity, Depoliticising Citizenship: Islamism and Democratic Challenges
Dealing with the Islamists: Politicisation of Identities and Its Contradictions
Anti-Democratic Turn and the Impasse of Islamism
Conclusion
Bibliography
7 Conclusion
Beyond Liberal Epistemology of Islamism
Islamism and Indonesia’s Nation-State: Three Discursive Formations
Implications
Bibliography
Glossaries
Index
