Saidiman Ahmad, Jakarta | Fri, 08/10/2012 8:17 AM | Opiniony
The Jakarta Post
What happened in Jakarta after the “king of dangdut”, Rhoma Irama, delivered a sermon that mentioned the religious beliefs of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Joko Widodo? Nothing. It is just business as usual as religious sentiment no longer has an influence in politics.
Almost no one had predicted that incumbent governor Fauzi “Foke” Bowo and his running mate Nachrowi Ramli would be defeated by the Widodo-Basuki pairing in the first leg of the Jakarta election last month.
Apart from the advantage of being the incumbent, Foke is known to have a special relationship with prominent Islamic-based organizations. Foke himself formerly chaired the Jakarta chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim group.
Other candidates nominated by Islamic-based parties, Hidayat Nur Wahid-Didik J. Rachbini, managed only to finish third and therefore do not qualify for the runoff.
The result is not a new phenomenon in Indonesian politics. The pairing of Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto only got 12 percent of the vote in the 2009 presidential election although many key figures from the two biggest Muslim organizations, NU and Muhammadiyah, threw their weight behind them.
Many experts and politicians are convinced that religion plays a big role in politics. Some of them argue that the political system of democracy, having emerged in a particular culture, cannot be duplicated by other cultures.
Democracy is exclusively related to individualism and that is believed to be a unique feature of Western society. That is why democracy is incompatible with Muslim societies.
Islam is believed to be a self-sufficient religion that covers all aspects of Muslim life (Bernard Lewis: 2002).
For this reason Muslim societies, according to this argument, have great difficulties going beyond Islamic jurisdiction. Al-din (religion) and al-daulah (state) are two sides of one coin; there is no separation between them.