Islam takes back seat as Indonesians vote

Girish Sawlani

Last Updated: Wed, 8 Jul 2009 12:36:00 +1000

Religious issues hardly featured in the campaign for this week's Indonesian presidential election - despite the efforts of some rivals to make an issue out of whether candidates' wives wore Islamic headscarves.

The nation's founding father, Sukarno, promoted the five principals of Pancasila - the national philosophy - including a belief in a one and only God.

But there were no specific references to Islam, and consequently Indonesia did not become an Islamic state.

But Islamic parties have always had a significant share of votes in elections.

Decline

In 2004, they won 38 percent of votes. But this April's legislative elections saw a sharp decline in the popularity of Islamic parties, which won just 24 percent.

Political commentator Dr Anies Baswedan, who is president of Jakarta-based Paramadina University, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program that Muslim Indonesian voters have become increasingly disillusioned by the failure of Islamic parties to convert religious principles into policies that benefit society.

"They have not been able to explain clearly to the audience how would they translate this into reality - Islamic principles into policies."

In the past, he says, it was enough for a party to say they were Islamic - but now they had failed to note the new trend.

Exploited

The decline in political support for Islamic parties does not mean the religion's influence in the political process is diminishing.

Over the past month, religious issues were exploited to try to win over Muslim voters.

The Islamc Prosperous Justice Party claimed that conservative Indonesians would be reluctant to vote for the incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, because the wife of his running mate, Boediono, rarely wore a traditional headscarf.

But Dr Baswedan says: "Voters are not interested in unimportant issues, with regard to the agenda for the nation."

Ironically, it is the advancement of democracy that has allowed radical groups to beef up their campaign for adopting Islamic sharia law in Indonesia.

But Syafi'i Maarif, former head of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Islamic organisation, says such efforts by radical groups are likely to fail, as long as governments are effective.

"It's just a big dream, that won't happen," he says.

"I think they have no future, unless this nation fails to combat corruption."