Gains by radical parties around the globe highlight democracy’s ongoing vulnerability to anti-democratic movements. Indonesia – with its free press, stable economy, free elections, tolerant and inclusive policy – is no exception. But in local Indonesian politics, the radical Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has made dramatic gains, with extremists pressing for dress codes, Koran reading tests, laws based on sharia and other religious standards. “The PKS has taken just 10 years to transform itself from a bit player to a major force in national politics,” explains author Sadanand Dhume. Politics driven by fear, disunity among moderates due to policy differences or personal ambitions, along with governments that succumb to corruption and fail to provide basic services can boost extremist parties. Dhume warns that extremism eventually leads to a downward cycle, stifling scientific inquiry, open debate on policies and economic investment. He concludes that a moderate path requires vigilant respect for multiculturalism, tolerance and individual rights. – YaleGlobal
YALE GLOBAL ONLINE: Democracy remains highly vulnerable to determined anti-democratic movements
WASHINGTON: Against the backdrop of carnage at Islamabad’s Marriott hotel, terrorist attacks on the US embassy in San’a and the Indian embassy in Kabul, and the resurgence of Al Qaeda in Algeria, few places in the Muslim world appear as placid as Indonesia. It’s been three years since the country’s last major terrorist bombing; Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, is on the run. Democracy has blossomed: Parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2009 will be the third consecutive free ballot since the end of General Suharto’s 32-year reign in 1998. Both the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and the principal opposition leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, reflect the principles of tolerance and inclusiveness bequeathed to the country by its founding fathers at independence. The Indonesian press is Southeast Asia’s freest, its cinema the region’s most vibrant.
Beneath the surface, though, Indonesian society is in ferment. Earlier this year, clerical diktats and repeated mob violence forced the government to effectively ban the Ahmadiyya, a beleaguered Islamic sect considered “heretical” by some Muslims for revering its founder alongside the prophet Mohammed. In June, in an incident rich with irony, members of the vigilante group Islamic Defenders Front, wielding bamboo staves, attacked peaceful demonstrators rallying for religious freedom at the National Monument, an iconic symbol of Indonesian unity. Dozens of district governments have enacted sharia-inspired regulations including mandatory dress codes, compulsory Koran reading tests for students and couples seeking to marry, and vice squads loosely modeled on those in Saudi Arabia and Taliban-era Afghanistan. In September, protesters from the Hindu island of Bali took to the streets to force parliament to postpone passage of a so-called anti-pornography bill whose broadly worded restrictions on clothing and artistic expression could potentially penalize Balinese culture and jeopardize its tourism-dependent economy. Bali contributes the lion’s share of Indonesia’s tourism earnings, estimated at $5.3 billion in 2007. Islamic Challenge to Indonesia’s Democracy >>> Sadanand Dhume | October 15, 2008
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