[Indonesia, like other predominantly Islamic countries in the Asia Pacific region, has felt the impact of the September 11 attacks on the US. The effects have at times threatened to destabilise the balance between President Megawati Sukarnoputri's secular rule and the demands of a devout Muslim population. She's refusing to round up and arrest Islamic extremists accused of having links with the Al-Qaeda network, despite calls from the international community. But at the same time she's forging closer co-operation with the US and neighbouring countries to prevent terrorists making Indonesia a safe haven.]
Transcript:
Fitzgerald: The Islamic call to prayer dominates the evening and mornings of almost every Indonesian town and village. Indian and Arab traders took Islam to Indonesia as early as the 13th century and it's now the stated religion of more than 185 million Indonesians, almost 90 percent of the population.
Islamic groups have always wielded political clout, in the fight against Dutch colonialists and, after independence, the Darul Islam movement continued a violent campaign for an Islamic state.
Former President Suharto saw Islam as a political threat and used divide and rule and persecution to keep it from becoming a strong political force.
Islamic leader Azyumardi Azra, who heads the State Islamic University in Jakarta, says the Suharto regime even set up Islamic militias to discredit Islam.
Azra: There was persecution. We had cases like the Tanjung Priok massacre, also the Lambung massacres. In addition to these cases there was also radical Muslim movements that were created, radical groups that were created by the regime – by the Suharto regime – especially by General Ali Murtopo in order to discredit Islam. For instance, Ali Murtopo evacuated ex-members of the Darul Islam movement in the late 50's and then he used them to form a group called Jihad Komando in the late 70's or early 80's. While the fact that this Jihad Komando was created was engineered by generals within the Suharto government in order to discredit Islam.
Fitzgerald: The fall of Suharto four years ago has allowed Islamic groups to organise more freely.
Many Islamic based political parties have emerged and, in a development which has created disquiet in some quarters, extremist groups are now active and highly visible.
The radical Islam Defenders Front celebrated their fourth anniversary outside the annual parliamentary session. Dressed in white paramilitary uniforms, some wearing traditional Islamic swords, they pledge allegiance to Palestinian resistance groups like Hamas. The front's warriors have been involved in attacks on nightclubs and gambling dens in Jakarta and have mounted sweeps on hotels in central Java attempting to flush out western tourists.
Then there's the radical Laskar Jihad army, whose armed members have stirred up conflicts in the Christian dominated Maluku Islands and in Papua.
Their leader, Jaffar Umar Thalib, is being prosecuted for allegedly fomenting religious violence in Ambon. But he claimed at a press conference at the East Jakarta Court that he's just been defending Muslims against Christian "aggression".
The Mujahadeen Council of Indonesia is another bastion of hardline Islamic politics in Indonesia. This powerful and conservative body is led by Abu Bakar Bashir, an Islamic cleric who the US, Singapore and Malaysia want arrested because of his alleged links to the Al-Qaeda network.
He presides over a traditional Islamic boarding school in central Java, and is full of praise for Osama bin Laden. He says the US war on terror is a Jewish and American conspiracy to destroy Islam.
Ba'asyir: I hate the American government but not the American people because they are being manipulated by Jews to fight against Islam. It is the duty of Muslims to hate America because they are launching an anti-Muslim crusade right now. This has been announced by President Bush himself. So, as long as the American government cooperates with Jews to fight us it is necessary on all Muslims to hate America, to fight back. But I stress I hate the American government not the American people. I know there are good Americans, but there is nothing good to say about the American government because they harbour evil designs against Islam.
Fitzgerald: And he's also highly critical of the secular role of President Megawati.
Ba'asyir: I very much hate the attitude of Megawati's government because it is a secular government. The secular category includes Jews and non-believers. The President is closer to Jews and non-believers than she is to Islam. Although she is outwardly a Muslim, she is stupid and does not understand Islam properly. So Megawati's attitude and her acceptance of anti-terrorism aid from the United States is a great disaster for Muslims.
Fitzgerald: Azyumardi Azra says political and economic factors, since the removal of Suharto, have also played a big part in the growth of extremists.
Azra: There are a lot of causes of the rise of these kinds of groups. First I think there's politics – social and of course interpretation of Islam. Understanding of Koranic verses and also the prophetic tradition in a very literal way. Socially speaking, after the fall of Suharto, Indonesian society has a kind of social disintegration. There was breakdown of law and order also, and then a loss of authority on the part of the government, the central government. And the government cannot enforce law and order, so there is some kind of vacuum in the enforcement of law and order. This creates a chance for these groups to take the law into their own hands for some reasons like Laskar Jihad, or FPI for instance argue that because the government and the police have failed to stop the spread of narcotics or something like that and then they take the law into their own hands.
Fitzgerald: Do you rule out the potential or the possibility of links with international terrorist groups as also another source of these extremist groups or perhaps fuelling their activities?
Azra: I think most of these groups, if not all, are home grown radicals. Of course there is a possibility that they have a connection with groups in Southeast Asia. We know that some of the leaders used to live in Malaysia when they escaped from law during the Suharto period.
But I'm not sure whether they have a connection with bin Laden. We have to take into consideration there is a strong tendency in this group to claim, to assert that they have some kind of links with Afghanistan or with Taliban while their argument, their assertion tends to be very weak.
Fitzgerald: As happened in the Suharto era, there are signs that elements of the military are again attempting to use Islam for their own political purposes. Retired military generals once loyal to former President Suharto are allegedly providing funding to some of the militant groups, paying them to create civil disturbances. It's alleged the Islamic militias are being used in some cases to cover up military protection rackets and that military elements are using them to justify a strong security force precence across Indonesia. Azyumardi Azra says Indonesia's current economic crisis, has created high unemployment meaning there is never a shortage of hands for hire when powerful people decide they want to create civil disturbances.
Azra: Indonesian government, together with the US, has to take a positive action in order to address the Indonesian economic problem because some of the groups in fact are unemployed people and they get paid from any side who can use them.
Fitzgerald: The extremist groups are mounting a campaign for Indonesia to become an Islamic state. They want traditional Sharia law to be imposed on all Indonesian Muslims through an amendment to Article 29 of Indonesia's constitution.
The issue came to a head at a recent parliamentary session when several smaller Islamic parties like the United Development Party of Vice President Hamzar Haz and the Crescent and Star Party, called for the introduction of Sharia law. Thousands of Islamic protestors, flooded the streets of Jakarta to support the proposal, among them was Zahara Hanifah, of Hisbul Tahir organisation.
Hanifah: So many Muslims only recognise Islam as a ritual religion. They don't really know Islamic law. They don't know the Islamic law of governance, politics and economics, they don't know in-depth about Islamic law for regulating daily life. We are protesting for Islamic law to be implemented in Indonesia not just for Muslims but for all religions. It's not a law that oppresses women that is just a Western perception, pushed in Western dominated media. They don't understand Islam, and insult us.
Fitzgerald: Despite the growth of radical Islam in Indonesia, moderate Muslims have much more power and popular support.
The push to adopt Sharia law for example attracted very few followers in the National Assembly during the recent constitutional debate, with only 15 percent of members favouring its introduction.
A.M. Fatwa, is the deputy leader of the moderate Islamic-based National Mandate Party. He was jailed by former president Suharto for his Islamic views, but says he can't support the Sharia law proposal.
Fatwa: The second alternative whereby Muslims should live according to the teachings of Islam is an initiative by two other Islamic parties – that is the PPP and the Crescent and Star Party. What they did was that this had been discussed in the past and it was being raised again now as an emotional issue. I think with regards to the majority of Muslims in Indonesia, therefore that was raised again just to convince those Muslims that Islamic parties are actually trying to do, to channel their aspirations. Whereas my party tries to look at the whole thing in its totality that Indonesia is a multi-religious society and therefore why limit it only to Muslims having to live according to their beliefs - why not all other adherence to all other religions being required to live according to their beliefs.
Fitzgerald: Former President Abdurrahman Wahid, of the Islamic based National Awakening Party, is another leading Muslim figure who opposes the imposition of Sharia law. He says the idea is being used by some politicians to lure Indonesian voters.
He claims President Megawati is too scared to reign in the Islamic extremists because she needs the smaller Islamic parties to maintain her parliamentary majority. He says she is cowtowing to Vice President Hamzar Haz, for example, who partly draws support from amongst the extremists.
Wahid: First of all you know, is that this is contradictory to the preamble of the constitution. The pre-amble puts people on the same status, the same footing, equality for all citizens. But by adopting the Jakarta Charter that gives the Muslims advantage over the others – the others will be second class – the other citizens. So we have to avoid that – we have taken the decision to abrogate the Jakarta Charter from the pre-amble of the constitution. Why do they demand that kind of amendment? I think it's because they think Islam is a saleable commodity. And several diehards of the PPP party insist on changing the constitution – the rest are, they are afraid of the fanatics. Yes, including Hamzar Haz – he is afraid of those people.
Fitzgerald: What would you like to see the government doing to prevent the development of any form of extremism in Islam?
Wahid: Well, it has to crack down.
Fitzgerald: In what ways?
Wahid: By detaining, detaining them and preventing them from doing things. You know that, according to our law, people cannot carry guns. Firearms. Also people cannot carry swords and traditional weapons. And then also, especially bombs, homemade bombs. Now they are used, built by those people.
Fitzgerald: Are you referring to people like the Laskar Jihad?
Wahid: Yes. But the government is afraid of them, because they need them. Like, Megawati needs Hamzah Haz.
Fitzgerald: Indonesia's two largest Islamic groups Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah have been crucial in maintaining the country's relatively tolerant form of Islam. Both groups want Indonesia run as a secular, not a religious state.
But, as Azyumardi Azra says, they have been too politically divided to ever mount a successful and united challenge to the secular parties.
Azra: Muslims are very fragmented. At least there were two big groups of Islam in Indonesia. The first one is the modernists, represented by the Muhammadiyah and also by Masumi Party in the 1950s. The second group is the traditionalists, represented by the Nahdlatul Ulama. These two wings of Indonesian Islam rarely come to agreement amongst themselves, not only on religious matters but also in political matters.
Fitzgerald: Despite their differences, Indonesian Muslims share great common ground.
Across all the factions, there are strong feelings that President Megawati should be aligning herself more with Muslim causes, like the creation of a Palestinian state, rather than the US war on terror.
Fajar Yusef of KAMMI, the influential Student Action Group for Indonesian Muslims.
Yusef: We would like to promote Islam in general. But what we mean by Islam is Islam that has been practiced by those who are pious in practicing it, the way of the Prophet of Mohamad. But the fact that in the last year, especially when we would like to look at foreign relations, people perceive Islam as the religion of terrorists. Islam is close to terrorists, terrorists are close to Islam. Islam is close to violence and that kind of thing. The fact, those kinds of opinions are of course incorrect because if you look at the figure of those who practice Islam, inherently they did not resolve into the matter of violence at first. They are far from negative things and negative minds. They keep their heart pure by adhering themselves to God. So the problem of Islam nowadays is of course pretty much being affected by how the media judge and perceive Islam. If for example the news about Israel, how Israel attacks civilians in the Palestine is not being blown up by the foreign media. But when the Palestinians make suicide bombs on Israel, it will surely be blown up by the media.
Fitzgerald: Is that a big issue for your student group, what's happening in Palestine?
Yusef: Definitely because one of the key points of Islam is actually solidarity in a broad sense. We regard Muslims wherever they are as brothers and sisters, and we mostly teach respect for human rights. So all Palestine is of course one of the major issues of KAMMI, Palestine is definately.
Fitzgerald: President Megawati's proposal to push through an anti- terrorism bill is also arousing mixed views. Mohamad A.S. Hikam, the chair of Mr Wahid's National Awakening Party, believes the bill could be used to stifle opposition groups or regional separatist groups like in Aceh and Papua.
Hikam: The idea of cracking down on terrorism is understandable because we face that also, not only on the global scale but also in Indonesia.
You see some bombings and bombing threats and so on and so forth. But some Islamic circle like those FPI you know and then the Laskar Jihad and things like that, maybe even PPP, the Hamzah Haz party, is very, very critical that we are somehow being dictated by the United States and that we are cow-towing with Zionism and this kind of very common accusation whenever the so-called the West coming through branding someone or some people or some group as a terrorist.
Fitzgerald: Mohammed Hikam says the government should be trying to peacefully resolve Indonesia's economic crisis and regional conflicts rather than making war on terrorists.
Hikam: On the one hand we need this kind of measure that will be able to prevent this kind of situation. But in this situation that probably will be easily manipulated by some anti-democratic force and that's why at least we have to be very careful in accepting that. But then the mood in the society, especially from civil society is not in favour of this kind of measure because we still see that there is other measures that probably can be applied in order to prevent this kind of terrorism. I think in retrospect I think the problem of Indonesian terrorism is rather different from other countries; you know we are opening up to this kind of situation because of the (economic) crisis actually. Because most of the Islamic population in Indonesia are moderates and they are against this kind of violence, and violence came out because of the crisis and because of the political play coming from the elites and then widespread to the region. For example in Malukus and Aceh and so on.
Fitzgerald: Once again though the moderate view is likely to prevail on the anti-terrorism bill. Amin Rais, a former leader of Muhammadiyah, now heads Indonesia's largest Islamic party, the National Mandate Party. He says he has no fears about such a measure.
Rais: Yes I believe that there is no reason whatsoever to worry about the future of my party because my party is an open party. It is true that the majority of the constituents are Muslims but we have many non-Muslim leaders in our party, so this is a strong group. We are trying to do our utmost to maintain pluralism in society in Indonesia because we believe we can manage pluralism in Indonesia, that pluralism could become a strength. But if we fail to manage pluralism in society, the pluralism itself could become a liability. So it depends on us you know. But regarding terrorism, we are totally committed to combat terrorism once and for all. So there is no reason whatsoever to question the necessity of having a bill on terrorism, so we are fully committed and my faction in the parliament is totally committed to endorse the bill on terrorism.
Fitzgerald: The great strength of Islam in Indonesia, is that these religious issues are being openly debated in a peaceful way, and that the country has been able to steer a moderate course. There are fears though that the US war on terror could upset the delicate balance between Indonesia's secular and Islamic leaders.
Azyumardi Azra says there is a danger that any demonising of extremist Muslims could push moderate Muslims from their middle path to leap to the defence of their Muslim brothers.
Azra: They should be very careful before pointing their fingers to Indonesia because if they say that in Indonesia the terrorists runs wild in Indonesia of course this would be very counter productive because there would be a stronger reaction from moderate, from people who actually try to solve these problem. And if again if any foreign officials, not only US but also Singapore for instance are pointing their fingers to Indonesia then this will create strong reaction from Indonesia even again some moderates will in the name of Indonesian nationalism or something like that will defend themselves. So it will alienate them. So I think again they should be very careful before pointing their fingers.