Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – The majority of Indonesian Muslims still believe a secular state is more suitable for the country than an Islamic or Western-style liberal system, a survey found.
But the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) also recorded increasing fears among respondents that fundamentalist groups are systematically working to establish an Islamic state through the implementation of sharia-based bylaws.
A total of 69.6 percent of the 700 respondents (88 percent Muslims) from the 33 provinces said the inclusive Pancasila ideology was the most ideal political system. Only 11.3 percent believed that Indonesia should adopt an Islamic political system similar to that in the Middle East.
"We're rather surprised with this finding," LSI executive director Denny J.A. told a press conference here Thursday. "This corroborates the old belief that Muslims here are mostly moderate."
A further 61.4 percent of respondents expressed worries about the enactment of sharia-based bylaws in some regions, saying the ordinances undermined the nation's integrity. And 61.7 percent of Muslim respondents agreed that the national secular laws were preferable to Islamic ones.
However, more than 80 percent of respondents agreed with ordinances prohibiting alcohol consumption, adultery, prostitution and gambling.
"But 53 percent of the respondents say those kinds of regulations have already been incorporated in the existing Criminal Law, so they think the enactment of regional bylaws to implement such regulations is unnecessary," Denny said.
Young Muslim scholar Zuhairi Misrawi said although the majority of Muslims claim to be moderate, it did not mean fundamentalist groups were powerless.
"We have to remember that 11.5 percent say they agree with the Islamic state and another 15 percent constitute the floating mass," he said, adding that politically conservative Muslims were now more aggressive in campaigning for their ideas.
"This is the challenge for Nadhlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah to stop the stream of political Islam," he added of the country's main Muslim organizations.
Zuhairi also said that support for the old paradigm of Islamic criminal law, such as mutilation and stoning, was still prevalent. The LSI found 27 percent of Indonesian Muslims agreed that adulterers should be stoned to death, and 17 percent think that apostates should be sentenced to death.
Denny said he suspected the survey's results attested to the legacy of the New Order's coercive measures to force the public to embrace the Pancasila ideology or risk ostracism.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) political activist Budiman Sudjatmiko expressed a similar concern. Although he acknowledged the poll may represent the silent majority, he said there was a gap between the views of the people and their representatives in the legislative bodies.
"The issue is no longer whether the people are now inclined to embrace Islamic political ideas. What worries us is whether there are some people who would infiltrate the law with those ideas through democratic institutions."