Devi Asmarani, Makassar – For them to graduate, primary school students in Bulukumba regency, about a three-hour drive from here, must take proficiency tests in Quran reading.
Alcoholic beverages are banned in several towns, and in one regency, women public officials must cover their hair with headscarves at work.
It may be a long shot for Jakarta to approve South Sulawesi's proposal to adopt Islamic laws. But thanks to regional autonomy, predominantly Muslim regions in the province have been able to introduce their own spin of the syariah laws.
Local politicians feel it is politically correct to support the cause even if it is not in agreement with their party lines. In fact, one such adviser is a Cabinet minister and presidential aspirant from the secular Golkar party, Mr Jusuf Kalla.
Several regions in provinces like West Java have also exercised their autonomous rights in similar fashion.
But surveys and reports have shown that to most Indonesians, syariah laws are an alien idea more suited to the Middle East, analysts said. Indonesians are wary of punishments such as hand chopping for thieves or stoning to death for adulterers that are so often associated with syariah laws.
Because of this, more parties have shied away from formally supporting the adoption of such laws which was a staple issue for many Muslim-based parties in 1999.
The Crescent Star Party (PBB) is the only major party openly saying it is fighting for the imposition of those laws. Party chairman Yusril Ihza Mahendra, in his capacity as Minister of Justice, last year incorporated Islamic doctrines in the draft of the new criminal code, especially in matters surrounding sexual behaviour.
But with its rigid and exclusive platform, the PBB has a slim chance of improving its poll results this year from barely 3 per cent of the votes in 1999.
The two other groups championing the same cause – the Star Reforms Party and the Nahdlatul Ummah United Party – are so small they are unlikely to make a splash in the April 5 parliamentary election.
The larger, Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP) has been trying to shed its sectarian image to woo more voters. With its chairman Hamzah Haz serving as deputy to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the party, which opposed a woman for president in 1999, declares that it is now a "religious but nationalist" party.
Despite Mr Hamzah's flirtations with Muslim hardliners like cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the PPP's stands on religious issues are often fuzzy. On syariah laws, the PPP says it supports these "as a principle" but feels no urgency to implement them.
Similarly, although the Prosperous Justice Party has a strong Islamic ideology with a longer-term agenda, it glosses over the syariah issue to avoid projecting a hardline image.
The apparent shift is caused by the disappointing results in 1999, when the more than 10 Islamic parties combined won just 16 per cent of the votes nationwide. Recent polls by the Indonesian Survey Institute found that Muslim voters tend to favour moderate, pluralistic and democratic parties rather than those fighting for Islamic law or an Islamic state.
Muslim scholars agree it is nearly impossible to adopt syariah laws because of the diversity of the Islamic communities and schools of thoughts in Indonesia. As State Islamic University's Bachtiar Effendy said: "Syariah is meant for homogenous countries like Saudi Arabia."