The Tides Of Mighty Islam

Democracy is not the only tidal force now sweeping Indonesia. The might of Islamic politics has also been set loose. For nearly 50 years, from independence until last year's people-power revolt, the country was dominated by two monolithic leaders: first Sukarno, and then Suharto. Both men were proponents of secular rule--but their days are done. Suharto's political heir, B. J. Habibie, openly courted the Muslim hard-liners, and the hard-liners responded by supporting his recent presidential bid. Before he quit the contest, thousands of them marched in downtown Jakarta last week, brandishing swords, sticks and green banners featuring Islamic emblems and Habibie's face.

The militants had one aim: to keep the favored secular candidate, Megawati Sukarnoputri, from winning the top job. Their single-minded campaign ended last week with the victory of a frail, nearly blind Muslim scholar, Abdurrahman Wahid. But the battle began months ago, even before last June's parliamentary elections. In May the country's supreme Islamic council, the Indonesian Ulama Board, ruled that a woman leading the nation would be contrary to scriptural law. The emphasis on religion terrified the Chinese minority, who are still recovering from violent ethnic attacks since the fall of Suharto. To their relief, although 86 percent of the country's 220 million people are nominally Muslims, droves of voters rejected the board's decision. Megawati and her Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) led the field in June with a 34 percent plurality. At the same time, most voters rejected parties with heavily Islamic platforms.

The hard-liners refused to give up. They accused Megawati of being not only a woman but a bad Muslim. Privately some members of the powerful Indonesian electoral college, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), called her an abangan--a pejorative word for a Muslim who fails to live up to strict Islamic precepts. Before the June elections, one leading Muslim politician falsely denounced her as a Hindu, apparently because her grandmother was born on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali.

Seven Islamist parties in the MPR were able to wield outsize influence against Megawati by banding together. The leader of the "axis force," Amien Rais, used to be one of Megawati's closest opposition allies, but the two fell out in recent months because he believed she was snubbing him. His National Mandate Party (PAN) won only 7 percent of the vote in June. Even though Rais likes to portray PAN as a pluralist party, he raised the topic of religion in a recent magazine interview, remarking (accurately) that Christians are 40 percent of PDI-P's membership. Even some of Rais's close aides were embarrassed by the comment. "The Islamists realized that the most effective way to undermine Mega's political influence was by bringing up the religious issue," says Hendro Prasetyo, executive secretary of the Center for the Study of Islam and Society in Jakarta.

Even so, Rais could not work miracles. When he realized he couldn't win the presidency, he began lobbying for Wahid. After Habibie quit the race last week, the ailing spiritual leader, popularly known as Gus Dur, was able to win in a walk. Still, many of Wahid's followers are not happy about the way it happened. Wahid has always been an outspoken believer in the strict separation of religion and politics. Aqil Siradj, an Islamic scholar who belongs to Wahid's Nahdlatul Ulama movement, says: "This recent use of religion as a tool to gain political power is a serious setback for Indonesia."

The idea hardly bothers the militants. Their plans go far beyond Megawati's defeat. Although most hard-line leaders stop short of advocating an out-and-out Islamic government, they make no secret of wanting a more prominent role in the nation's political, cultural, social and economic life. One of their most urgent objectives is to create affirmative-action programs for the pribumi (native Indonesians), seeking to counterbalance the perceived political and economic influence of Chinese immigrants, many of them Christians. Habibie assisted the pribumi with low-interest loans and government contracts. Islamist politicians think the practice should be enshrined in law.