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Indonesia’s Voters Retreat From Radical Islam
Newyork Times, April 24, 2009
JAKARTA, Indonesia — From Pakistan to Gaza and Lebanon, militant Islamic
movements have gained ground rapidly in recent years, fanning Western fears of a consolidation of radical Muslim
governments. But here in the world’s most populous Muslim nation just the opposite is happening, with Islamic parties
suffering a steep drop in popular support.
In parliamentary elections this month, voters punished Islamic parties that focused narrowly on religious issues,
and even the parties’ best efforts to appeal to the country’s mainstream failed to sway the public.
The largest Islamic party, the Prosperous Justice Party, ran television commercials of young women without head
scarves and distributed pamphlets in the colors of the country’s major secular parties. But the party fell far
short of its goal of garnering 15 percent of the vote, squeezing out a gain of less than one percentage point over
its 7.2 percent showing in 2004.
That was a big letdown for a party and a movement that had grown phenomenally in recent years, even as more radical
elements directed terrorist attacks against Western tourists and targets. The party had projected that it would
double its share of seats in Parliament even as it stuck to its founding goal of bringing Shariah, or Islamic law,
to Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, with 240 million people.
Altogether, the major Islamic parties suffered a drop in support from 38 percent in 2004 to less than 26 percent
this year, according to the Indonesian Survey Institute, an independent polling firm whose figures are in keeping
with partial official results.
Political experts and politicians attribute the decline to voters’ disillusionment
with Islamic parties that once called for idealism, but became embroiled in the messy, often corrupt world of Indonesian
politics. They also say that the popular president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is expected to be re-elected
in July, appropriated the largest Islamic party’s signature theme of clean government through a far-reaching anticorruption
drive.
On a deeper level, some of the parties’ fundamentalist measures seem to have alienated moderate Indonesians. While
Indonesia has a long tradition of moderation, it was badly destabilized with the end of military rule in 1998,
which gave rise to Islamist politicians who preached righteousness and to some hard-core elements, who practiced
violence. The country has only recently achieved a measure of stability.
Although final results from the election on April 9 will not be announced until next month, partial official results
and exit polls by several independent companies indicate that Indonesians overwhelmingly backed the country’s major
secular parties, even though more of them are continuing to turn to Islam in their private lives.
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Indonesia
poll campaigning starts
BBC News: Monday, 16 March 2009
Indonesia has marked the formal start of its election season with a joint
rally of political parties in the capital Jakarta.
Thirty-eight national parties are contesting parliamentary elections on 9 April, along with
six local parties in the newly-autonomous province of Aceh.
Presidential elections are due to follow in July.
About 174 million Indonesians, across more than 17,000 islands, are eligible to vote in the ballots.
The main issues exercising voters are likely to be the economy, employment opportunities and the fight against
corruption - especially high-level corruption, which continues to plague Indonesian politics.
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