Tom Pepinsky

Category: Indonesia

  • MUI vs. JIL

    The big news in Indonesia these days–so far not reported in the West, as far as we can tell–is the issuance of a set of fatwas by the Council of Indonesian Islamic Religious Teachers, or MUI (Majlis Ulama Indonesia).  The big doozy is this one, the translation of which we quote from the Jakarta Post: "Religious teachings influenced by pluralism, liberalism and secularism are against Islam. The fatwa states that Muslims must consider their religion to be the true one religion, and to consider other faiths as wrong." Despite its name, the MUI does not actually represent all or even most Islamic religious teachers in Indonesia, rather it is a conservative group well known for its intolerance.  It started out as a government body under Soeharto’s New Order, and was relatively moderate, but has since gotten out of hand.

    Indonesia is a plural place, so this fatwa has caused a bit of an uproar.  Every government that has ever ruled Indonesia (that’s not too many, but still) has mandated that ethnic and religious pluralism is a fact of life in Indonesia that the government will protect.  Although governments have times oppressed certain ethnic communities (most often the Chinese), governments have always been tolerant of minority religions (except for Confucianism and animism, and even this was more like just pretending that they don’t exist or don’t count as religions).  Condemning Islamic religious teachings influenced by pluralism as anti-Islam throws down a big challenge to most Indonesians about their relationship to their religion.  These teachings have a long history in Indonesia.  Is Islam in Indonesia going to move towards the Middle East?

    Happily (so far), the public reaction to the MUI ruling suggests otherwise.  Muslim scholars and Muslim public intellectuals have sharply criticized the MUI’s fatwas in the past couple of days, calling them "heretical" and "anti-Islam" themselves.  Others have attacked the fact that the MUI could have issued a fatwa that says that violence against other religious communities is forbidden, but did not–the reference is on an attack by some fundamentalists on the compound owned by a deviationist Islamic sect (Ahmadiya) in West Java last month.  Some of these public intellectuals include former President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid, current VP Jusuf Kalla, and other well-known Islamist thinkers, including our acquaintance Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, whom we know from the Freedom Institute, and who runs the influential Liberal Islam Network, or JIL (Jaringan Islam Liberal). They have been joined by leaders of interfaith groups, a surprisingly strong element in Indonesia’s crowded post-Soeharto civil society.  A number of groups have called for the government to ban MUI, or at least stop giving it financial support.

    Want to know more?  Unfortunately, the Jakarta Post’s online edition has a dynamic link-changing thingy that makes directly linking to articles a bad idea, but you can browse around and find related articles.  You can also check out Ulil’s writings at the JIL website, which expouses an attractive version of religious Islam that is strong in Indonesia and getting stronger with Ulil’s popular commentary.  You’ll see Ulil’s picture too; he was always smiling like that.

  • Pirates

    When our friend Lindsey was visiting us recently, we were having a conversation about going to Melaka, and one of us mentioned something about the pirates that hang around off the coast over there.  She didn’t believe us at first, and then made us promise to do a post about pirates at some point.

    First off, yes they do exist.  As long as there have been people in this region there have been pirates sailing around, ambushing boats, and stealing cargo.  Part of the reason that there are so many in this area is that Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra are very close together.  The narrow straits (only 1.5 miles wide at some points) are a good place for fast pirate boats to hide out and make quick attacks on the big ships coming through.  There’s also the fact that historically, this area was the meeting ground for traders from China and India (and Europe), so there have always been valuable goods moving through the area.  Even today, much of the cargo that goes to or from anywhere in Asia goes through here at some point.  It is the fastest sea route between China, India, and Indonesia and approximately one third of the world’s oil supply passes through the Strait of Melaka. 

    Since coming to Southeast Asia, we’ve seen reports of pirate attacks regularly in the newpaper.  Recently, there was a story about a ship carrying hundreds of thousands of tons of palm oil that was attacked between Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia.  Some Indonesian guys snuck onto the boat, took control, and steered it to some hidden pirate cove they had.  There they had their own big boat waiting (stolen, of course), and they transported the cargo to their ship and took it for a joy ride until they were caught.  I’m not sure exactly what they were planning on doing with it, but I assume there’s a black market for just about anything.

    Policing the straits has been a big issue for Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, and we’ve seen several reports bashing Indonesia for not participating more in the effort to catch pirates.  Of course, as some of them point out, when your navy is not being paid, they don’t have much of an incentive to go off and fight crime.  Plus, there are all sorts of issues about which countries are in charge of which areas, and the whole thing is very complicated.

    As a side note, they also have "road pirates" here.  My (jm) boss was telling me about this one day as we were going to a presentation.  There is one big north-south highway that leads from KL down to Singapore.  Apparently, when trucks are sent with electronic goods down to Singapore, people will sometimes ambush them and steal the cargo.  Because of this, the companies hire fleets of heavily armed security guards to drive along in a convoy to make sure that nobody makes off with the goods.  However, this doesn’t always seem to work so well.  Somebody will slip a guard a little money, and they will take a convenient bathroom break by the side of the road for ten minutes while the cargo disappears.