Abstract (Summary)
This dissertation examines the contemporary (1985-1993) debate over the value basis of authority in Indonesian politics. It focuses on how Islamic organizations and their leaders, the Armed Forces, President Soeharto, and others, interpret the national ideology, Pancasila. For nearly fifty years Indonesian governments have used a set of five principles, known as Pancasila, to legitimize political authority and to enhance national integration. Although there has been dramatic change since 1985 in that all social and political organizations formally accept Pancasila as their sole philosophical principle, an acute debate continues concerning the meaning and interpretation of the state ideology. Moreover, proponents of a more Islamic-oriented state as well as supporters of greater democratization, have appropriated the ideology both to legitimize their own objectives and, at times, to negatively appraise the regime.
This ideological debate is examined through consideration of the "voices" of President Soeharto, the Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama and its Chairman, Abdurrahman Wahid, the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), the Indonesian Armed Forces, and secular nationalist proponents of democratization.
Political debate revolving around Pancasila concerns the relationship between Islam and government, the role of the armed forces, issues of national unity, presidential succession, democratization, and even economic development. Especially for members of the Indonesian elite who do not channel their political aspirations through Islam, Pancasila remains the formulaic expression of the "idea" of the state in which political behavior is not linked to religious, racial, ethnic, or regional affiliations. Moreover, for some members of the elite, Pancasila represents an indigenous form of democracy which takes into consideration minority views and cultural aversion to direct confrontation inherent in western democracy. Finally, many members of the elite see that the religious tolerance inherent in Pancasila is a necessary precondition for democratization. This study of Indonesia's state ideology suggests that there is positive adhesive value in a national ideology whose appeal manages to cross-cut religious, ethnic, and regional divides.
| Advisor: | Weatherbee, Donald E. |
| School: | University of South Carolina |
| School Location: | United States -- South Carolina |
| Keyword(s): | Islam, political beliefs, democratization |
| Source: | DAI-A 54/11, p. 4249, May 1994 |
| Source type: | Dissertation |
| Subjects: | International law, International relations, Political science, History |
| Publication Number: | AAT 9410040 |
| Document URL: | http://proquest |
| ProQuest document ID: | 745526221 |
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