The Muslims Intellectuals responses to the Contemporary Problem in Indonesia

5. The Muslims Intellectuals responses to the Contemporary Problem in Indonesia

As mentioned before, that in the contemporary period, the Modern Muslim intellectual in Indonesia tends to be classified

Djoko Suryo into four groups, such as the fundamentalist, the reformist, the

accomodationist, and the cultural Islam groups. From the dis- cussion above, we can identify that the origin and the develop- ment of these classifications, can be related to the influences coming from the Middle Eastern Muslim world during the long course of history and also very important which was coming from the Indonesian historical experience from the beginning of the coming of Islam to Indonesia.

One of the perspective of some studies on the contemporary Islam often directed to answer upon the question on whether Is- lam able to walk away coincide with the modern political system where the idea of the nation state is one of the important ele- ments. Considering that Islam is the multi interpretative religion so that the response of the question can be positive or negative, it depend on the perspective of Islam is employed in the analysis of the problem. In the history of the political relationship between Islam and the state which has along process, it will be depend on the emphasis on the discourse of politics Islam itself.

The contribution of the Modern Muslim Intellectuals in the process of the contemporary political history, actually can be identified in the period of revolution (1945 1950), constitutional democracy or liberal democracy (1950 1957), Guided Democra- cy (1957 1965), and New Order (1966 1990s). From some stud- ies this period shows that the Islamic articulation which were formalistic and legalistic, especially in the frame of idealism and activism, had played an important role in the shape of the relationship which characterized by suspicion and unharmo- nious relation between Islam and state.

Nevertheless, that not all Indonesian Muslims supported to the Islamic politics which was characterise with the Islamic “holistic”, such as launched By Jamal al Din al Afghani with his political ideology of Pan-Islamism. Some of the thinkers and political activists in Indonesia who more concerned to the unity state of Republic Indonesia tried to moderate the idea of the

Transformasi Masyarakat Indonesia... Islamic state coming from the Muslims intellectuals in the 1950s.

The successful of their strategy had made Islam was shoved aside from the process of the political nation affairs. This po- litical strategy to ‘push out” of the lslam from the political af- fair, seems also occurred in the New Order period. The reason was that the Islam was suspected unreally supported the ideol- ogy of Pancasila.

Therefore, those tragic situation of the Islam in the Indo- nesia contemporary period made the reason of the emergence of the new Muslim thinkers and activist who have concern greatly to overcome the un satisfaction of the Islamic position in Indonesia. These new Muslim thinkers generation began to arise in the 1970s. Though three intellectual streams or trends of thinking, that are the renewal of the religious theology, po- litical reformation and the social transformation, they formu- lated their aim are to make a transformation of the political Islam perspective from formalism and legalism to substantia- lism. In fact, the main objective of their thinking is clearly not to desire to set up the Islamic state any more. They want to develop the Islamic teaching which coincide with the common principles on the Islamic political values, including the justice, consensus, egalitarianism and participation. Since 1980s, the integrative approach which was developed in the period showed

a positive result. In coincide with the development of the new Islamic intelectualism in 1970s, it should be mentioned here are those who belong to the prominent new Muslim intellectuals are Nurcholis Madjid, Djoha Effendi, Ahmad Wahib, Utomo Danajaya, Usep Fathuddin, Mintaredja, Sulastomo, Bintoro Tjokroamidjojo, Sa’dillah Murdi, Ridwan Saidi, Akbar Tanjung, Sudjoko Prasodjo, Ma. Dawam rahardjo. Tawang Alun, Adi Sasono. Aand Ekky Syachruddin. 32 While in the 1980s, there

32 Riddel, op.cit., pp.193-198.

Djoko Suryo were Munawir Sajadzali, Abdurrahman Wahid, Amien Rais,

Kuntowidjojo, Weatik Pratiknya, Yahya Muhaimin, Jalaludin Rahmat, and Fuad Amsyari. 33