Indonesian Pluralities by Robert W. Hefner Zainal Abidin Bagir

Author:Robert W. Hefner, Zainal Abidin Bagir [Robert W. Hefner, Zainal Abidin Bagir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780268108618
Goodreads: 51148983
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

HTI has not seemed particularly concerned about the backgrounds or reputations of the political leaders it targets for cooperation. Nor have records of corruption bothered HTI in its quest for opportunities to mobilize government officials. An example of HTI’s relationships with this type of leader was its interaction with Ali Mazi, the former governor of Southeast Sulawesi who was temporarily removed from office in 2006 because of a graft charge relating to the management of Indonesia’s National Stadium in Jakarta. He regained his position in 2007 after the state prosecutor failed to prove the allegation. HTI’s engagement with him took place also in 2007, after the international caliphate conference in Jakarta, when it organized a series of promotional programs to spread the results of the conference in many cities across Indonesia. In Southeast Sulawesi, it needed Mazi’s support to organize a screening of a video of the caliphate conference in his office with representatives from various Muslim organizations (HTI 2007a). When Mazi was temporarily inactive because of the corruption charge, HTI approached his deputy, Yusron A. Silonde. Knowing that Silonde was preparing to run as a candidate for governor in the next election, HTI paid him a visit and suggested that he implement shariah law once in power (HTI 2007a).

In other locales, HTI joined government campaigns so as to expand its audience. Through this strategy, it appears to have had some success in infiltrating school systems in several cities. In Bogor, for example, HTI cooperated with local offices of the Ministry of Education to hold a series of training sessions for school teachers and principals in the region on teaching Islamic history (HTI 2007a). This provided HTI with an audience to preach its version of Islamic history focusing on the importance of the caliphate. Similar progress was made in Pasuruan, East Java, where HTI was successful in gaining permission from the local office of the Education Ministry to organize Islamic study groups in schools (HTI 2009b). Sometimes the topic offered by the government was unusual or seemed contradictory to official HTI views. In Ngawi, East Java, HTI collaborated with the local office of the Education Ministry to hold a workshop on “healthy reproduction,” a campaign it usually portrays as a product of Western propaganda (Syam 2005, 9–14).

Another model of HTI’s engagement with the government has centered on involving state officials in its activities. HTI often holds leadership meetings using government facilities and bringing in representatives from the government to deliver opening speeches. Elsewhere, HTI has participated in city parades organized by government and Muslim groups, carrying banners that challenge democracy and promote shariah and the caliphate.

These instances of engagement with the government illustrate HTI’s adoption of a strategy of what the Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci called “a war of position”: creating alternative influences in communities without directly confronting their ruling elites. A true revolution, according to Gramsci, is not just about taking over the state but about establishing institutional, intellectual, and moral hegemony. Once a revolutionary movement is successful

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