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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies

ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20

Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam:

Explaining the ‘Conservative Turn’

Luthfi Assyaukanie

To cite this article: Luthfi Assyaukanie (2013) Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam: Explaining the ‘Conservative Turn’, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 49:3, 394-395, DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2013.850644

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2013.850644

Published online: 05 Dec 2013.

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394 Book reviews

Martin van Bruinessen (2013) Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam: Explaining the ‘Conservative Turn’, Institute of

South-east Asian Studies, Singapore, pp. xxxiv + 240. Paper: $29.90.

Books on Islamic radicalism have looded the literature on Indonesian Islam over the last 15 years. This book, however, is about Islamic conservatism, another vari-ant of Islam in Indonesia. Although radicals and conservatives share similarities in understanding some classical Islamic doctrines, the former mostly use violent methods to achieve their goals, while the latter take a more peaceful approach.

By deinition, as Martin van Bruinessen states in this book, conservatism ‘refers to the various currents that reject modernist, liberal or progressive re-interpretations of Islamic teachings and adhere to established doctrines and social order’ (p. 16). Like the radicals, the conservatives reject the idea of gender equal -ity and the use of modern hermeneutical approaches to scripture. If the radicals are found mostly in small Islamic organisations (such as Jamaah Islamiyah and Front Pembela Islam), then the conservatives are found in major Islamic organisa-tions (such as Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama).

The question that this book tries to answer is why there is a ‘conservative turn’ in Indonesian Islam. Van Bruinessen offers two explanations. First, democracy has created space for Muslims to freely express their faith and religious behaviour. In the past, the authoritarian regime favoured a liberal or progressive kind of Islam over a conservative one; under Soeharto’s patronage, liberal Muslim intellectu-als had the freedom to promote liberal Islamic thought. In the post-authoritarian regime, however, the conservatives are more vocal and more aggressive in expressing their voice.

Second, the rise of Islamic conservativism is related to a view shared by many experts on Indonesian Islam: that is, that the inluence of the Middle East is increasing. Since the 1980s, there has been an active campaign to promote an Arab kind of Islam in Indonesia. This has been carried out by returning graduates from Saudi universities as well as by the Saudi-funded institutions in the country. The oil boom has helped Saudis extend their interests throughout the Muslim world. Driven partly by the anxiety of the growing inluence of the Iranian Islamic rev -olution, the Saudis established a foothold in Indonesia and spread their state-sponsored ideology of Wahabism.

This book, which is a compilation of seven articles, written by different authors, emphasises these two explanations. The political transition has enabled Muslims in Indonesia to substantiate their political aspirations. The demands of syariah

bylaws in several municipalities in the country are direct results of the autonomy law issued in 1999. The formation of KPPSI (the Preparatory Committee for the Implementation of Syariah) and its struggle to implement syariah in South Sulawesi (chapter 5, by Mujiburrahman) is one effect of Indonesia’s transition to democracy.

In addition, the engagement of Indonesian Muslims with the Middle East, and particularly with Saudi-funded institutions, has strengthened the conservatives in major Islamic organisations, such as the Indonesian Ulama Council (chapter 3, by Moch Nur Ichwan) and Muhammadiyah (chapter 4, by Ahmad Najib Burhani). The DDII (the Indonesian Islamic Missionary Council), which was funded largely by Saudi money, plays a crucial role in strengthening the Islamic identity in Solo,

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Book reviews 395

Central Java (chapter 6, by Muhammad Wildan). Jamaah Islamiyah and other radical groups emerged from this city.

In spite of the book’s clear exposition of the varieties of Islamic conservatism, it is heavily biased towards the modernist groups of Indonesian Islam. Van Bru-inessen mentions the traditionalist group Nahdlatul Ulama, yet there is no single chapter on this group or similar groups, despite the fact that traditionalists are among the most conservative groups in Indonesia (especially if we follow Van Bruinessen’s deinition of conservatism).

Religious conservatism has long been present in Indonesia. Just because the lib-eral discourses of Islam in the Soeharto era were widely covered by the media, it does not mean that the conservatives were marginal. The current turn towards the conservatives should therefore be seen not as a revival of a subordinated group but as an expansion of the dominant ideology.

Luthi Assyaukanie

Paramadina University

Masahisa Fujita, Ikuo Kuroiwa and Satoru Kumagai (eds) (2011) The Economics of East Asian Integration: A Comprehensive Introduction to Regional

Issues, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. x + 524. Cloth: £125.00.

Production fragmentation, where a country’s production process is sliced into discrete activities, which are then allocated across multiple countries based on factor endowments such as labour, capital and technology, has been a feature of economic integration over past decades. The geographically integrated produc-tion process began to emerge when technological developments in transportaproduc-tion and communication reduced the cost of long-distance transactions. Combined with the liberalisation of trade and investment, this enabled multinational enter-prises to outsource an increasing amount of their production abroad and to inter-nationalise their value chains. The unprecedented economic growth of East Asian countries owes much to their integrating themselves into such international pro-duction networks.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of this integration. Part 1 begins with stylised facts of economic integration from historical and statistical points of view, followed by theoretical underpinnings that explain the process of eco-nomic integration. Using international trade data and an input–output table, the authors present the degree and modality of economic integration, before drawing on studies of the new economic geography to explain the fundamental mecha-nism of economic integration. Part 2 discusses the role of production networks and innovation, with an emphasis on manufacturing. Part 3 deals with various matters relating to agriculture, service, labour and money. Part 4 discusses the agents of economic integration, including institutional arrangements such as free-trade agreements, transport networks and infrastructure. The conclusion