Negotiating Between Equity and the Market
M. Falikul Isbah and Zulfa Sakhiyya
8.6 Pesantren, Life Dreams, and Aspired Social Mobility
8 Pesantren in Contemporary Indonesia: Negotiating Between Equity … 147 unit was able to collect around IDR 200 million through a donation box located in the cemetery complex of the Pesantren. With the fund, LSPT has been able to sponsor around 200 out of 3,000 students studying in the Pesantren. A much smaller pesantren in Yogyakarta also operates a similar philanthropic unit, but with a much smaller amount of fund they were able to collect. The unit was able to sponsor 4 out of 150 students in the Pesantren.
The attempts demonstrated by those pesantrens in using philantrophic scholarship and cross-subsidizing their students show some concerns on equity. Those pesantrens which charge relatively low fees have catered to the needs of santris from lower socio- economic background. These pesantrens have sustained their intellectual tradition and concerns on access by maintaining low fees, or even free of charge. However, other pesantrens which charge relatively high fees and attract santris from middle- upper class families often waive the fees from philanthropic unit or apply the cross- subsidy mechanism to support santris from lower socio-economic background.
148 M. F. Isbah and Z. Sakhiyya religious and honest people in the future, rather than expecting them to have bright careers or become rich.
A more concrete imagined career aspiration is becoming preachers. In South Sulawesi, some parents admitted that they are attracted to send their children to pesantren after attending religious sermons delivered by pesantren students or teachers conducting da’wah outreach in their areas. Many pesantren Indonesia have a regular program of sending their final year students to an Islamic propagation outreach. The students deliver sermons in village mosques or other religious gather- ings. In such missions, rhetoric capability sometimes appeals to the attendants who later think of sending their children to pesantren.
Propagating Islam through oratory preaching has been popular among ordinary people, from lower, middle, to upper class, in both rural and urban areas. The frequency of such Islamic preaching program on TV and social media appear- ance has added the market value of oratory preaching (Fakhruroji, 2019; Millie, 2008; Rakhmani, 2016). Today, we found many people, mostly pesantren graduates, became full-time preachers with remarkable popularity, striking wealth, and even luxurious lifestyles. Many of whom are active in social media and show off their elite social network and sometimes upper-class lifestyle. The best examples of those are Gus Miftah of Yogyakarta and Ustadz Yusuf Mansur. Perhaps, the Muslim public equates their success as Islamic preacher with the success of celebrity as both are based on popularity. The story of some parents in South Sulawesi we found might represent the perception held by some Indonesian Muslim families that becoming popular ustadz or Islamic preachers is a worthy form of future career for their chil- dren. In fact, that is not something new. Becoming a kyai or Muslim scholar had been a symbol of success for pesantren students from long time. For example, Kyai Hasyim Asy’ari of Pesantren Tebuireng in Jombang was highly respected as most of his students became kyai and founded their own pesantren throughout Java. The difference is, however, that contemporary preachers are more closely associated with public oratory preaching, not community leadership based on scholarly authority as we found in the past.
The most frequently mentioned form of aspired career among the pesantren students we interviewed are teachers. In Muslim community context, teachers may resemble either formal or informal occupation. It can be a professional teacher working in schools and receiving regular wages, or it can be someone who teaches how to read Al Qur’an and basic Islamic sciences to neighboring kids where they live. The last type of teacher may spend only one or two hours in the afternoon in a mosque or prayer hall (musholla) and does not expect to receive a regular wage. In Aceh, all three female students we interviewed said that becoming teachers is their top career aspiration. We found the same career aspiration, especially among female students, in all of our fieldwork sites. In Islam, Islamic sciences are an integral part of Islamic belief, as practical guidance to articulate the belief at the practical level.
For example, to be able to pray correctly, a Muslim needs to learn how to recite Al Qur’an as the Qur’anic verses are the main source of recitation in the praying, and how to move the body parts in all pray movements. Such knowledge is transferred through Islamic learning tradition living in the community. There is a deep living
8 Pesantren in Contemporary Indonesia: Negotiating Between Equity … 149 culture in the pesantren world that after the learning phase, students must transfer their knowledge to the wider public. Therefore, the modest form to meet this mission is by becoming teachers. This is somehow different from a secular perspective on teachers who are regarded as a professional—and paid—job.
From a sociological perspective in Indonesian context, nonetheless, aspiration to be teachers among educated people can be seen as an imaginary social mobility.
Many pesantren students coming from families working in agriculture and petty traders hold a view that becoming teachers is better than working in the farming or traditional market. Although this view is not always valid economically, teachers are seen as community members with respected status for their education and social role in the community.
The last issue relevant to career aspiration and social mobility we found is the more widespread aspiration of pesantren students to continue their study at the tertiary level (cf. Nilan, 2009). This trend proliferates in both lower-class and middle-upper class pesantren. The difference is in their preference of universities. Students of lower- class pesantren tend to aspire to study Islamic disciplines at Islamic universities.
Some of them prefer to go to the available universities in their pesantren complex.
We found this tendency in lower-class pesantren in West Nusa Tenggara and Aceh.
For them, acquiring a bachelor degree will improve their chance to get good jobs in the future. The top list of occupations in their mind is becoming a teacher of Islamic sciences.
Meanwhile, those in the middle-upper class pesantren dream of getting entry to Indonesian elite state universities like Bandung Institute of Technology, University of Indonesia, and Gadjah Mada University, or studying in Al Azhar University in Cairo or universities in Saudi Arabia. Pesantren Al Ikhlas in Bone, South Sulawesi is an upper-class pesantren with good standard facilities and infrastructure. Most students are from middle-upper-class families such as government employees, politicians, and successful entrepreneurs throughout South Sulawesi and around. Almost all students there dream of continuing their study at Indonesian top secular universities or Islamic universities in the Middle East. Moreover, Pesantren Amanatul Ummah in Mojokerto, East Java highlights their success in preparing their students to get entry in some top secular universities as their comparative advantage. Unsurprisingly, some parents from the middle-upper class are attracted to this promotion.
The discussion above highlights the tension and competing values between neolib- eral and religious narratives. The aspiration to become teachers or preachers, and further study at tertiary level is built on both the worldly narratives of economic prosperity, respected social status, as well as career success but simultaneously also the narratives of sacred religious missions. While such competing values might also be at play out of the pesantren world (both by parents and students), we witnessed that pesantren has reproduced the tension in a much more intense manner through their 24-hours learning model and stronger spiritual relation between students and teachers. Therefore, the internalization of those values is arguably inculcated deeply in shaping the subjectivation of the students, probably the parents too as most of them are religious people who choose pesantren as the educational track for their children.
150 M. F. Isbah and Z. Sakhiyya