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ID:
159801
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| Summary/Abstract |
The phenomenon of atheism has often been neglected in academic research on Indonesia, a Muslim majority country in which every citizen is supposed to have a religious affiliation. In addressing that oversight, this article first outlines the state-driven discourses and practices in Indonesia concerning atheism before exploring the alterative discourses and social practices found within Indonesian atheist communities. Based on a long-term engagement with online atheist communities and four months of fieldwork in Jakarta, I suggest that hegemonic discourses and state practices on the one hand, and discourses and social practices within the atheist community on the other hand, sharply contradict each other. Whereas the state and large parts of society still consider atheism a threat since it is understood to connote communism, it is typically leftist atheists rather than their right-wing or liberal counterparts who not only acknowledge religion but are even eager to engage with progressive religious movements. The reasons for this, the article argues, lie in alternative narratives of Indonesia’s past and in the atheists’ engagement with global discourses. Finally, the article provides an example of a progressive religious community in which leftist atheists are involved, revealing a social practice that successfully ruptures state-driven discourses.
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| 2 |
ID:
152196
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| Summary/Abstract |
In this essay we propose an alternative approach to assessing the state of democracy in Indonesia. We focus not on institutional indicators (as is usually the case) but on manifestations of political discourses in the public sphere. In applying post-Marxist political theory through the work of Slavoj Žižek and Chantal Mouffe, we argue that democracy’s main defining feature is that it allows antagonistic discourses about alternative policies to coexist, yet still manages to coalesce around a minimal consensus on how these discursive conflicts are to be dealt with in a fair way. Applying this approach to democracy analysis to Indonesia, we suggest that the major obstacles to democratic practice do not emerge from institutional problems, but from an overbearing political discourse that imposes broad consensus and harmony on most political issues. Political discourse in Indonesia is generally structured around “Islam” and “the people.” These themes provide a basis for a political consensus that conceals economic and social contradictions and reveals considerable depoliticization in Indonesian democratic practice.
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