Articulating Islamist Sectarian Group Antagonism Memes on the Indonesian Politics
Abstract
Polarisation among Indonesians has arisen after the presidential rematch in the 2019 presidential election. It stimulated the repressive action of the Jokowi government has made Indonesian democracy to be on decline. Some scholars consider this as an atavism of an entrenching ideological conflict since hundreds of years ago between nationalism vs. Islamism. However, we argue that polarisation is more complex than what we expected before. This article examines the Islamist grassroots discourses to get an alternative perspective regarding the resurrection of conservatism in Indonesia. We collected and analysed qualitatively data of internet memes during the 2019 Indonesia Presidential campaign. We argue that antagonism occurred among the Islamist sectarian groups as a continuation of the Aksi Bela Islam (The Defending Islam Movement) in 2016. The antagonism among the groups indicates the rise of the Islamic radical-conservatism groups through the presentation of the antagonism between Islam Nusantara and Islamist puristic movement. The Islamic radical-conservatism group has successfully exploited the anti-Ahok movement with the Bela Islam (defending Islam) discourse. However, using Islamist issues during the 2019 presidential election has represented the triumph of the Politics of Islam: Islamization of Indonesian political ideology. Islam has harmonised into nationalism and secularism despite the internet memes' incoherent and irrational language. The triumph of Islamic hegemony transformed and infected Indonesia's political ideology. Islam has become an obligatory symbol in Indonesian politics.
Keywords: Islam conservatism, politics of Islam, political internet memes, Indonesian Politics, humorous political communication.
References
Afrimadona. (2021). Revisiting political polarisation in Indonesia: A case study of Jakarta’s Electorate. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 40(2), 315–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034211007490
Akbar, W. (2018). Di balik santri “dadakan” Post-Islamisme ala Sandiaga Uno. CNN Indonesia. https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20180814090002-33-322046/di-balik-santri-dadakan-post-islamisme-ala-sandiaga-uno
Akmal, M. (2017). The roles of digital democracy on political education for young generation. Proceedings of MICoMS 2017 (pp.43–48). https://doi.org/ktrf
Al-Quran.
Arifianto, A. R. (2019). What the 2019 election says about Indonesian democracy. Asia Policy, 14(4), 46–53. https://doi.org/10.1353/asp.2019.0045
Arifianto, A. R. (2021). From ideological to political sectarianism: Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, and the state in Indonesia. Religion, State and Society, 49(2), 126–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2021.1902247
Aspinall, E., Fossati, D., Muhtadi, B., & Warburton, E. (2020). Elites, masses, and democratic decline in Indonesia. Democratization, 27(4), 505–526. https://doi.org/ktrg
Aspinall, E., & Mietzner, M. (2014). Indonesian politics in 2014: Democracy’s close call. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 50(3), 347–369. https://doi.org/gk74x5
Aspinall, E., & Mietzner, M. (2019). Indonesia’s democratic paradox: Competitive elections amidst rising illiberalism. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 55(3), 295–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2019.1690412
Astuti, P. A. A., & Hangsing, P. (2018). Predicting the behavior of young voters in elections: A case study of governor election in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 34(4), 357–372. https://doi.org/gpz66k
Beers, S. (2014). Shallow or rational public spheres? Indonesian political parties in the twitter-sphere. SEARCH Journal of Media and Communication Research, 6(2), 1–23.
Bourchier, D. M. (2019). Two decades of ideological contestation in Indonesia: From democratic cosmopolitanism to religious nationalism. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 49(5), 713-733. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1590620
Cilibrasi, R. L., & Vitányi, P. M. B. (2007). The Google similarity distance. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 19(3), 370–383. https://doi.org/bcprp6
Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford University Press.
Denisova, A. (2019). Internet memes and society: Social, cultural, and political context. Routledge.
Diprose, R., McRae, D., & Hadiz, V. R. (2019). Two decades of reformasi in Indonesia: Its illiberal turn. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 49(5), 691–712. https://doi.org/gf5qm4
Duile, T., & Tamma, S. (2021). Political language and fake news: Some considerations from the 2019 election in Indonesia. Indonesia and the Malay World, 49(143), 82–105.
Fossati, D. (2019). The resurgence of ideology in Indonesia: Political Islam, aliran and political behaviour. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 38(2), 119–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1868103419868400
Fossati, D., Aspinall, E., Muhtadi, B., & Warburton, E. (2020). Ideological representation in clientelistic democracies: The Indonesian case. Electoral Studies, 63(July 2019), 102111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2019.102111
Fry, W. F. (2004). The power of political humor. The Journal of Popular Culture, X(1), 227–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1976.1001_227.x
Gambarato, R. R., & Komesu, F. (2018). What are you laughing at? Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s internet memes across spreadable media contexts. Journal of Creative Communications, 13(2), 85–103. https://doi.org/gc8tth
Hadiz, V. R. (2018). The ‘ floating ’ ummah in the fall of ‘ ahok ’ in Indonesia 1. TRaNS: Trans Regional and National Studies of Southeast Asia, 7(2), 271-290. https://doi.org/ktrk
Haq, M. N. (2021). Patronizing the mass: How middle-agents deepened populism and post-truth in Indonesia 2019 Presidential Election. Jurnal Politik, 7(1).
Hew, W. W. (2018). The art of dakwah: Social media, visual persuasion and the Islamist propagation of Felix Siauw. Indonesia and the Malay World, 46(134), 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2018.1416757
Huang, J., Yang, X., Fang, X., Lin, W., & Zhang, R. (2011). Integrating visual saliency and consistency for re-ranking image search results. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 13(4), 653–661. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMM.2011.2127463
Husein, F., & Slama, M. (2018). Online piety and its discontent: Revisiting Islamic anxieties on Indonesian social media. Indonesia and the Malay World, 46(134), 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2018.1415056
Kasmani, F. (2022). Persuasive political humour on social media: A study of Najib Razak’s Facebook posts. SEARCH Journal of Media and Communication Research, 14(1), 1–17.
Kato, H. (2021). The Islam Nusantara movement in Indonesia. In M. A. Upal, & C. M. Cusack (Eds.), Handbook of Islamic sects and movements (Volume 21, pp. 110–128). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004435544
Koestler, A. (1964). The act of creation. Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.
Kuipers, G. (2011). The politics of humour in the public sphere: Cartoons, power and modernity in the first transnational humour scandal. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(1), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549410370072
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics. Verso.
Lefort, C. (1988). Democracy and political theory (D. Macey, ed.). Polity Press.
Lengauer, D. (2018). Sharing semangat taqwa: Social media and digital Islamic socialities in Bandung. Indonesia and the Malay World, 46(134), 5–23. https://doi.org/c49p
Lim, M. (2017). Freedom to hate: Social media, algorithmic enclaves, and the rise of tribal nationalism in Indonesia. Critical Asian Studies, 49(3), 411–427. https://doi.org/gh7f5s
Mietzner, M., & Muhtadi, B. (2018). Explaining the 2016 Islamist mobilisation in Indonesia: Religious intolerance, militant groups and the politics of accommodation. Asian Studies Review, 42(3), 479–497. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2018.1473335
Mina, A. X. (2014). Batman, Pandaman and the Blind Man: A case study in social change memes and internet censorship in China. Journal of Visual Culture, 13(3), 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412914546576
Muhtadi, B. (2009). The quest for Hizbut Tahrir in Indonesia. Asian Journal of Social Science, 37(4), 623–645. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853109X460219
Nawab, M., & Osman, M. (2010). Reviving the Caliphate in the Nusantara: Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia's mobilization strategy and its impact in Indonesia. Terrorism and Political Violence, 22(4), 601–622. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2010.496317
Nurdin, M. A., Saputra, A. T. D., & Prayitno, A. (2019). Prahara Partai Islam. Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia.
Pepinsky, T. B., Liddle, R. W., & Mujani, S. (2018). Piety and public opinion: Understanding Indonesian Islam. Oxford University Press.
Peterson, D. (2020). Islam, blasphemy, and human rights in Indonesia: The trial of Ahok (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003007814
Porta, D. d., & Diani, M. (2006). Social movements: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing.
Power, T. P. (2018). Jokowi’s authoritarian turn and Indonesia’s democratic decline. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 54(3), 307–338. https://doi.org/gh8gv5
Ricklefs, M. C. (2012). Islamisation and its opponents in Java: A political, social, cultural and religious history, c. 1930 to the present: Vol. i. NUS Press Singapore.
Sani, A. F. I. (2018, August 11). Sandiaga Uno disebut Santri Post-Islamisme begini penjelasan PKS. Tempo.Co. https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1116076/sandiaga-uno-disebut-santri-post-islamisme-begini-penjelasan-pks/full&view=ok
Seiffert-Brockmann, J., Diehl, T., & Dobusch, L. (2018). Memes as games: The evolution of a digital discourse online. New Media and Society, 20(8), 2862–2879. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817735334
Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. MIT Press.
Shifman, L., Levy, H., & Thelwall, M. (2014). Internet jokes: The secret agents of globalization? Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(4), 727–743. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12082
Sholikin, A. (2018). Islamic political movement in Indonesia after “Aksi bela Islam Jilid I, II, III.” Jurnal Politik dan Kemasyarakatan MADANI, 10(1), 12–33.
Sujoko, A., Haboddin, M., & Afala, L. O. M. (2022). Anies Baswedan’s rhetoric amid political polarization for COVID-19 handling in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 38(3), 54–69. https://doi.org/ktrq
Syahputra, I. (2016). Demokrasi virtual dan perang siber di media sosial: Perspektif netizen Indonesia. Jurnal Aspikom, 3(3), 457–475. https://doi.org/10.24329/aspikom.v3i3.141
Syahputra, I. (2019). Expressions of hatred and the formation of spiral of anxiety on social media in Indonesia. SEARCH (Malaysia), 11(1), 95–112.
Thompson, M. R. (2015). Democracy with Asian characteristics. Journal of Asian Studies, 74(4), 875–887. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911815001187
Turner, B. S. (2007). Religious authority and the new media. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(2), 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407075001
Ugur, M. A., & Ince, P. (2015). Violence in the name of Islam: The case of ‘Islamic Defenders Front’ from Indonesia. Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, 14(1), 33–51.
van Leeuwen, T. J. (2004). Introducing social semiotics. Routledge. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/3739/
Weaver, S., & Mora, R. A. (2016). Introduction: Tricksters, humour and activism. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19(5), 479–485. https://doi.org/gf8w8q
Weiss, M. L. (2018). Media power in Indonesia: Oligarchs, citizens and the digital revolution by Ross Tapsell (Review). Indonesia, 106(1), 167-169). https://doi.org/ktrr
Wilson, I. (2014). Morality racketeering: Vigilantism and populist Islamic militancy in Indonesia. In K. B. Teik, V. R. Hadiz, & Y. Nakanishi (Eds.), Between dissent and power (pp. 248–274). Palgrave Macmillan.
Refbacks
e-ISSN: 2289-1528