Muslim Political Elite and the Revival of the Left in Indonesian Politics, 1996-2001

Abstract

This study analyses the responses of Muslim political elite to the revival of Left politics and discourse in post-Soeharto Indonesian politics. Its focus is on the confrontation of the Muslim political elite towards the issue of the reemergence of the Left during the period 1996-2001. Such theoretical approaches on elite as the ones propounded by Mosca, Pareto and C. Wright Mills are examined as a framework for analysis. The explanatory power of the analysis is improved further by identifying the factors that were conducive to Muslim political elite responses such as politics of stigmatisation of the Left by the New Order establishment, Muslim historical traumatic experience with the Communist revolts in the past and the nature of Indonesian political elite. The data for this study were mainly derived from the usual major sources of non-survey data such as press reports, standard biographical submissions for Indonesian Muslim political elite and government sources of aggregate data. The results of semi-structured interviews with several Leftist political activists, elite of Muslim political parties and mass organisations, authors and political observers are widely used in this study. The archival research and written works of Muslim political elite are also used in this study. The study reveals that the alleged reemergence of the Left is indicated by the birth of the People's Democratic Party (partai Rakyat Demokratik, PRD), the ex-President Abdurrahman Wahid's efforts to revoke MPRS Decree No. XXVI 1966 in 200 1 and the overflow of Marxist, Leninist and Socialist books as well as the writings by former PIG political prisoners from 1996 to 2001.