The Sacred Mobilisation: The Response of Islamic Organization to the Democratic Experimentation of Indonesia

The resurgence of Political Islam in Indonesia – opened since the wave of democracy in 1998 - has been either hindered or halted by the rather poor performance of Islamic-based political parties in the last three democratic elections (2004, 2009 and 2014) by winning only about a third of the total seats in the parliament. The development has urged Islamic social-religious organisations – traditionally as a major supporter of the parties – to engage in the political arena. Focusing on Muhammadiyah as one of the largest nationwide Islamic socio-religious organisation in the country, the article addresses the participation of its two regional/provincial offices – in Yogyakarta (Central Java) and South Sulawesi – in the senate-like Dewan Perwakilan Daerah (DPD or the Regional Representative Council) elections. The participation had turn up the socio-religious organisation into a political body thus mobilising resources and exploiting infra-structures to support the campaign of its candidates and urge the members to give a vote in the poll. The effort had been fruitful as the supported candidates got significant number of votes and won a seat particularly in the 2014 election. Aside from the result, the political activities had provided a new engine and cause for those two offices of Muhammadiyah to consolidate the organisation, re-affirm the membership and re-expand the territorial works competing against co-religionist bodies and others.