Certainly it is too early to say if the current popular uprising in Tunisia will lead this country into democracy. Nevertheless, there is enough ground to assume that the dramatic scenes from the Mediterranean country, in particular the removal from power of an authoritarian ruler, Zine el-Albidine Ben Ali, have caught the attention of many in Indonesia, taking them almost 13 years back in time to the downfall of another authoritarian ruler, Soeharto.
Therefore, it is no wonder that The Jakarta Post editorial of Jan. 17 starts by saying: “The events unfolding in Tunisia are reminiscent of the fateful days of May 1998 in Indonesia that saw the collapse of a corrupt regime”.
But what about Tunisia, populated dominantly by Muslims. Is the successful transition to democracy by Indonesia, a home to the largest Muslim community in the world, considered by the protesters there to be, in this way or another, an encouraging source for inspiration? As far as we know, the answer is no.
Millions of Muslims in contemporary Indonesia have a strong feeling of bonding with the huge Muslim communities in the Arab world and of closeness to them. Consequently, though living in an archipelago considered sometimes a remote periphery of the Islamic world, many of them are very attentive to the political developments in the Arab world.
But Muslims in both the Middle East and North Africa are much less knowledgeable about Indonesia; for most of them, similarly to most people elsewhere, it is almost a terra incognita that stretches far beyond the horizon.
Hence, though Indonesia is deeply engaged in a more-than one-decade-long process of building the third-largest democracy in the world, which is strongly and widely encouraged and supported by the huge Muslim mainstream in the country, this impressive process seems to catch only slight attention in the Arab world.
Indeed, news relating to Indonesia has a presence in the Arab media, but Indonesia’s transition to democracy, per se, is never seen beyond the black and white print of newspaper stories.
The exceptions are very few, such as journalist commentaries, op-ed columns etc., whose writings attempt to draw encouragement from democratic achievements worldwide, including in Indonesia.
For certain people among them the case of Indonesia gives hope by providing evidence that the global process of democratization does not leave untouched countries with a predominantly Muslim population, which is compelling evidence of the compatibility of Islam and democracy and consequently an understanding that the current state of democracy in their region has nothing to do with Islam.
Varied explanations can be suggested for this phenomenon, among them: The Arab world has been affected in a limited way only by what is often described as a worldwide democratic revolution.
Certainly it has had an effect on the nature of the public discourse there; media gives preference to high-rating current reports, obviously democracy, to exclude events such as general elections, is not included in this category; reporting about a process of democratization needs a deep panoramic view into the given country. Such a view into Indonesia is a rarity in the local Arab media and is a product of mainly foreign experts, publicists and columnists.
The fact that Indonesia’s transition to democracy has had a very limited presence in the Arab media stands in sharp contrast to the continuous reverberating of Indonesia’s name in the background.
Quite often the name of Indonesia is noted in Arab media to signify the eastern border of the Islamic world; as a sort of a remote marker that clearly illustrates the hugeness of the Islamic world.
Thus such phrases often appear in the Arab media in varied contexts: min al-maghreb hata Indunesia (“from the Maghrib until Indonesia”), min aqsa al-Mashreq, Indunesia, ila aqsa al-Maghreb (“from utmost East, Indonesia, to utmost Maghrib), and min Indunesia sarqan hata al-maghreb gharban (“from Indonesia eastward until Maghrib westward”).
The name of Indonesia is also mentioned often in overview reports that aim to show a global Islamic assertive voice and Islamic solidarity on a either religious or political basis. In such contexts and in other connections phrases that describe the huge number of Muslims in Indonesia are commonly used in the Arab media, for example, Al-dawla al-Islamiyya al-akbar (“the largest Islamic country”), al-balad al-Muslima al-akbar (“the largest Muslim country”), and akbar al-buldan Al-Islamiyah sukanan (“the largest Islamic country in regards to the population”).
To sum up, whereas expectations are often expressed both in Indonesia and outside to see its impressive transition to democracy as a model for other Muslims countries, it is not included now in the associative realm of the advocates of democracy in Tunisia. Indonesia, as a contemporary complex of society, polity and culture, seems to be perceived there, generally speaking, as in many other parts of North Africa and the Middle East in ambiguous and abstract terms that are not much anchored in the current reality.
Dr. Giora Eliraz is an associate researcher at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and affiliated fellow at KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies in Leiden.
