T

he specter of a revived caliphate has engulfed the country in the past few months, but a recent survey has shown that not even one in 10 Indonesians is willing to replace democracy with an Islamic state, or caliphate.

The majority of Indonesian people support democracy based on the principles of Pancasila, the state ideology agreed upon by the nation’s founding fathers, according to a survey released on Sunday by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC).

The research found that 79.3 percent of 1,350 respondents supported the existing political system and regarded it as final, and rejected the idea of a caliphate proposed by some organizations. Only 9.2 percent of respondents agreed with a theocratic Islamic state and 11.5 percent did not give an answer. The research was conducted from May 14 to 20, with a margin of error of 2.7 percent.

It was the first survey conducted by SMRC regarding public support for the idea of establishing Islamic rule.

The release of the study comes as the government is mulling ways to disband Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), which campaigns for the creation of a caliphate, and less than a month after the country was again hit by a deadly terror attack inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group, which seeks to create a caliphate through violent jihad.

The survey asked respondents their opinions of HTI and IS, and the results show that the two groups remain on the fringe.

Of 66.4 percent of respondents who knew about IS, only 2.7 percent supported the movement, 89.6 percent rejected it and the rest did not answer. The number of respondents who said IS should be banned in Indonesia was even higher at 91.3 percent.

About 7.5 percent disagreed with the banning of IS, which has declared the area controlled by militants in southern Philippines as its province.

As for the HTI, 68.8 percent of the respondents rejected the organization and the goal it is trying to achieve. Only 11.2 percent supported the organization.

Meanwhile, 75.4 percent of the respondents said they knew of the government’s plan to disband HTI, of these people 78.4 percent said they agreed with the plan and 13.6 percent said they disagreed.

SMRC founder and researcher Saiful Munjani explained that those who disagreed with the banning of IS and HTI did not necessarily mean they supported them, saying that some of them argued that all organizations should be allowed in a democracy.

The survey found that most supporters of IS in Indonesia are from rural areas and from low-income backgrounds. HTI followers, meanwhile, are mostly from major cities and are largely middle class.

University of Indonesia senior sociologist Thamrin Tomagola, however, warned that even though support for IS was relatively small, the group still posed a threat to the country.

“There are at least two threats we can think of. One is a threat to the security of the country and the other is to its diversity,” Thamrin said in a discussion held following the release of the survey.

Thamrin said IS and HTI were threats to Indonesia because the country was culturally and religiously diverse. He said the country should fight against the two organizations but in two different ways.

“To fight against IS, the government should use armed force. For HTI, we should fight it through discussions,” Thamrin said.

Political analyst Azurmardi Azra concurred with Thamrin, saying that to counter the ideology of IS and HTI, the government should support local Islamic organizations that could embrace the country’s diversity.

“The government should empower Indonesian Islam,” he said.