ABSTRACT
Sukarno's revolutionary politics resulted in the alignment of Muslim groups against his regime of Guided Democracy and in favor of seeking engagement with the structures of the international political economy that Sukarno had severed. President Suharto practiced a top-down religious dirigisme that sought to co-opt Islam to legitimize his doctrine of development through liberalizing trade and finance. Southeast Asia is a region where the relationships between politics and Islam have been historically overlooked. The role of Islam in the republic (negara-agama) became an issue for the candidates during the 2009 presidential campaign. Helping to seal his second presidential victory, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) spoke of Islam as the "identity politics" of the republic, not the "practical politics". The presidency of SBY saw Indonesia's return to global politics with a renewed emphasis on Indonesia's historically most important foreign policy issue - economic development.
