ABSTRACT
The role of Islam, and its effect on constitutional development, has been one of the most central and difficult issues to resolve in Indonesian society dating back to the colonial era. Erman Rajagukguk’s chapter (Chapter 12) explores the social complications of Islamic versus adat or national law on a legal ethnographic basis looking at inheritance in Lombok. We address many of the same themes looking at the historical record surrounding the formation of Indonesia’s constitution(s), which were born in intense debate and internal conflict. Even today, after four constitutional amendments in recent years, the relationship of the Indonesian state to Islam is an issue hotly debated both in the formal political arena as well as the public domain. The role of Islam and its ambiguous position under Indonesia’s 1945 Constitution reflects our “chicken or egg” question in the Indonesian context, insofar as it represents the juncture of society and governance under law.
