ABSTRACT
In this chapter I argue that, notwithstanding Indonesia’s liberal democratic human rights framework, Islamist majoritarians have sought to institutionalise their own construction of human rights law through the establishment of concrete policies and institutional arrangements. These have included MUI edicts and ministerial regulatory instruments, both of which have redefined and repurposed typically liberal concepts as illiberal concepts hostile towards Islam. They have also sought to replace the concept of ‘religious freedom’ (kebebasan agama), which is ostensibly guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution, with that of ‘religious harmony’ (kerukunan umat beragama), an illiberal concept that has enabled Islamist majoritarians to use religious orthodoxy to marginalise and even persecute religious minorities under the guise of maintaining public order. When these efforts have proven inadequate, more militant elements within the Islamist majoritarian discourse coalition have exerted social pressure on law enforcement officials, either through engineered demonstrations involving significant numbers of people sympathetic to their cause, or through aggressive, intimidating, and even violent means directed at certain individuals and existing institutions.
To complement my arguments throughout the chapter, I draw on interviews that I conducted in Jakarta in July 2018 with figures closely involved in Ahok’s case.
