Faith and The State A History of Islamic Philanthr... - (Islamic Philanthropy in The Independent Indonesian State)

philanthropy in the independent indonesian state 169
PART THREE
Islamic philanthropy in the independent Indonesian

state
Copyright © 2013. BRILL. All rights reserved.
Fauzia, Amelia. <i>Faith and the State : A History of Islamic Philanthropy in Indonesia</i>, BRILL, 2013. ProQuest Ebook
Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/indonesiau-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1142767.
Created from indonesiau-ebooks on 2019-06-30 20:01:13.
170 part three
philanthropy in the independent indonesian state 171
Does civil society develop more strongly under a modern nation state? If
we follow a definition of civil society that requires the presence of clubs,
guilds or organisations, then modern history provides more opportunities
for civil societies because of the growing presence of such organisations.
Indeed the presence of organisations has strengthened after Indonesian
independence, and this includes philanthropic organisations. Various
forms of philanthropy have risen: voluntarism, neighbourhood zakat com-
mittees, mosque zakat organisations, waqf foundations (both in tradition-
al and modern-progressive forms), non-religious charitable organisations,
charity foundations, (modern) Islamic philanthropy organisations and
activities that fall under the heading of corporate social responsibility.
Charitable and philanthropic organisations derive more benefit in terms
of sustainability because they have resources, and alongside other types of
civil organisations, charitable/philanthropic organisations have developed
well in the independent Indonesia, especially after the time of Reformasi.
However, clubs and organisations are not the only factor in determining
the strength of civil society. Besides culture, the state (and its government)
also becomes a factor in creating the strength or weakness of civil society.
This factor shows that the state is also an active actor in the competition
related to Islamic philanthropy and in determining the strength or weak-
ness of civil society.
The form of the Indonesian state, which is neither secular nor an Is-
lamic state, but rather a “Pancasila” state, has opened a chance for Muslims
to include Islamic values and interests as the interest of the government
or state, and the government’s interest in managing zakat has been in-
creased since 1960s to contemporary times, from one of establishing a
state-based zakat agency as a division under the provincial government
(Chapter 5), to passing the Zakat Management Law, and centralising all
zakat payment to the national zakat agency called Baznas (Chapter 6).
The strengthened and modernised Islamic society has a contested rela-
tionship with the political power in maintaining that zakat and charitable
activities be managed by community-based philanthropy organisations.
The state’s efforts in managing Islamic philanthropy resources under its
power have been actively supported by the Ministry of Religion and po-
litical parties. Civil society organisations and activists of zakat have been
divided in their loyalties, either supporting the government—some with
their own terms and interests—or opposing the efforts of the state at in-
172 part three
terfering in, and managing, zakat and Islamic philanthropy matters (Chap-
ter 6). The contestation between the state and civil society has heated up
and is likely to continue.
The contestation and support for the state’s interference is likely to de-
rive from the fact that the people of Indonesia and the Indonesian govern-
ment are made up of a majority of Muslims—a fact which has resulted in
a psychology that blurs the boundary between Islam as personal matter,
and Islam in the public sphere. From the 1990s there has been an increase
in Islamisation1 that has made a split between support for Indonesia as a
secular country and for religious piety facilitated by the state.2 Therefore,
the efforts toward modernising zakat in particular were not only directed
at gaining greater autonomy and increasing the power of civil society, but
also inclined towards using state organs in order to empower zakat imple-
mentation.
Under this unique form of the state, state-civil society relations changed
depending on the political and religious tendencies of the government, or
the personality of the head of the government. There is a tendency that
strong government has led towards weak civil society and philanthropy;
and, by contrast, weak government leads toward a strong civil society and
level of philanthropy.
1 Akmal Nasery Basral, R. Fadjri and Heru C. Nugroho, “M.C. Ricklefs: There is deep
Islamization,” an interview in Tempo, no 43/VII, 25 Juni-02 Juli 2007, h. 22-25. It is also
published at Asia Views, online, URL http://www.asiaviews.org/index.php?option=com_con
tent&view=article&id=10810:featuresalias1144&catid=5:features&Itemid=27, visited on
09 September 2012.
2 For example, a survey found that 87 per cent of Muslims agreed with the concept of
democracy, 96 per cent agreed with Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, 62 per cent of
Muslims supported religious values being taken as state official law/regulation and 65 per
cent of Muslims agreed that the state should be involved in handling certain faiths. Amelia
Fauzia, et al., Islam di Ruang Publik: Politik Identitas dan Masa Depan Demokrasi di Indone-
sia, edited by Noorhaidi Hasan and Irfan Abubakar, Jakarta: Center for the Study of Religion
and Culture, 2011, pp. 114-5.

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