The Political Model of Islamic Development: A Comparative Study in Indonesia and Malaysia
Heri Kusmanto (a), Warjio (b)
(a) Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jalan Dokter A. Sofian 1A, Medan, 20222, North Sumatera, Indonesia
(b) Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jalan Dokter A. Sofian 1A, Medan, 20222, North Sumatera, Indonesia
Abstract
This article presents a comparative political model of Islamic societies in Indonesia and Malaysia. The political model of Islamic development was primarily determined by the ideology and the leader-s thought and strategies, although the strategy is often meant as the preaching efforts. In Indonesia, the preaching of Muhammadiyah is different with Al-Washliyah. Muhammadiyah is the Islamic society that struggling the religion purification and modern thoughts without depending to the Maddhab, while the Al-Washliyah keeps using the Maddhab as the ideological thoughts. The both Islamic societies use a holistic preaching strategy and keep their political distance against the government. This is on contrary with the Pertubuhan Kebajikan Islam Malaysia (Perkim), an Islamic society that has significant role in Islamic development and preaching activity in Malaysia. There is no political distance between the Perkim and government. In fact, most of the Perlim leaders are part of the government. Those difference in phenomena are interesting to analyze especially the difference in ideology and developmental politics through Forum Group Discussion (FGD) approach. The findings showed that the difference of political orientation and leader-s thought were the main factors of the difference of developmental politics in regard with the political distance against the government which was a part of strategic development. Differently, the absence of political distance between Perkim and the government indicates their poor political involvement, because it is merely focused on the Islamization efforts.
Keywords: Developmental Politics, Islamic Society, Muhammadiyah, Al-Washliyah, Perkim, Comparison
Topic: Local Politics and Decentralization