Indonesian Democracy as a Model for the Middle East
Ahmad Sahide
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
Abstract
The Arab Spring became the political event that shook the Middle East since the end of 2010. This political event became the momentum of rise of the people power against the authoritarian leader. Democracy became one of the main issues as the aim of the people movement. Some states have consolidated democracy to fulfill the hope of the Arabian people. Tunisia as one of the state consolidating democracy succeeds, but some states failed, such as Egypt. Before the Arab Spring happened in Middle East, the same political turbulence had happened in Indonesia in 1998. In Indonesia, this is popularly known as the reformation. After that, Indonesia succeeds in consolidating democracy and now Indonesia is recognized as the democratic Muslim state in the world. Key success of Indonesia in consolidating democracy is the support of two biggest Islamic organizations, namely Muhammadiyah and Nahdatul Ulama, in transforming values of democracy and pluralism. The two biggest Islamic organizations are modern and they are not opposing the state. Even though some say that they are state in a state. The state can build harmonized relationship with the two biggest Islamic mass organizations. This one is not found in some states in Middle East. So, Indonesia can be the model of democracy from the states in the Middle East.
Keywords: Arab Spring, Middle East, democracy, Islamic Mass Organizations, and Indonesian democracy.
Topic: International Symposium on Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, and Religious Studies