Religion And The Influence Of Religion In Indonesia's Politics

Indonesia has been a land of religious diversity. In the ancient era it has witnessed Hindu-dominated empires and influence of Hinduism was evident there in Srivijaya-kingdom. Gradually Indonesia became a country with majority muslim citizens but it retained its secular pluralistic approach. But politicization of religion and vote-bank centric politics made the religion in Indonesian internal politics a point of maliciousness. But external policies remained predominantly secular. All these developments show an intricate combination of religious and secular motives in the politics. This article focused on the sheer external and internal intricate dynamics of Indonesia’s politics

Introduction

Religion as a boost to the anti-colonial upheavals played its own card in Southeast Asia. Indonesia remained no exception in this regard. Indonesia witnessed the glimpse of Darul Islam revolt in West Java and reaping the conditions to

Malaysia was a muslim majority state but for national interest Indonesia had taken up “crash Malaysia” policy. But the enmity ended to face the Chinese domination .It has been very clear that Indonesia’s external relations are guided by secular motives. Recently as member of ASEAN Indonesia is playing its regional role thus transcending the religious beliefs. Moreover international terrorism and continuous attack in Indonesia made the Indonesian leaders much more pragmatic and secular in foreign policy choices. Indonesia started its foreign relations with a bit anti western approach but from the Suharto era it started drifting from the anti Western path. So it is very clear that economic and political need made Indonesia pro-western and pro-secular. Indonesia was even enthusiastic about pro-west liberal trade system through ASEAN economic community. Western influence was increasing gradually and for sure internal politics and economics decisions are not isolated from