Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The resurgence of the right populism has characterized contemporary global politics, including Indonesia. This is indicated by 2017 Jakarta’s gubernatorial election triggering the use of religious identity politicization in electoral politics, which caused a defeat to Ahok, the Chinese Christian and incumbent candidate. Many experts assume that such tendency would reoccur in 2019 Indonesia’s simultaneous elections targeting political actors who allegedly anti-Islam and disfavor Muslim interest. Instead, two competing presidential candidates along with respective party coalitions have equally adopted similar nationalist populism in combination of Islamic rhetoric in their political strategies as a tool of mobilization focusing diverse democratic and religious constituencies for securing electoral advantages. The populist trend in Indonesia shows some unique characteristics distinguished of populism rising in the West that associated to particular ideologies. Therefore, this paper examines how the dynamics of Indonesia’s political contestation has reconfigured populist politics and its relations to secular nationalism-Islam discourse, and subsequently what impacts that this new kind of populism generate for the improvement of quality of democracy in the country. By employing the Crouch’s post-democracy concept and structural political economy approach in populist studies, it argues that hybridization of ideological discourses by populist candidates and their political parties in the upcoming electoral competition are merely used to seize power in more pragmatic and opportunistic ways, while maintaining interests of politico-economic elites, as well as oligarchic domination, rather than for materializing ideological commitment to democratic deepening in Indonesia. This trend refers to a phenomenon known as “post-democratic” populism.