TENTHE POLITICS OF SHARI'ATIZATION:CENTRAL GOVERNMENTAL AND REGIONAL DISCOURSESOF SHARI'A IMPLEMENTATION IN ACEH
2007
One consequence of the greater political openness that followed the resignation
of Indonesia’s long-time dictator Suharto in 1998 was the demand
in several localities for implementation of Shari'a.2 The region that has
experienced the greatest change is Aceh where the provincial government
has been granted broad authority to establish Shari'a Courts (Mahkamah
Syariah), to implement Shari'a legislation, and to have its own Shari'a police
and enforcement mechanisms (wilayatul hisbah).3 The Department of Religion
officially inaugurated the new system on March 4, 2003, a date chosen to
coincide with the Islamic New Year (Muharram 1, 1423 AH). On that
date the existing Religious Courts (Pengadilan Agama) in Aceh were transformed
into Shari'a Courts and vested with new powers in the fields of
Islamic belief ('aqida), religious practice ('ibadat), and symbolism (Ind. syiar
< Ar. shi'ar).
This chapter examines the significance of the discourse on implementation
of a “comprehensive Shari'a” (Syariat Islam Yang Kaffah) for Acehnese
society. It will be argued that in the first years of the twenty-first century
Shari'a discourse has come to serve as a “master signifier” in Aceh, and
that other social signifiers, such as politics, law, education, and the economy
increasingly refer to and are defined by reference to the Shari'a.4 The chapter
focuses on the discourse on the establishment of Shari'a Courts and
implementation of Islamic law at two levels within the government—at the level of the central government in Jakarta and at the provincial level in
Aceh.5 The discourse of the religious establishment in Aceh will also be
considered. The analysis will seek to go beyond official accounts of the
process to grasp the power relations between central and regional governments
on the one hand and between the regional government and the
local religious establishment on the other. I will argue that the regional
government has attempted to position itself in the middle between the central
government and the religious establishment, and that this has enabled
the regional government to play the two sides off against each other. Thus,
instead of seeing Shari'a in Aceh purely in terms of a legal discourse, I
will emphasize its political dimensions as well.
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