Two Failed Attempts to Islamize the Indonesian Constitution

Bibliographic Data

ID6086554
AuthorsR E Elson (corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume28
Issue3
Pages379
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0217-9520 • E-ISSN: 1793-2858
PublisherISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute (PUBLISHER • SG)
DOI10.1355/sj28-3a
OpenAlexW2005122099
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited11

In 1945 Indonesian politicians endeavouring to create a constitution for their hoped-for Indonesian state engaged in heated debate about the place of Islam in that state. However, the compromise at which they arrived, the famous “seven words” of the Jakarta Charter, was abruptly erased on 18 August, the day after the independence proclamation, by the committee charged with finalizing and validating the Constitution. Subsequently, there have been two further formal efforts to Islamize the Indonesian Constitution, the first in the late 1950s in the Konstituante (Constituent Assembly) and the second during the constitutional amendment process at the turn of the twenty-first century. Both failed. A comparative analysis of these latter efforts — with a particular focus on the nature and changing content of Islamist thinking on the Constitution and its relation to Islam — and on the differing contexts on which the debates took place, informs explanation of the dismal failure of both

Charter · Compromise · Constitution · Independence (probability theory · Indonesian · Islam · Political science · Proclamation · Sociology · State (computer science · Theology · Asian Studies and History · Indonesian Election Politics and Participation · Law · Legal Studies and Policies · Philosophy