A study of youth political & religious affiliation.

The Friendster website, where young people post their profiles and make friends with like-minded people, is particularly popular with Indonesians, especially university students and young white collar workers. It is a good place, if you search around, to gauge the mind of young people in Indonesia and see where things might be heading in the country.

Friendster member who gives her affiliation as “sekarang ISLAM,,,besok ISLAM,,,,dan selamanya akan tetap ISLAM” (now Islam, tomorrow Islam, forever it will be Islam).

One of the ways that Friendster allows you to search for potential chums is by affiliation, where you can see what social, sporting, political, and religious associations the Friendster members claim to belong to or support. Restricting our search to country=Indonesia we can input the names of well-known political and religious groups, whether the main bodies or their youth or womens’ wings, and judge the relative strength of each group among young, tech-savvy, educated, middle-class Indonesians, the men and women who will likely shape the future, by seeing how many matches each search results in.

This young lass lists her only affiliation as “Kill all the Jew”.

Moderate Muslim Affiliation

First we’ll look at those who claim affiliation with the large, mainstream, “moderate”, Muslim social and political organisations, those groups and parties which have formally secular platforms and make some attempts to reach out to non-Muslim voters. All search counts are approximate.

Nahdlatul Ulama/PKB

The NU is the largest Muslim social group, with about 40 million members and is rural, Java based. Its youth group is Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, GP Ansor. Ansor has a para-military wing called Banser. The party most closely associated with the NU is Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa, PKB, the National Awakening Party, which won 10% of the vote in the 2004 elections.

• Search term “NU” brings up 150 matches
• “Nahdlatul Ulama”, 56 matches
• “Ansor”, 20 matches
• “Banser”, 10 matches
• “PKB”, 50 matches
• “Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa”, 50 matches

Muhammadiyah/PAN

Muhammadiyah is a modernist/Arabist, fairly strict but relatively moderate Muslim social group. It’s male youth wing is called Pemuda Muhammadiyah (Muhammadiyah Youth). Another youth group, open to both sexes, is called Ikatan Remaja Muhammadiyah (Muhammadiyah Teenagers’ Association). It’s students group is called Ikatan Mahasiswa Muhammadiyah. The political party most closely associated with Muhammadiyah is the Partai Amanat Nasional, PAN, the National Mandate Party, which won 6% of the vote in the 2004 elections.

• “Muhammadiyah”, 352 results, although some of these refer to simply being a student at a Muhammadiyah university.
• “Pemuda Muhammadiyah”, 25 matches
• “Ikatan Remaja Muhammadiyah”, 50 matches
• “Ikatan Mahasiswa Muhammadiyah”, 70 matches
• “PAN”, 150 matches
• “Partai Amanat Nasional”, 40 matches

Secular Affiliation

Golkar

Golkar, Partai Golongan Karya, is the former ruling party of Suharto and is a broad church party with secular and religious components, united in the pursuit of power and not much else. It could just as well have been placed in the “moderate” Muslim section above. It’s main support bases are off-Java and it won 21.5% in the 2004 elections. It’s youth wing is Angkatan Muda Partai Golkar, APMG.

• “Golkar”, 160 matches
• “Golongan Karya”, 10 matches
• “APMG”, 30 matches

PDI-P

PDI-P, Partai Demokrat Indonesia Perjuangan is a secular nationalist party with large Christian and Chinese support. 18.5% in 2004 elections.

• “PDI”, 110 matches

PD

PD, Partai Demokrat, is a party that was formed largely to get the current president of Indonesia elected. It won 7.5% in the 2004 elections.

• not possible to search accurately, too many false matches

Islamist Affiliation

Those parties which seek the imposition of Islamic law.

PPP

PPP, Partai Persatuan dan Pembangunan also has a strong association with NU but is more of an old-guard conservative Islamist party. 8% in 2004 elections.

• “PPP”, 40 matches

Icha, a PKS supporter, votes for the headscarf.

PKS

Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS, is a radical Islamist party that won 7% of the vote in the 2004 election. The English translation is Prosperity and Justice Party, or Prosperous Justice Party, or Welfare and Justice Party. KAMMI, Kesatuan Aksi Mahasiswa Muslim Indonesia, Indonesian Muslim Students’ Action Union, is its youth movement.

A picture of a PKS rally posted by a Friendster member.

“Partai Keadilan Sejahtera”, 240 matches

“PK Sejahtera”, 130 matches

“PKS”, 700 matches

“Justice Party”, 60 matches

“KAMMI”, 450 matches

Next we’ll look at hardline, non-party, Muslim associations, the wilder edge of Islamic politics in Indonesia, the militant groups.

Front Pembela Islam

The Front Pembela Islam, FPI, Islamic Defenders Front are a band of young men who attempt to enforce aspects of Islamic law by shows of force and intimidation on the streets.

“Front Pembela Islam”, 30 matches

“FPI”, 50 matches

Miscellaneous
Number of affiliations that contain these words:

• “Islam” - over 1000
• “Islamic” - 540
• “Muslim” - over 1000
• “Moslem” - over 1000
• “muslimah” (female Muslim) - 80
• “muslimin” (male Muslim) - 50
• “masjid” (mosque) - 600, “mesjid” - 280
• “allah” - 500
• “jihad” - 70
• “dakwah” - 100
• “berani mati” (willing to die) - 170
• “Ikhwanul Muslimin” (a jihadist group) - 20
• “Hizb ut Tahrir” (international Islamist political organisation) - 80

Friendster member who says he is looking to pal up with all sorts of people but “not for Jews”.

Conclusion

Clearly the PKS, despite the fact that it won only 7% of the vote in the 2004 elections, has the biggest avowed level of support among the legions of Indonesian Friendster users. PKS seems also to have considerable support especially among women and, geographically, is strongest in Jakarta and it’s grubby satellite cities.

The more traditional and moderate Muslim groups fall far behind the PKS in the Friendster numbers game. This, needless to say, and considering that the sort of people who join Friendster are students and the educated, bodes ill for the future of a secular, pluralistic Indonesia.

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