Hundreds of supporters of Indonesian Hizbut Tahrir (HTI) are present in a HTI conference at the Bung Karno stadium, Jakarta, Sunday (2/6/2013). HTI encourages all Muslims to return to living under an Islamic Caliphate that enforces Islamic Sharia.
Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) was the first Islamic organization given sanctions based on Perppu (government regulation in lieu of law) No. 2 of 2017. The mass organization received an administrative sanction in the form of legal entity revocation due to its political ideology, which opposes Pancasila.
Therefore, HTI will be disbanded and all of its activities are prohibited. The assertiveness of the administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was a solution to the strengthening of religious radicalism that emerged after the 1998 reformation. Many people call it a revival of political Islam which has, since the Old Order and New Order, attempted to be silenced. After the reformation, this political Islam rose up to enjoy freedom in the name of civil rights guaranteed by the law.
This is its own anomaly because, on the one hand, the radicals speak out against democracy as an infidel system contrary to Islam. At the same time, however, they take refuge under civil rights, as such democratic rights contradict Perppu No. 2/2017 on the Amendment of Law No. 17/2013 on Mass Organizations (Perppu Ormas). They do not care about the limitation of civil freedom as a result of several things.
First, one\'s freedom is limited by the freedom of others. This means that freedom should not violate the freedom of others. Freedom with hate speech, for example, is freedom that violates the rights of others because it causes hatred.
Second is the freedom not to violate social norms of society. In the context of the nation, the norm is Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution and diversity. HTI and the radicals clearly violate the norms of the nation because they want to change those norms with a closed ideological norm.
Third, and this is the most fundamental, is the nature of our democratic freedom, which must be developed to strengthen the bonds of nationhood. This is the benchmark of democracy in Indonesia. Because, based on the values of Pancasila, the principles of democracy are under the umbrella of the principle of national unity. Our democratic practices cannot be carried out without caring for the nation.
Therefore, instead of rejecting Perppu No. 2/2017 on the grounds that the Perppu constitutes a dictatorial practice, we should support it for the sake of maintaining harmony, security and sustainability of the nation. Although there are things that still need to be criticized – for example, as a religious defamation article that is often interpreted as a rubber article, Perppu Ormas is "more sacred" than Law No. 17/2013 on Mass Organizations. In this law, each mass organization is only obliged to be based on Pancasila, aside from specific organizational principles. It does not regulate sanctions on anti-Pancasila principles.
Avoiding coup
The application of Perppu Ormas against HTI constitutes a bold step of the Jokowi administration because this organization is not only a dakwah (propagation) organization, but also a political movement. In a number of Middle Eastern countries, Hizbut Tahrir has been banned, for example, in Jordan in 1953, Iraq (1972) and Egypt (1974). The reasons were diverse, ranging from ideological teachings considered contrary to the state ideology to attempted coups through military force.
Attempted coups are not surprising because the HT/HTI movement covers three stages. First, marhalah tasqif, the stage of culturalization. This is an early stage that has been carried out in this country since the arrival of HT preacher and HT Australia activist Abdurrahman al-Baghdadi in1982. This stage was carried out by HT founder Qadli Taqiyudin al-Nabhani on students in Bogor, without informing them that the presented ideas were part of HT\'s vision. After the culturalization began to strengthen, in 1987, the identity of the HT movement was announced.
This culturalization stage was conducted in secrecy, either through activities of study circles in the verandah of the mosque or through the campus dakwah institution network. Repression of the New Order on the extreme right forced them to move underground and limited them to the tasqif stage, which has continued today.
With a push for freedom following the political reform in 1998, HT activists started to develop the second stage, namely dissemination (tafa’ul ma’al ummah). HTI as an official organization was declared in 2000. They also held the International Caliphate Conference in Jakarta. In the conference, president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was asked to establish a caliphate through an open letter.
Until before its dissolution, HTI still used this stage to expand programs and create institutional wings on all fronts. They have Halaqah Islam and Cilization(HIP), Bina Syakhsiyah Islam (BSI), Muslim Women Forum for Civilization (Formuda) by HTI Muslim women, Conference of Public Figures, preaching gatherings for the community, Campus Activist Intellectual Dialogue (Dialectika) and Islamic youth training courses.
Meanwhile, the third stage is law enforcement (istilam al-hukm). What is meant by the term is Islamic sharia and its enforcement through the establishment of the Khilafah Islamiyah globally. For the sake of this global caliphate, it is expected that every nation with Muslims should conduct preachings through HT branches. The attempted coup in Jordan, Iraq and Egypt was an attempt by HT to realize the istilam al-hukm as the peak of their movement.
Insult against Pancasila
There is no need to worry about the dissolution of HTI because it opposes Pancasila and even labels it infidel. In its ideological propaganda, HTI emphasizes the illegality of Pancasila and the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), which is not considered Islamic.
Since the 1990s, HTI has dismissed Pancasila for not being suitable with Islam (al-Banshasila falsafah kufr la tattafiq ma’a al-Islam). Its reason was that Pancasila applies religious pluralism and accommodates non-Islamic ideologies (nationalism, socialism, democracy and humanism).
Accusations of its infidel nature illustrates a lack of understanding on Pancasila, as it does not necessarily embrace religious pluralism but instead simply provides a constitutional umbrella for the protection on the rights of religion and its services.
As the foundation of the modern state, Pancasila and our Constitution do not place themselves as the religious verifiers, but rather as the protectors of the religious practices, which have been varied since the country’s inception. At the same time, Pancasila indeed accommodates world ideologies. The question is, is Islam in conflict with these ideologies? Not including communism, Islam does stand contradictory to the ideologies, nationalism and democracy included.
Therefore, it is clear HTI has insulted Pancasila and had a political agenda that was contradictory to the NKRI. The problem is, state intelligence is needed in formulating a legal umbrella.
The government cannot act strictly because the mass organizations can be dissolved only when they commit criminal acts and cause social unrest. Civil rights is the main principle of human rights and democracy.
The problem is, aren\'t all laws and even the 1945 Constitution under Pancasila the foundation of the state? This confirms the position of Pancasila as the state fundamental norms (Staatfundamentalnorms) and therefore basis of the formulation of laws. If HTI has rejected Pancasila, doesn\'t it reject the constitutional basis of all the products of the laws? It means it is not entitled to be defended by the Law on Human Rights because it has denied the legal basis of various laws in this country. Therefore, it is appropriate if the government takes legal steps to dissolve the organization through Perppu Ormas, Perppu No.2/2017.
