Papers by Ahmad Rizky M. Umar
Delphine Alles’ book under review here offers an original and insightful analysis of Islam and co... more Delphine Alles’ book under review here offers an original and insightful analysis of Islam and contemporary Indonesian foreign policy. Drawing on a sociological framework that focuses on the interactions between state and nonstate actors, Alles goes beyond the ‘standard’ state-centric approach that sees Indonesia’s foreign policy as merely a ‘state-to-state’ business. From this novel viewpoint, she proposes that transnational non-state actors, whose interests are underpinned by religious (that is: Islamic) motives, also shape Indonesia’s foreign policy. Alles argues that Islam in Indonesia’s foreign policy has always been connected, historically and sociologically, with various transnational Islamic actors beyond the archipelago—including other Muslim-populated states, Islamic intellectual movements, transnational Islamic organizations,
and transnational individuals.....
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Asian Review, 2017
In this paper, I introduce the concept of “anti-colonial internationalism” as the ideological sou... more In this paper, I introduce the concept of “anti-colonial internationalism” as the ideological source of Indonesia’s foreign policy between 1945 and 1965. Th is concept has been neglected by international relations scholars in favor of the rival idea of “liberal internationalism.” I argue that anti-colonial internationalism in Indonesia’s foreign policy has been rooted in three aspects, namely 1) decolonial thought that was developed by Indonesian anti-colonial intellectuals in early 20th century, 2) the political thoughts of nationalist leaders and debates during the state formation process in 1945, and 3) the memory of the diplomatic struggle during the revolutionary era (1945-1955). Th e inauguration of the Bandung Conference exemplifies the outreach of anti-colonial internationalism in world politics, which inspires the call for decolonization in world politics. Taking the Bandung Conference as the point of departure, this article will investigate the extent to which decolonial thought and anti-colonial nationalism works with an “internationalist” spirit in Indonesia’s foreign policy between 1945 and 1965.
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This article offers a rethinking of "Islam Nusantara" from the story of a Banjarese "ulama", Syek... more This article offers a rethinking of "Islam Nusantara" from the story of a Banjarese "ulama", Syekh Arsyad AL-Banjari. The most prominent Banjarese Islamic legal scholar in his age, Syekh Arsyad provides a lesson on how to cultivate Indonesian Islamic intellectual tradition, as well as proposing the spirit of "progress" in Islamic teachings.
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Power, Conflict, and Democracy, 2017
This article develops a theory of European power as ‘global governmentality’, with a particular r... more This article develops a theory of European power as ‘global governmentality’, with a particular reference to European Union (EU)’s engagement of civil society in Indonesia through a package of “civil society strengthening programs”. In contrast to arguments of ‘normative power’ or ‘civilian power’ in the European Union, that put emphasis on EU’s normative framework in explaining EU’s diplomatic engagements in world politics, this article argues that European Union’s global outreach is best seen as the politics of governmentality, which comprises the spread of norms to the “global south” through various developmental strategies in order to form particular subjectivities based on European Union’s “normative framework”. This argument will be applied to empirically explain the role of EU’s engagement of civil society in Indonesia. To substantiate the argument, this article will analyse (1) the debate on recent theorisation of “European power” in EU and International Relations studies, with a reference to Ian Manners’ conception of “Normative Power Europe”; (2) the snapshot of EU’s engagement with civil society Indonesia through various programs and (3) the construction of European power as ‘global governmentality’, which will be drawing upon the assessment of EU’s engagement of civil society in Indonesia.
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The Jakarta Post, 7 January 2011. I argue that Natalegawa Doctrine should be read critically as a... more The Jakarta Post, 7 January 2011. I argue that Natalegawa Doctrine should be read critically as an appropriation of changing global politics.
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Strategic Review Indonesia, 15 March 2016
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Strategic Review Indonesia, 7 December 2015
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The extractive sector has over the years been characterised by opacity, government interference a... more The extractive sector has over the years been characterised by opacity, government interference and a lack of understanding by the public on the processes around it. Credible, transparent and accountable decision making processes enhance policy coherence in any sector. This idea implies the acknowledgement of multistakeholders engagement in extractive governance. It is within this idea that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) works, bringing along the government, extractive companies, and civil society groups in the process of governance. Why MultiStakeholders Engagement? The EITI was established as a model of reporting to increase transparency of payments and revenues in the extractive sector. Before its establishment, there was no mandatory disclosure for states or companies regarding their revenues and payments made to the governments they operated in. The EITI Standard, which was launched in 2013, demands a tripartite structure of governance brings together the government, companies and civil society organizations and requires fiscal disclosures through mandatory reporting for its members. The reporting standard should be auditable and all stakeholders should be able to access the information and reports produced by states and companies. Against this backdrop, the EITI acknowledges the role of stakeholders in its decisionmaking processes through MultiStakeholders Groups (MSG), The role of MSG is crucial in creating ownership, building capacity, consensus and long term development in policy making. The coordination and successful implementation of an MSG is not easy to achieve. Every stakeholder brings on the table a level of expertise and interest that cannot be ignored. On the one hand, Governments often display reluctance in opening up their processes to public scrutiny, let alone working with the private and civil sectors. On the other hand, CSOs and private companies come laden with demands that must be met to fulfil their interests. A solid MSG requires working out party interests and navigating party dynamics in a careful balancing act for successful and effective execution. The EITI has been governed, since its establishment, through such a coordinated system. Implementing countries have put in place structures and policies that have enhanced the legitimacy and efficiency of the initiative a credible measure to promote transparency and accountability. At the international level, the EITI secretariat is governed by a board made up of multistakeholder representatives who oversee the implementation of the standard at a global level.
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Global Policy, 25 February 2016
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The Conversation, 20 January 2017
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The aim of this research is twofold.First, it aims to reconstruct the history and historicity of ... more The aim of this research is twofold.First, it aims to reconstruct the history and historicity of Muhammadiyah in the Southern part of Kalimantan, which is now embodied in ‘South Kalimantan’ province. Second, it also aims to highlight ‘dialogues’ and ‘polemics’, as well as inter-societal interactions that enables Muhammadiyah to co-exist with other religious organisation in local context. In contrast to recent accounts that emphasise the exceptional and unique origins of Muhammadiyah as a representation of ‘Indonesian Islam’, this research argues that the development of Muhammadiyah in South Kalimantan was in fact enabled by inter-societal interactions and ‘international connection’, which was localised through the practices of social and economic movement. Hence, the ‘locality’ of Muhammadiyah should be understood in relations to changing international context, as well as colonial and post-colonial development that shapes Muhammadiyah’s unique articulations in local context. It does so by drawing a historical-sociological analysis of Muhammadiyah in Kalimantan upon a longue-duree.
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This article aims to understand the political construction of the “Moderate Islam” as a discourse... more This article aims to understand the political construction of the “Moderate Islam” as a discourse in contemporary Indonesia’s foreign policy. Since 2004, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched some campaigns to project Moderate Islam as the image of Indonesian Islam. Within this discourse, Islam is conceived as “moderate” and “tolerant” as well as inherently democratic. However, in a more critical perspective, this Moderate Islam also contains a political and discursive construction. By using a genealogical approach, this article argues that the articulation of Islam in Indonesia’s foreign policy is influenced by the ideological underpinnings of each political regime as well as the hegemonic discourse operating in international politics. Furthermore, there have been three discourses of Islam in Indonesia’s foreign policy, as articulated by each political regime, namely (1) Islam as religious identity; (2) Moderate Islam from below, and (3) Moderate Islam as a part of Global War on Terror project.
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This article aims to explain the participation of stakeholders in the making of ASEAN Community a... more This article aims to explain the participation of stakeholders in the making of ASEAN Community after the regional political-economic transformation in 2003. The establishment of ASEAN Community, which is based on three pillars (politics & security, economics, social and cultural) has led to a more complex interactions between actors in the region. Before 2003, ASEAN has been perceived only as an 'international organisation', which is centered around the 'member states' as the only influential actor in the region. Following the establishment of ASEAN Community as a new form of regionalism in 2003, this article argues that the newly-established regional community has opened up spaces for contestations between the state and other new actors in the region, most notably business actors (both big businesses and small-and-medium enterprises) and civil society organisations. Drawn upon the critical perspective, this article argues that emerging interactions between actors in the region has been enabled by the transformation of space structure in ASEAN, that opened up spaces for contestations between stakeholders in the newly-transformed regional organisation. It thus leads to the more complex understanding of regionalism in Southeast Asia. The arguments provided will also be assessed by two case studies on the regionalisation of Human Rights NGOs and Small-and-Medium Enterprises in Indonesia.
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This article aims to explain discourses and articulations of Islamist movements in Egypt and Indo... more This article aims to explain discourses and articulations of Islamist movements in Egypt and Indonesia. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as one of the most important political force following the regime change in 2011. They have succeeded in installing Mohammad Morsy and Freedom and Justice Party in power after winning the 2012 General Elections. In Indonesia, the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) has also emerged as one of strong political parties following 1998 Reformasi, even though their success was not as visible as the Muslim Brotherhood. By using post-foundationalist approach, this article attempts to provide an explanation of discourses and articulations of both movements in the political arena. Having traced the historical-political trajectory of Islamist movements in Egypt and Indonesia, this article argues that both Islamist movements have departed from a universalist conception of 'Islam' that aims to politically articulates Islam as a basis of the state. This article also finds that there have been different achievements of these attempts in Egypt and Indonesia, due to strategies, articulations, and negotiation with other political forces in each states.
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Artikel ini mencoba untuk mendiskusikan secara kritis konsepsi Ibn Khaldun tentang politik dan ma... more Artikel ini mencoba untuk mendiskusikan secara kritis konsepsi Ibn Khaldun tentang politik dan masyarakat dan melacak konstruksi epistemologis yang ia bangun. Dalam bukunya yang fenomenal, Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun mencoba untuk membangun sebuah interpretasi sejarah dengan membacanya dari pola-pola interaksi sosial manusia dan jatuh-bangunnya sebuah peradaban. Dibangun dari seting politik Afrika Utara dan Timur Tengah abad ke-13, Ibn Khaldun membangun teorinya tentang ashabiyah dengan melihat peran penting solidaritas sosial dan kontestasi-kontestasi politik dalam pembangunan sebuah peradaban. Dengan demikian, bagi Ibn Khaldun, politik dan masyarakat bukan dibangun dari pemahaman terhadap hukum atau agama yang utuh, melainkan pada kekuatan sosial yang saling berkontestasi di masyarakat. Islam menjadi basis ideologis penting dalam membangun kekuatan sosial karena kekuatan ‘aqidah’ yang mendorong terbangunnya Ashabiyah, dan secara lebih jauh membangun keteraturan dalam masyarakat melalui hukum yang ada di dalamnya. Pemikiran Ibn Khaldun tersebut membawa corak pemikiran Islam yang berbeda dengan pemikir-pemikir lain pada masanya, seperti al-Mawardi atau Ibn Taimiyyah yang melihat negara Islam dalam kerangka legalistik. Secara lebih jauh, artikel ini juga melihat warisan pemikiran Ibn Khaldun dalam teori-teori politik kontemporer, seperti Karl Marx dan Thomas Hobbes yang mewarnai pemikiran politik modern. Artikel ini sampai pada kesimpulan bahwa teori-teori tentang negara dan masyarakat Islami, sebagaimana diulas oleh Ibn Khaldun, juga bisa dilihat secara realis dan sosiologis dan tidak melulu hanya derivasi dari teks-teks keagamaan.
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This Policy Brief sets up some recommendations for the revitalisation of ASEAN Intergovernmental ... more This Policy Brief sets up some recommendations for the revitalisation of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). Adapted from a research by ASEAN Studies Centre, Universitas Gadjah Mada, this Brief has addressed three problems in AICHR, such as (1) Lack of authority from secretariat; (2) 'controversial' Human Rights declaration, and (3) limited space for stakeholder's participation. This Brief calls for an institutional reform within the Commission to improve Human Rights institutionalisation in ASEAN.
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Jurnal Diplomasi Vol 6 No 2 (2014): 1-46
This paper aims to analyze how the bebas-aktif foreign policy deals with the contemporary develop... more This paper aims to analyze how the bebas-aktif foreign policy deals with the contemporary development of global capitalism. Drawn upon political economic approach, this article argues that Indonesia’s foreign policy since 1945 has created some linkages with development policy of each political regimes in Indonesia. Foreign policy in post-independence era, as noted by former Vice President Mohammad Hatta, was marked by an attempt to avoid the rising conflicts between the US and the Sovyet Union that can harm Indonesia’s relations with other states as well as to obtain development funds through trade with third world countries. However this doctrine was relied upon domestic political landscape that is in fact fragile to political changes. Several cases from Sukarno’s nationalist government until Suharto’s capitalist New Order show that regime change and the politics of development, both in national and regional level, influenced Indonesia’s foreign policy.
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Ulil Albab: Jurnal Studi Islam Vol 15 No 1, 2014: 69-96
This article aims at analyzing the relations between student movement and political party in post... more This article aims at analyzing the relations between student movement and political party in post-reform era of Indonesia. KAMMI, a prominent Islamist student movement in Indonesia, often associated with PKS (Prosperous JusticeParty) in terms of identity and political practices. It has created ‘independence dilemma’ for KAMMI because since its first Muktamar in 1998, this student organization has declared ‘independent from all political forces’. This article,using Lacanian psychoanalytical tradition, exposes the forms of KAMMI’s subjectivity and PKS interpellation that enable this political party to dominate KAMMI’s articulatory practices. The interpellation process is supported withthe projection of fantacy, emotion, and mirror in the development of KAMMI since 1998 until present. It leads to PKS creating the KAMMI identity and thus made KAMMI’s articulatory practices identical with this party. However, there were several attempts to dislocate the hegemony through several internal reform movements. These attempts, although made contribution to internal dynamics within KAMMI, were unable to create alternative discourse dueto several limits of those movements. The case of KAMMI can be a model to explain how other student movements develop and relate to political parties in post-reform Indonesia.
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Jurnal Maarif Vol 9 No 2 (2014)
This article intends to problematising the relations between (neo)liberal development project and... more This article intends to problematising the relations between (neo)liberal development project and the multicultural politics in post-reformasi Indonesia. Contrast to mainstream studies on multicultural politics who believes that multiculturalism should be imposed to society as a normative thought and must be defended from authoritarian state or religious fundamentalists, this article argues that multicultural politics is unable to be imposed within a neoliberal economic and political structure. Neoliberal governmentality has transformed social structure through several technologies of the self that includes capacity building, competitive-based community empowerment, and quasi participatory planning. However, to some extent, the progress of neoliberal governmentality were constrained by resistances from people who were economically marginalized within the market system. Those resistances, as reflected in the Kulon Progo case, has influenced the future of multicultural politics in the regency because it transforms how the people in Kulon Progo perceives ‘The Other’ in a more conflictual landscape. By using Michael Foucault’s concept of governmentality, this article will analyse the relations between multicultural politics and development in post-New Order Indonesia, with a case study on Kulon Progo District, Yogyakarta.
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Papers by Ahmad Rizky M. Umar
and transnational individuals.....
and transnational individuals.....