Qualitative Research on Political Party’s Perception towards Religious Education

A qualitative research was conducted to understand the political parties’ perception toward religious education to provide a more an elaborated and mutually complementary explanation together with the quantitative research on the legislative members’ opinion and attitude toward intolerance and radicalism. The data collection was conducted from June to August 2019 and managed to gather data from forty-six (46) informants, consisting of ten (10) female respondents (21.7%) and thirty-six (36) male respondents (79.3%) from sixteen (16) political parties which participated in the General Election 2019. Informants are politicians who hold high-rank positions at respective political parties or who are directly in charge of the issue of religion and/or education. Aside from the interview, data was gathered from the official documents of the political parties such as the establishment charter (Anggaran Dasar and Anggaran Rumah Tangga), the manifesto, the program and policies, as well as from the official statements and the statements from the prominent figure of a political party. After analysis of the responses and their patterns, the research concludes that political parties do not have a specific platform and political agenda on religious education except PKS (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera). While they are aware of the existence of the religion-influenced or religion-based regulations, they do not consider this kind of regulations as harmful as some people argue on the basis of Pancasila as the state ideology. They generally consider this kind of regulation as a logical consequence of religious values inherently contained in Pancasila and as a form of pragmatism for electoral interest, particularly at local political contests. Besides, there are at least three patterns of attitude, based on political parties’ categorization: 1) the nationalist that includes PDIP, Nasdem, PSI, PKPI and Perindo, 2) the religious nationalist that includes Golkar, Gerindra, Demokrat, Hanura, Berkarya and Garuda, and 3) the Islamist that consists of the modern Islamist (PKS, PAN, PBB and PPP) and the moderate-traditionalist Islam (PKB). Each category of political party has their own characteristic regarding to religious education and P/CVE. For example, the nationalist underlines the importance of civic values that accommodate pluralities. The religious nationalist encourages a balance on the implementation of religious values and civic values. Meanwhile, the modern Islamist expresses the Islam supremacy and the moderate-traditionalist Islam emphasizes a more locally contextualized religious education with local culture.

Geographical Scope: National

Region: UNDP Asia and the Pacific

Country: Indonesia

Theme of Research: Education Faith-based

Year Published: 2020

Responsible Entity: UNDP Indonesia