Political Thought of Malay Thinkers (Part 4)

The Political Thought of Mohammad Natsir

He was born at Kota Alahan Panjang, West Sumatra on 1908. The city was known as educating reform scholars and steep into the Minangkabau tradition. Mohammad Natsir had exposed early in his life on the discourse between those who wanted to keep traditions and those who wanted to bring reform to the Muslim society.

Until 1927, he was educated at primary (HIS) and secondary (MULO) schools that was created by the Dutch for local students. The students were educated in the Dutch language. Apart from that, he was also sent to Madrasah Diniyah to learn Arabic and Al-Quran. He was continuing his study to Bandung at AMS which was a boarding school that teach local students on classical European literature. Since he was from Sumatra, he was being looked down by other students that come from Java that had better school. At first, he was having difficulties understanding Latin, but through hard work, he managed to achieve good grade. 

From youth, he already joined the Union of Young Muslim (JIB) that was mentored by Haji Agus Salim, a prominent figures that regularly works with Dutch government. This organization was focused on the development of young Muslim to study Islam in the right way and prepared them in the environment of Dutch education. He was also regularly writing to magazine Pembela Rakyat to share his thinking about various issues. He was also involved in Persatuan Islam or PERSIS. It was founded by Ahmad Hasan and considered one of the strictest Islamic organizations at that time. In this organization he built relationship with his longtime friends such as Mohamed Roem, Prawoto Mangkusasmito and Kasman Singodimejo. He was committed to the cause of PERSIS that he regularly travel from Bandung to Batavia to attend meeting. His good grades give him a chance further his studies at Batavia in law and could even go to Rotterdam, Netherlands, but he rejected it. He credited to his involvement in JIB and PERSIS to make him more focus on Islamic causes instead of depending to Dutch education.

His political thought had started to appear from his education days since he sees that the Christians was using education to inculcate Western values onto the Muslims and eventually abandoning Islam. He also very critical to the Dutch colonial government that only keen to help Christians building schools, hospital and social welfare while abandoning Islamic organizations.

In relation to religion and politics, he considered the role of religion is important in building the nation. Islamic values is not just for rituals, but important in creating social order and interaction between different religion and tribes in the nation. He also believes that traditional Muslim scholar at that time incapable of facing the larger and more complex ideas from the West that had influencing Muslims. Their understanding of politics had become too narrow. Politics should be considered as ijtihad and open to changes depending on the context. He also sees that a council of experts should guide the society since he believes that musyawarah or consultation is an important principle in Islam and is part of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. teachings.

He also sees that nation-building is not the ultimate goals of Muslims, but to ensure that Islamic law and values will be established and implemented in the individual and national level. The nation and its people were mirrors to each other. We can see how the nations condition if we see its people conditions. His idea has similarities with Burhanuddin al-Helmy where both of them agree that loving an nation is part of Islamic faith.

Although he is not trained in Cairo, he did influenced by reformist thinkers such as Abduh and Rashid Rida. He also thinks that Muslims in Netherlands East Indies does not necessarily need to unite with Muslim around the world politically and creating a new Khilafah. He also believes that Western powers are concerning too much of pan-Islamism, while in reality each Muslim are only concern about their own country problems.

Mohammad Natsir, Syed Sheikh al-Hadi and Burhanuddin al-Helmy, were influenced by reformist thinkers from Middle East especially on their writings. But it was only influential in trying to relate about religion and the realities on nationalism. Rarely do they subscribe their ideas in political implementation and nation-building.

He also agrees that Islamic teachings did not need to regulate everything in human life. Islam should be the core values in the society and politics of a nation should always guide by the Quran. In talking about Islamic nation, he rejected the term theocracy since in Islam there is no priesthood, so it does not necessarily a person of religion holding the power. He really believes in the ideas of democracy and considered it as was to combat despotism and corruption that could potentially be done by tyrant.

He quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt ideas that democracy is a freedom of expression, religion, want and fear. Democracy helps regulate the relationship between different religion and tribes. Democracy also helps to ensure the government did not oppress the governed. He promoted that Indonesia should have separation of powers that the European have in their political system. He also criticizes Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia to try to differentiate between Western and Eastern democracy. Mohammad Natsir said there are only either democracies or no democracy at all. His criticism to Sukarno at that time was a reaction to Sukarno becoming too powerful and tries to create a political structure without opposition to him.

He was involved in Partai Syuro Muslimlin Indoneisa (Masyumi), the prominent Islamic political party in Indonesia and had for a brief of time appointed as the prime minister of Indonesia from 1950-1951. His rise in politics was started when he was involved in Komite Nasional Indonesia Pusat. In the middle of confusion between the surrendering of Japanese, the new Republican government and the arrival of British and the Dutch, he was appointed Minister of Information under Sutan Sjahrir administration. His contribution to the dissemination of information about the government activities was considered important since he was close to the journalist and easily approachable. 

His short stint as Prime Minister was attributed to the failure of Indonesia political system. There are no elected parliamentarian that amended the law that was truly represented by the people. The political parties need to be accountable to the electorate. He has confronted with Sukarno to change the system but Sukarno still believes in the presidential cabinet system. Mohammad Natsir also failed to confine Sukarno as only a figurehead president. Throughout his life, he continues to promote parliamentary system for Indonesia political system.

Mohammad Natsir also quoted Ernest Renan on the idea of the importance of spiritual sense of living and dying together to build a strong nation. This idea is important since Indonesia has thousands of islands with different tribes. He also did not sure if this wide definition of nationalism is enough to guarantee a unified country in the future. He already promoted the idea since the time of Dutch colonials, but it was not taken seriously. His moderate idea also helped to collaborate with nationalist who is not religiously leaned later when he was involved in the government. 

His contribution to Indonesia was silenced in the time of Suharto since his influence among Islamic groups could create a threat to Suharto rule. He was only regarded as Pahlawan Nasional in the time of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on 2008. His role in politics is short and he himself eventually created Dewan Dakwah Islamiah Indonesia where he focuses on politics through dakwah. His political party, Masyumi itself did not itself sustain long but a lot Islamic political leader in Indonesia still tries to associate themselves with Mohammad Natsir ideas and prestige.

Conclusion

There are a lot of similarities on the political thought of Malay thinkers in the early 20^th century. They all agree that there must be a new dimension in approaching the role of religion in politics. Their politics however is varied and most of them although important in instigating a spirit of independence and anti-colonialism, but eventually did not have a big role in leading the new country. Their influence until now is still on the level of intellectualism but not in the level of embracing it by politician. This could be that the political system had changed so much since pre-independence that it needed new political thought for post-colonial political structure. Islam continues to have influence in politics, although not on the level that these Malay thinkers thought it should be.

We should also continue to trace the element of European nationalism and modernity ideas in the Malay thinkers. While a lot of them is critical to the West, but they themselves unaware on how their thinking framework is very much influence by European. In this regard, we should understand Edward Said writings on orientalism and tries to relate it to the Malay world context.

References

Abdullah Firdaus, Mohd Nasir Omar & Idris Zakaria (2015). Pemikiran politik dan kenegaraan Mohammad Natsir. International Journal of Islamic Thought (7).

Adibah Sulaiman, Ezad Azraai Jamsari, Kamaruzaman Jusoff, Noor Inayah Yaakub, Wan Kamal Mujani, Wan Mohd Hirwani Wan Hussain & Zinatul Ashiqin Zaino (2011). Syed Shaykh Ahmad Alhady: A religious education reformist in the late 19 and early 20 Century. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research (7).

Ekrem Bugra Ekinci (2015, June 8). Myths and reality about the printing press in the Ottoman Empire. Daily Sabah.

Ibrahim Abu Bakar (1994). Islamic Modernism in Malaya: The Life and Thought of Sayid Syekh al-Hadi 1867-1934. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press.

Kamaruddin Jaafar (1979). Perjuangan dan Pemikiran Politik Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmy. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Kahin, R. Audrey (2012). Islam, Nationalism and Democracy: A Political Biography of Mohammad Natsir. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press.

Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (2011). A theory of colonialism in the Malay world. Postcolonial Studies 14 (1).