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This study aims to describe the role of Siauw Giok Tjhan and Abdurrahman Wahid in mainstreaming the discourse of ethnic Chinese citizenship into an integral part of the Indonesian nation. This study uses historical research methods. The results showed that Siauw Giok Tjhan through Baperki (Indonesian Citizenship Consultative Body) an organization founded in 1954 had helped ethnic Chinese from discriminatory policies in order to obtain Indonesian citizen status (WNI). Siauw Giok Tjhan suggested that the ethnic Chinese should carry out a proper integration into the Indonesian nation-society. Through the concept of fair integration, Siauw Giok Tjhan tries to instill awareness in the ethnic Chinese about their Indonesian identity and nation building. However, the political changes after the G30S 1965 have become a setback for the ethnic Chinese to integrate. When Abdurrahman Wahid was president, various policies were carried out to assist ethnic Chinese in the integration process and eliminate discriminatory policies. The strengthening of identity politics today is also due to the absence of these two national figures.

This article discusses the thoughts of Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid regarding democratization in the reform era of Indonesia. It focuses on how Islam is articulated and implemented according to these two thinkers in the context of the changing of society-state relation in the reform era of Indonesia. To analyse and elaborate on their thoughts, the sociological and historical approaches as well as the prophetic sociology of knowledge are utilised or applied. It is argued here that the religio-political thoughts of the two thinkers go beyond a procedural democracy, arguing for a kind of democracy that is based on ethics and rationality where the relationship between strong society and the effective state in Indonesia is solidified and dignified.

Since independence, Islamic civil society groups and intellectuals have played a vital role in Indonesian politics. This paper seeks to chart the contestation of Islamic religious ideas in Indonesian politics and society throughout the 20th Century, from the declaration of independence in 1945 up until 2001. This paper discusses the social and political influence of, and relationships between, three major Indonesian Islamic intellectual streams: Modernists, Traditionalists, and neo-Modernists. It describes the intellectual roots of each of these Islamic movements, their relationships with the civil Islamic groups Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), their influence upon Indonesian politics, and their interactions with the state. The paper examines the ways in which mainstream Islamic politics in Indonesia, the world’s largest majority Muslim nation, has been shaped by disagreements between modernists and traditionalists, beginning in the early 1950s. Disagreements resulted in a schism within Masyumi, the dominant Islamic party, that saw the traditionalists affiliated with NU leave to establish a separate NU party. Not only did this prevent Masyumi from coming close to garnering a majority of the votes in the 1955 election, but it also contributed to Masyumi veering into Islamism. This conservative turn coincided with elite contestation to define Indonesia as an Islamic state and was a factor in the party antagonizing President Sukarno to the point that he moved to ban it. The banning of Masyumi came as Sukarno imposed ‘guided democracy’ as a soft-authoritarian alternative to democracy and set in train dynamics that facilitated the emergence of military-backed authoritarianism under Suharto. During the four decades in which democracy was suppressed in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, and associated NGOs, activists, and intellectuals were the backbones of civil society. They provided critical support for the non-sectarian principles at the heart of the Indonesian constitution, known as Pancasila. This found the strongest and clearest articulation in the neo-Modernist movement that emerged in the 1980s and synthesized key elements of traditionalist Islamic scholarship and Modernist reformism. Neo-Modernism, which was articulated by leading Islamic intellectual Nurcholish Madjid and Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, presents an open, inclusive, progressive understanding of Islam that is affirming of social pluralism, comfortable with modernity, and stresses the need for tolerance and harmony in inter-communal relations. Its articulation by Wahid, who later became president of Indonesia, contributed to Indonesia’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy. The vital contribution of neo-Modernist Islam to democracy and reform in Indonesia serves to refute the notion that Islam is incompatible with democracy and pluralism.

Civil Islamtells the story of Islam and democratization in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation. Challenging stereotypes of Islam as antagonistic to democracy, this study of courage and reformation in the face of state terror suggests possibilities for democracy in the Muslim world and beyond. Democratic in the early 1950s and with rich precedents for tolerance and civility, Indonesia succumbed to violence. In 1965, Muslim parties were drawn into the slaughter of half a million communists. In the aftermath of this bloodshed, a \"New Order\" regime came to power, suppressing democratic forces and instituting dictatorial controls that held for decades. Yet from this maelstrom of violence, repressed by the state and denounced by conservative Muslims, an Islamic democracy movement emerged, strengthened, and played a central role in the 1998 overthrow of the Soeharto regime. In 1999, Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid was elected President of a reformist, civilian government. In explaining how this achievement was possible, Robert Hefner emphasizes the importance of civil institutions and public civility, but argues that neither democracy nor civil society is possible without a civilized state. Against portrayals of Islam as inherently antipluralist and undemocratic, he shows that Indonesia's Islamic reform movement repudiated the goal of an Islamic state, mobilized religiously ecumenical support, promoted women's rights, and championed democratic ideals. This broadly interdisciplinary and timely work heightens our awareness of democracy's necessary pluralism, and places Indonesia at the center of our efforts to understand what makes democracy work.

Democracy and opposition are supposed to go hand in hand. Opposition did not emerge as automatically as expected after Indonesia democratized, however, because presidents shared power much more widely than expected. The result has been what I call party cartelization, Indonesian-style. This differs significantly from canonical cases of party cartelization in Europe. Yet it exhibits the same troubling outcome for democratic accountability: the stunted development of a clearly identifiable party opposition. Since the advent of direct presidential elections in 2004, Indonesian democratic competition has unsurprisingly assumed somewhat more of a government vs. opposition cast. But this shift has arisen more from contingent failures of elite bargaining than from any decisive change in the power-sharing game. So long as Indonesia's presidents consider it strategically advantageous to share power with any party that declares its support, opposition will remain difficult to identify and vulnerable to being extinguished entirely in the world's largest emerging democracy.

Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), Indonesia’s fourth president (1999–2001) and leader of the traditionalist Islamic organisation Nahdlatul Ulama (1984–1999), continues to influence Indonesia in positive and meaningful ways despite his death in 2009. He proved that Islam and a pluralistic political culture were compatible and that Indonesian Islam had a global role. His legacy continues through the Wahid Foundation, Nahdlatul Ulama, and the National Awakening Party. The Wahid Foundation operates under the directorship of his daughter, Yenny Wahid, and is dedicated to improving Islam and Indonesian society through documenting religious intolerance and injustice and by issuing recommendations. Following Nahdlatul Ulama’s National Congress in December 2021, its leadership has been dominated by Gus Dur’s allies, including his wife and four daughters, and his former presidential spokesperson Yahya Cholil Staquf, all of whom have a deep commitment to his values. Gus Dur’s former political party, the National Awakening Party, remains another institution which supports pluralism and secular inclusiveness. However, the relationship between Gus Dur’s allies and this party remains fractured, just as it was before he died. Despite an impeached presidency, a fallout with the National Awakening Party, and the considerable time that has passed since his death, he has produced an enduring legacy. Public deference to the late Gus Dur is reminiscent of the nine saints who Islamised Java half a millennia ago. This is because traditionalist Muslims believe that one’s deeds which produce on-going benefits to society will, in the afterlife, continue to accrue religious merit, and millions visit Gus Dur’s grave every year to demonstrate this.

This article examines the dramatic shift in the political strategy of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, during the 2024 presidential elections. Unlike its historically fragmented stance in previous elections, NU implemented stricter policies and actively mobilized members to support government-endorsed candidates. Notably, this marked the first time since 1998 that NU backed candidates without ties to the organization. This shift followed a leadership overhaul in 2021, which reshaped NU's political approach. The new leadership adopted a pragmatic strategy to maintain NU's influence within President Joko \"Jokowi\" Widodo's administration and secure future benefits under his successor, Prabowo Subianto.

Purpose-The objective of this research is to analyze the significance of the diplomatic relations between Indonesia and the DPRK from multiple perspectives, including historical background, current conditions, and future policies, taking into account the various dynamics at play. Design, Methodology, Approach-This research draws on interviews with relevant sources, including the former Indonesian Ambassador to DPRK and officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. It is also sourced from documentation of books, journals and credible news articles. Findings- After the authors conducted a combination of literature review and interviews, it can be said that diplomatic relations between Indonesia and the DPRK need to be maintained for various reasons, including the historical background that has been established for more than 50 years, mutual support in various international forums, and establishing a secure region. Practical Implications- Given the relatively limited literature available, this research is valuable for all segments of society interested in studying the bilateral relations between Indonesia and the DPRK in detail. Furthermore, it can serve as a foundation or reference for policymakers in shaping Indonesia's future approach towards the DPRK. Originality, Value- Through interviews with ambassadors who have directly served in the DPRK and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, this research offers new perspectives and insights that have not been previously explored.

Very few studies explicitly, let alone quantitatively, examine gaps in religious intolerance among individual Muslims based on a liation with major Muslim organizations in Indonesia. Most existing studies either focus on a single organization (non-comparative), are at the organizational policy level (not examining individual attitudes), or use a limited number of samples in their analysis. Against this backdrop, this study compares Indonesian Muslims' levels of religious intolerance based on their a liation with Muslim organizations or traditions: Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Muhammadiyah, and other organizations. We utilize a large-scale household survey, the 2014 Indonesia Family Life Survey-5, and run an ordinal logistic regression to identify organizations' rank on the religious intolerance scale. We find that Muslims without any a liation with a Muslim organization (some 18 percent of Indonesian Muslims) are the most tolerant. Against this reference group, we find that NU followers are generally the most tolerant, followed by those a liated with Muhammadiyah, and those a liated with other Muslim organizations. This finding adds a stock of knowledge to our understanding of religion and society, especially regarding interfaith relations in Indonesia and in the Muslim world in general. Methodologically, this study also shows the benefit and feasibility of identifying the dynamic of religious intolerance using a quantitative approach at a micro level.

This research aims to examine the role of Nahdlatul Ulama's (NU) diplomacy in spreading the values of Islam Rahmatan Lil 'Alamin to strengthen the conceptions of state and religion in Indonesia. This study is beneficial in understanding the fundamental religious organization (NU) that can contribute to interfaith and international dialogue and cooperation, support social harmony, and reinforce an inclusive and tolerant national foundation in Indonesia. Therefore, the current study deployed a qualitative research methodology. The analysis was conducted using data collected through a literature review, in-depth interviews with leaders and members of NU, and a content analysis of videos and netizen comments on the NU Online YouTube channel regarding discussions by Gus Dur about the formation of an Islamic state. This study also explores the genealogy of NU, the state and religious conceptions advocated by NU, and the biography and views of Gus Dur on the topic. The findings indicate that NU, through Gus Dur's thinking and an inclusive diplomatic approach, has actively promoted an interpretation of Islam oriented towards universal values such as justice, peace, and tolerance. NU reflects this by actively promoting Islam Rahmatan Lil 'Alamin as the foundation for a stronger, pluralistic, and democratic state. The study also examined the polemics of state and religious conceptions that trigger public discussions and explores the NU differences through cross-faith dialogue and understanding.