Disciplining the Accepted, Amputating the Deviant: Religious Nationalism and Segregated Citizenship in Indonesia
Topic : Disciplining the Accepted, Amputating the Deviant: Religious Nationalism and Segregated Citizenship in Indonesia（English speech）
Speaker : Dr. (Associate Fellow, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore & 2020 Taiwan Fellowship Scholar / CAPAS Visiting Scholar)
Chair : Dr. Wen-Chin Chang (Research Fellow, Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies (CAPAS), RCHSS, Academia Sinica)
Time : 14:30~16:30, Thursday, October 15, 2020【14:30-14:50 Registration】
Venue : R2319, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica
Online Registration : https://forms.gle/XxvtnCfWMJhFyUwE8
Registration Deadline : 17:00, Wednesday, October 14, 2020
【About the Talk】
Almost 90% of Indonesia’s 270 million people follow Islam, making it the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. However, Indonesia is not an Islamic country. Its government officially recognizes five other religions in addition to Islam, namely Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
Despite this official recognition, the discrimination against members of minority religions by Islamic conservative groups is at the centre of Indonesia’s politics. This talk examines the ambiguity between the constitutional embrace of “religious freedom” and the discriminatory practices of Islamic conservative groups.
Ideally, “citizenship” pertains to the institutionalized rules binding the state and its citizens. In practice however, it goes beyond these unproblematized relations. It is political, involving competition and conflicts. “Citizenship” should therefore be examined through its extent (inclusion/exclusion), content (rights/responsibility), and depth (perceived relations to the political community).
By examining the blasphemy sentence against the Chinese-Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (or Ahok), the blasphemy sentence against a Chinese-Buddhist woman, and the persecution of the Ahmadis and Shias, I argue that Islamic conservative groups are practicing “segregated citizenship,” prioritizing the interests of the majority religion against those of the officially recognized and the unrecognized minorities.
【About the Speaker】
Dr Deasy Simandjuntak is political anthropologist and Associate Fellow at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute), Singapore. A recipient of the Taiwan Fellowship, she is currently Visiting Associate Fellow at the Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies (CAPAS), Academia Sinica. Her research interests include Indonesia’s democracy and politics. She completed her PhD in 2010 at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She was postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) Leiden from 2009-2014 and guest fellow at Freiburg University, Germany in 2011.
Deasy regularly publishes policy articles and gives comments on the mass media (e.g. Channel News Asia interview, October 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P_i51bqgBM). She is co-editor of the book Aspirations with Limitations: Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (ISEAS Publishing, 2018). Her forthcoming article is “Disciplining the Accepted and Amputating the Deviants: Segregated Religious Citizenship in Indonesia,” in Asian Journal of Law and Society, Cambridge University Press.
[Note]
- The organizer reserves the right to amend the program and to limit or refuse entry to any person at any times, and will preclude those who are absent twice without notice.
- A confirmation email will be sent to you after the registration is closed.
- To prevent waste from disposal of single-use cups, kindly bring your own water bottles or mugs.
- In light of the coronavirus outbreak, we’ll conduct temperature check and collect participants’ personal data (name, phone number, etc.) at the entrance. The limited capacity of this event is 40 persons. All participants are also required to prepare their own masks and wear masks during the event.
