The Tree of Liberty: Yenny Wahid and the Battle for Democracy in Indonesia
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For Yenny Wahid, taking on the family business is no small task. Following in her father’s footsteps, Ms. Wahid has become one of the most prominent proponents of peaceful, democratic Islam in Indonesia. Ms. Wahid’s story properly begins with her father, Abdurrahman Wahid, a respected Islamic scholar and peace activist who took office as President from 1999-2001 as Indonesia was rebounding after 32 years of authoritarianism under Suharto’s regime.
Throughout his life, Abdurrahman has earned respect and recognition for the Wahid name in the Muslim world, while introducing the Indonesian people to important ideas about the international crossroads that the Muslim faith has reached. He has preached not only the importance of embracing peaceful democratic ideals, but has urged that educated moderate Muslims must actively denounce the terror tactics of their radical brethren. The elder Wahid has an impressive career resume which includes heading Indonesia’s largest Muslim cultural organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). But as Mr. Wahid’s age has brought blindness and confined him to a wheelchair, his daughter Yenny has stepped up to care for him physically while taking on his spiritual mission.
Although Indonesia has been a democracy in name for almost ten years now, the country still has a long way to go. Corruption runs rampant: money and the right connections often buy local and regional elections. Indonesia’s economic scene has looked bleak since the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis. The country is plagued with high unemployment, low levels of investment, a poor infrastructure, and unequal resource distribution. Indonesia suffered an economic crisis last August, with higher interest rates, inflation, and doubled fuel prices shaking confidence in a business climate still suffering from the effects of the December 2004 tsunami.
With 88% of its 240-million population practicing Islam, Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population on earth. Ms. Wahid fears that under the strain of a poor economic climate and widespread corruption, undereducated and poverty-stricken Indonesian Muslims may succumb to the allure of radical Islam. Indonesia has been the target for a number of terrorist bombings over the past five years: attacks in Bali and Jakarta in 2004 and 2005 added to the death toll of the internationally publicized Bali and Marriot hotel bombings of 2002 and 2003. Although radical Islam still lacks a political support base, proponents lurk on the margins of Indonesian political society, in some of the mosques and religious boarding schools. Demonstrations over the Danish political cartoons included flag-burning and a demand to meet with the Danish ambassador, but only involved 200 protestors. The violence did not escalate.
Yenny Wahid recognizes that a stable democracy and a growing economy are the best tools to fight the emergence of a radical Islamic movement in Indonesia. Fortunately, Ms. Wahid has been training to lead the fight for democracy ever since it found a toehold after Suharto’s resignation in 1998. After finishing her preliminary education in Indonesia, Yenny worked as a reporter in East Timor from 1997-1999, grappling with the ethical issues behind the country’s violent struggle for independence from Indonesia. After a fallout with the Indonesian military units she traveled with, she returned to Jakarta. During her father’s presidency, Yenny remained constantly by his side to advise him on the wide range of political issues he faced. She earned a master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Governmentt in 2002. She helped campaign for current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party in the run-up to his October 2004 presidential election, and now works as one of his advisors.
Today she remains active in the National Awakening Party (NU’s political wing), and most recently organized a 12,000-strong “Islam for Peace” march in December 2005. In addition, she runs the Wahid Foundation, whose mission she identified (in a February 2006 Wall Street Journal interview) as “trying to...identify these young leaders, young clerics with same-minded beliefs, and connect them with one another and provide them with something, a house, so that they can come-out and speak. An army of able, dedicated young men who can talk in a unified message of tolerant and peaceful Islam.” The Wahid Foundation also holds conferences to promote a moderate, inclusive form of Islam, and arranges loans to the residents of poor rural communities. In a November 2005 AsiaInc interview, Ms. Wahid revealed ambitions to run for president in the next elections, to be held in September 2009.
Ms. Wahid summarized the strategic importance of a democratic Indonesia in the Wall Street Journal interview: “The real battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims is happening in Indonesia, not anywhere else…[I]magine if Indonesia became a hotbed for terrorism, or a source for people to get martyrs from. We’ve got enough people to provide an army of terrorists, if we’re not careful.”
There is some evidence that Ms. Wahid is fighting a winning battle. Most recently, a Terror Free Tomorrow poll found that, for the first time ever, more Indonesians had a favorable view of the U.S. than an unfavorable one. Meanwhile, support for Bin Ladin has dropped to a five-year low of 12%, and support for terrorism lies at a mere 2%. These results may partly be a reaction to publicly visible U.S. aid to rebuild the region after the December 2004 tsunami, but it is good news for Ms. Wahid regardless of the reason. It means that Indonesians are still open, and may be listening, to the message that Ms. Wahid and her father have dedicated their lives to spreading.
The career path Ms. Wahid has chosen is certainly not an easy one. As a woman she cannot earn the Islamic scholar credentials of her father and so may have a harder time winning the minds of traditionalist Muslims, but she has already managed to take her place beside her father as a General in the battle for a democratic Indonesia.
