Manufacturing the “ontological enemy”: Socio-political construction of anti-democracy discourses among HTI activists in post-new order Indonesia

Abstract

The Indonesian Islamists’ rejection of democracy, as this paper will demonstrate, is not monolithic; it is complex and multifaceted that is accompanied by a long process of argument building. This paper focuses its scope of analysis on Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), a Middle Eastern-derived “transnational” Islamist movement that seeks to unite all Muslim nations all over the world under a Caliphate system. This paper argues that, in developing counter-discourses on democracy, the HTI activists employ both theological approach and modern socio-political narratives. It is also argued that the concept of enemy constructed by the HTI activists serves only as an ontological venture, and not existential one, for the purpose of self-fulfilling prophecy. The process of construction of the enemy follows the mode of binary opposition between the “authentic self” and the “corrupted other.” This paper borrows much of its theoretical framework from Saphiro, Foucault, Berger and Luckmann, and still many others.