Rethinking National Identity in an Age of Commercial Islam: the Television Industry, Religious Soap Operas, and Indonesian Youth
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Rethinking National Identity in an Age of Commercial Islam: The Television Industry, Religious Soap Operas, and Indonesian Youth by Inaya Rakhmani, S.Sos (UI), MA (UvA) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Murdoch University 2013 I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary institution. ………………………………………….. Inaya Rakhmani ii ABSTRACT This thesis is about what it means to be Indonesian in an age of commercial Islam. It set out to understand the growing trend of “Islamisation” in Indonesian television after the end of the authoritarian New Order regime (1962 to 1998), which coincided with the rise of Islamic commodification in other sectors (Fealy, 2008). To achieve this, the thesis looks at the institutional practices, Islamic representation, and the reception of the most-watched television format with an Islamic theme, sinetron religi (religious drama). Studies on Indonesian television so far have focused on its structure, construct, and audience as separate entities (e.g. Sen & Hill, 2000; Kitley, 2000; Ida, 2006; Barkin, 2004; Loven, 2008). This thesis is the first research on Indonesian television that understands the institutional frameworks, identity constructs, and its reception as a whole. As the industry’s livelihood is determined by advertising revenue that relies on audience ratings, it is in the interest of the television stations to broadcast Islamic symbols that are acceptable to the general, “national” viewers. This study takes a look into the tension between Islamic ideologies and commercial interest in the practices that surround sinetron religi. Based on findings, it is revealed that coinciding with the “conservative turn” in post-authoritarian Indonesian Islam (van Bruinessen, 2011), the television industry is feeding into this growing trend of Islamic propagation. In other words, the increasing cultural emphasis on Islam is an interaction between the commodification of Islamic symbols and dakwah agents using the television industry’s existing commercial means to propagate. Furthermore, the proliferation of Islamic themes triggered the viewers to revisit Indonesia’s pluralistic foundations and reposition Islam as one of the country’s “sub- national identities” (Anderson, 1999). This post-authoritarian national identity is paradoxically related to the New Order national construct which mainly includes major religious and ethnic groups that supports unity and integration. This mode of “partial inclusion” is so common sense because the New Order national consciousness is the foundation upon which Indonesian identity today was constructed. Thus, not only has the combination of Islamic ideologies and commercial values taken place in a medium with nationwide reach, historical legacies contain the very national imagination that is thought to advocate a greater scope of pluralism after the collapse of the authoritarian rule. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………..… iii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… vii Glossary……………………………………………………………………………. ix List of Figures……………………………………………………………………… xii List of Tables………………………………………………………………………. xiv Part One: Introduction Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………….. 1 1.1. Nationhood in an Age of Commercial Media…………………. 6 1.2. Locating Islam Indonesiawi in Popular Media……………..…. 13 1.3. Theory and Trajectory…………………………………………. 16 1.4. Scope of Study………………………………………………… 19 1.5. Methods……………………………………………………….. 20 1.6. Thesis Map…………………………………………………….. 25 Chapter 2: The Mainstreaming of Islam into National Culture……………. 28 2.1. Early TVRI (1962 to 1965)……………………………………. 29 2.2. State Television (1965 to 1989)……………………………….. 31 2.2.1. Religious Drama Programmes………………………….. 34 2.2.2. Pengajian Alquran……………………………………… 35 2.2.3. Mimbar Islam……………….………………………...… 37 2.2.4. Irama Qasidah………………………………………….. 37 2.3. Commercial Television under an Authoritarian Rule…………. 39 (1989 to 1998) 2.3.1. Dakwah Programmes…………………………………… 42 2.3.2. Islam in Sinetron………………………………………... 43 2.4. Post-Authoritarian Commercial Television………………….... 44 (1998 to 2010) 2.4.1. Celebrity Dakwah Shows……………………….………. 49 2.4.2. Live Zikir Akbar…………………………………………51 2.4.3. Televised Islamic Music………………………………... 52 2.4.4. Religious Reality Shows………………………………... 54 2.4.5. Dakwah Talent Shows………………………….………..56 2.4.6. Sahur Programmes……………………………………… 58 2.5. Conclusion……………………………………………………...59 Part Two: Industry Structuration Chapter 3: The Commerce and Culture of Sinetron Religi…………………. 61 3.1. Post Suharto Sinetron Industry………………………………... 62 3.1.1. Television Programming................................................... 66 3.1.2. The Stripping Method....................................................... 67 3.1.3. Constructing Class Taste................................................... 68 3.1.4. Sinetron Religi................................................................... 70 3.3. Clusters of Sinetron Religi…………………………………….. 73 iv 3.3.1. Supernatural Sinetron Religi……………………………. 73 3.3.2. Melodramatic Sinetron Religi…………………………... 78 3.3.3. The Alternative Sinetron Religi…….…………………... 83 3.4. Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 87 Chapter 4: Producing Popular Piety................................................................. 89 4.1. Hidayah………………………………………………………... 90 4.2. Munajah Cinta………………………………………………… 93 4.3. Para Pencari Tuhan…………………………………………… 97 4.4. Cluster Commonality and Constraints........................................ 101 4.2.1. Ustad Authority................................................................. 101 4.2.2. Risk Avoidance…………………………………………. 103 4.5. Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 105 Chapter 5: Politics of Piety……………………………………………………. 107 5.1. Hidayah………………………………………………………... 108 5.1.1. God is with the Poor…………………………………….. 108 5.1.2. Religious Authority……………………………………... 110 5.1.3. Divine Intervention……………………………………... 113 5.2. Munajah Cinta………………………………………………… 115 5.2.1. Muslims, Rich or Poor, are Equal to God………………. 116 5.2.2. Friction Between the Religious and the Secular............... 117 5.2.3. Degree of Islamic Piety..................................................... 119 5.3. Para Pencari Tuhan…………………………………………… 122 5.3.1. We Save Ourselves from Poverty………………………. 123 5.3.2. Fluid Authority…………………………………………. 124 5.3.3. Political Criticism through Islamic Views........................ 127 5.4. Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 130 Part Three: Viewer Agency Chapter 6: Performing Identities……………………………………………... 133 6.1. Cultural Context……………………………………………….. 134 6.2. Responses towards Hidayah…………………………………... 142 6.2.1. Mysticism is Irrational………………………………….. 142 6.2.2. Religious Modernisation………………………………... 145 6.3. Responses towards Munajah Cinta……………………………. 149 6.4. Responses towards Para Pencari Tuhan……………………… 153 6.4.1. Beyond Muslim Politics………………………………… 153 6.4.2. Religion as Sub-Nation…………………………………. 156 6.5. Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 161 Chapter 7: Competing Identities……………………………………………… 163 7.1. Cultural Context……………………………………………….. 164 7.2. Responses towards Hidayah…………………………………... 171 7.2.1. Acehnese’s Modern Islam………………………………. 173 7.2.2. “We” Christians, “You” Muslims………………………. 175 7.3. Responses towards Munajah Cinta……………………………. 178 7.3.1. A Generic Sinetron, but with Jilbab……………………. 178 7.2.2. “Polygamy Goes Against Christianity”………………… 181 7.4. Responses towards Para Pencari Tuhan……………………… 183 v 7.4.1. Unified Diversity……………………………………….. 185 7.4.2. Power Imbalance……………………………………….. 187 7.6. Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 189 Chapter 8: The Politics of Difference………………………………………… 191 8.1. Politics of Piety……………………………………………….. 192 8.2. Representing Difference……………………….……………… 195 8.3. Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 200 Part Four: Conclusion Chapter 9: Conclusions: Being Indonesian in an Age of………………….… 203 Commercial Islam 9.1. Television as a National Stage……………………………….... 206 9.1.1. The Myth of the Sinetron.................................................. 207 9.1.2. Critical Viewing................................................................ 208 9.1.3. A National Stage............................................................... 209 9.2. Rethinking National Identity…………………….…………..... 211 Appendices………………………………………………………………………… 215 References…………………………………………………………………………. 227 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Never would I have thought that writing a one-page acknowledgement would take longer than revising a chapter. Somewhere between not wanting to leave anyone out and not wanting to simply provide a long list of names, I accept that I will never do justice in expressing the gratitude I feel to those who have left deep impressions on me during this journey. Taking the risk of sounding dry, I decided to instead focus on those who were the most substantial and apologise to those whose names I failed to mention. Firstly, I could never have completed this research without the guidance, trust, and flexibility of my two supervisors, David T. Hill and Garry Rodan. I am truly indebted and hope to extend what I have learned from their academic excellence through every opportunity. I would also like to extend gratitude to AusAID and the Australian Leadership Awards (ALA) to have funded my studies, and Amanda Third for her supervision in the early stages of writing. I would also like to thank the kind assistance of Jasmine Pratiwi, Nurvina Alifa, Indira Prisanti, and Marsya Anggia in particular. I was very lucky to have met