Meta Ose Margaretha | CRCS | Thesis Review

In 2014, the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, released a policy addressing the “revitalization” including potential reclamation and economic development, of Benoa Bay at the southern tip of Bali. In the months that followed, there was public debate about the economic and environmental consequences of the proposal involving many sectors of Balinese and Indonesian society. Since Bali is well-known as the one majority-Hindu part of Indonesia, it was to be expected that religious identities and value also would have a significant role in the controversy. Daud Partigor’s thesis “Significances of Theological Argumentation in Rejecting the Proposed Reclamation of Benoa Bay” focuses of religious elements of the debate, including the role of religious institutions and of religious language and ideology as the legitimation for arguments opposing the reclamation of the bay. His research also shows that the debates on rejecting the proposed reclamation of Benoa Bay are part of a complicated process merging ideas of religiosity, the environment, economic interests, culture, politics and humanity in one pot. But, here also, the author tries to emphasize how religious ideas could be implemented at other levels, such as in governmental regulations to advocate the existence of Benoa Bay area.
In this case, the key theological element being promoted and argued is the concept of sacred places. Local people around the Benoa Bay consider the bay itself as a sacred space. Toward the sacred space, Balinese Hindus have their certain understanding that leads them to behave also in a certain way.
The discourse of Benoa Bay’s sacredness based on the teachings of Hindu-Bali traditions became public in early 2015. The ideas about the sacredness came from  by analyzing how exclusively religiously-based arguments become explicitly used in the public discussion, the thesis offers insight into thethe revival of religion in public in a different context than Islam-focussed studies have offered.
The discourse of Benoa Bay as a sacred place is used by some organizations to advocate and protect Benoa bay from the reclamation. This study case is important because it shows how the policies made by both state and religion are influence each other. In the Bali context, the key actor is the Hindu Supreme Council or Parisada. Partigor explains how Parisada is divided between local branches and the central office in Jakarta which makes regulation and decisions for all the members of Parisada locally and nationally. In early 2016, the national board of Parisada issued a formal statement declaring the sacredness around the Benoa site and rejected the reclamation. Coming from the highest level of Hindu council in Indonesia, Parisada’s statement had political influences at the national level. that claim has a because it claimed to represent the whole Hindu community in Indonesia.
Parisada became the pioneer in reconstructed again the understanding of sacred place and other theological conceptions that used by other movements to reject the reclamation. Beginning of 2013, Parisada developed a theological argument about the reclamation of Benoa Bay based on  principles found in Tri Hita Karana and Sad Kertih. The central text for the Hindu-Bali communities, Tri Hita Karana talks about living in perfect harmony the three elements of human life: God, then other human beings and the environment. Another theological conception that has been used by the Parisada to reject the reclamation, Sad Kertih also talks about living in harmony with the universe. Sad Kertih specifically mentions the ocean, the forests, the lakes and also other human. While the Tri Hita Karana coming from general Hindu concepts found in the Vedas, Sad Kertih draws on the tradition of local Hindu-Bali traditions. Veda They have been used previously to support other political interests, including supporting the 1969 Rencana Pembangunan Lima Tahun (five-year development plan).
Even though Hindus are the majority in Bali, especially in Benoa Bay area, Bali is not homogeneous. There are some other communities that aren’t Hindu. Therefore, according to the author, the claimed of sacredness in Benoa Bay should not be the ultimate reason to reject the reclamation but the society need their own logic and perspectives to perceive this problem.
There are some characteristics of religion revival in the case of Teluk Benoa Bay if we compare to Thoft’s characteristics of religion revival. First, it refer to the participation of religious communities, which is this case are represent by the Parisada and other religious communities that live around Benoa Bay. Second, crisis on understanding religion from the secular world. In Indonesia’s context this process happened after the fall of new order, while religion and state being separated and even there was intervention to the religious related things. The third characteristic is the freedom of religious expression which is also begin after the fall of new order. And the last one is the influence of globalization, democracy and modernization.
Partigor argues that the discourse using a theological perspectives in order to reject the proposed reclamation could be an evaluation of John Rawls’s theory about public logic. Rawls argued that any  decision made in public should be based in inclusive ideas that canbe accepted by everyone from various backgrounds. In the debates of Benoa Bay reclamation, an exclusive idea was used in public by a religious actor and the public accepted it.
Title: Significances of Theological Argumentation in Rejecting the Proposed Reclamation of Benoa Bay | Author: Partigor Daud Sihombing (CRCS, 2016)

Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), Graduate School, Gadjah Mada University proudly announces the call for Thesis Award. The Award is aimed to encourage CRCS students of batch 2015 to write a high quality of master thesis and a publishable article out the thesis on “Religious Education in Higher Education.”
The requirements of the Thesis Award are:

Thesis will be written in English.

The applicant must submit a printed version of thesis proposal (12-15 pages, double space) by August 27, 2016 to CRCS office at 14.00pm.

The applicant must fulfill all administrative requirements for thesis proposal (Toefl/TPA).

The applicant must assign a letter of agreement to work with a thesis advisor and CRCS team for publication.

The Award is available only for 1 (one) student.

The Award is Rp 5.000.000,-

Farihatul Qamariyah | CRCS | Thesis Review

The discourse of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans gender identities) is being contested everywhere lately in global discussion. Identity, gender, and human rights have generally provided the frame work for debate. The issue of LGBT is also critically regarded as a significant case within religion.  Scholars such as Kecia Ali and Scott Kugle are attempting to reinterpret and rethink Islam as a religion which is commonly understood as a blessing for all of mankind, in which contextually this religious essence also can accommodate diversity that extends to the acceptance of LGBT Muslims. Another example of this rethinking is the CRCS Student’s, Hary Widyantoro, thesis Rethinking Waria Discourse in Indonesian and Global Islam which examines the collaboration between Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University activists and Waria santri at the Pesantren Waria al-Fatah which is located in Yogyakarta.
This research looks at the collaboration of scholar activists from Syariah and Law Faculty of Nahdlatul Ulama University of Jepara and waria santri (students of Islam who are born male but identify as feminine, terms discussed below), in rethinking and reconstructing the subjectivity of waria in Indonesian Islamic, thinking through the engagement of activities including in the space of social structure and religious lives. Significantly, this study can be a critical instrument in the field of both gender and religious studies, to examine how these scholar-activists are creating new ways of seeing waria from Qur’an and hadith and of teaching Islam to them as the subjects rather than objects of research. Moreover, it shows the process of rethinking which can offer an alternative view and hope for those who are not associated in the binary gender of male and female. The research questions which are raised up are: how do the scholar activists of Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University of Jepara rethink the waria subject position? How did they develop the idea of religious partnership with the Pesantren Waria al-Fatah Yogyakarta? And what kind of waria discourse that the scholar activists suggested to provide a room for waria in social and religious lives?
It is clear that the discourse of LGBT however is not only talked over in the stage of global, but also at a local level such as in Indonesia. To see the case of waria santri in terms of transgender discourse and the activism of NU scholars in the act of collaboration, the author utilizes the theoretical application on Boellstorff’s idea on global and local suggestion and Foucault’s on the term of subjectivity as well as power relation in his genealogical approach. In analysis, using waria as the chosen terminology in this case marks their identity as a local phenomenon rather than transgender women to use a global term. This term became the primary term for this group after it was used by Minister of Religious Affairs Alamsyah in the 1970s. While taking the framework of Boellstorff on subjectivity and power relation, it helps the author in figuring out and understanding completely on how Muslims activists from NU University rethink of waria discourse, and how it is discussed by Muslims activist and the waria in the Pesantren. Additionally, subjectivity becomes the key point where the author can examine the role of waria based on the activists’ perspectives as a subject of their religiosities and of the truth of their beings, rather than only objects of views.
Waria as one of the local terms in Indonesia represents an actor of transgender in LGBT association that often experience such discrimination and become the object of condemnation. For waria, Identity is the main problem in the aspect of gender in Indonesian law. For instance, Indonesian identity cards only provide a male and female gender options, based on the Population Administration Law, and by the Marriage Law (No. 1/1974). By this law, they will have some difficulties to access the public services. Another problem regarding the social recognition, waria is perceived as people with social welfare problems, based on the Regulation of the Ministry of Social Affairs (No. 8/2012) that must be rehabilitated as a kind of solution. Furthermore, in the religious landscape, the content of fiqh (an Islamic jurisprudence) does not have much discussion on waria matters when compared to male and female stuff. Briefly, these are the problems that the scholar activists seek to answer.In the local course of Indonesian context, scholar-activists at Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University of Jepara (UNISNU) educate Islamic religion to transgender students at the Pesantren Waria al-Fatah as the act of acknowledging their existence and their subjectivity to express identity and religiosity within ritual as well as practice.
Addressing this complicated context, the questions of transgender discourse represented by santri waria in this research is not only about the constitutional rights but also attach their religious lives in terms of Islamic teaching and also practice. While what the scholars identify as “humanism” is the basic framework in dealing with this issue, the universal perception of humanism in secular nature is different from the Muslim scholars’ understanding the idea of humanism when it relates to Islamic religion. Referring to this discussion, the NU activists have another view point in looking at waria as a human and Islam as a religion with its blessing for all mankind without exception. Hence, this overview leads them to rethink and reinterpret the particular texts in Islam, and then work with them in collaboration.
Since the term of collaboration becomes the key word in this research, the author gives a general framework on what so – called a collaboration in relation with the context of observation. The background is on the equal relation between scholar-activists and waria santri in the sense that the activists do not force or impose their perspective on waria. For instance, they allow waria santri to pray and to express their identity based on how they feel comfortable with the condition. In regard to the research process, the author conducted interviews and was a participant observer both in the Pesantren Waria al-Fatah in Yogyakarta and in the UNISNU campus, Jepara. He interviewed six Muslims scholar-activists from UNISNU concerning the monthly program they lead in Pesantren Waria especially about how they rethink waria discourse and its relation to religious and social lives, and another important point is on the scholars’ intention to do the collaboration. Furthermore, the author also draws on the history and programs of the pesantren by interviewing Shinta, who became the leader of the pesantren in 2014 following the death of the founder. He also made use of the Religious Practice Partnering Program’s proposal and accountability report and explored the scholars’ institution and communities where they have relation with to get some additional information about their engagement. The additional context is on the scholars’ affiliation, in this case bringing up the background of Nahdlatul Ulama as one of the biggest Muslims socio-religious organization known as Muslim Traditionalist and Indonesian Muslim Movement (PMII) which both of them apply the similar characteristic on ideology which is ahl al-sunnah wa al-jama’ah.
To some extent, the collaboration of scholar activists of Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University and the santri waria at Pesantren Waria Al Falah rethinks the waria subject position in both their social and religious lives. First, they rethink the normative male – female gender binary which is often considered deviant, an assumption which causes the waria to experience rejection and fear in both their social and religious lives. The same thing happens as well in Islamic jurisprudence known as fiqh, where discussion of waria is absent and, consequently, they find it difficult to express their religiosities, including even whether to pray with men in the front or women behind, and which prayer garments to put on in order to pray.
According to Nur Kholis, the leader of the program from NU University and a scholar of fiqhwhose academic interest is the place of waria in Islamic Law, one answer can be found by categorizing waria as Mukhanats, and then considering them as humans equally as others. He argues that waria have existed since the Prophet’s time considered as mukhanats (a term for the men behave like women in Prophet’s time, according to certain hadith) by nature, or by destiny, and not by convenience. Understanding waria as mukhanats based on their gender consciousness can be a gate for waria to find space in Islam and also their social lives. The following significant finding related to this context is on the genealogy of the process of rethinking waria subject position. The author argues that this rethinking is grounded in Islamic Liberation theology and the method of ahl sunnah wa al-jama’ah, as way of thinking within PMII and NU have contributed and influenced how the activists think of waria subject discourse.
The last important landscape is on the perspective seeing waria as the subject of knowledge, sexualities, and religiosities, covered by the term gender consciousness. This term is the result of rethinking and acknowledging waria subjectivity in understanding their subject position in social and religious lives.Pragmatically, this statement provides a tool of framework to recognize waria as equally with others. It can be seen from the real affiliation of several events, which are parts of Religious Practice Partnering Program, such as Isra’ Mi’raj and Fiqh Indonesia Seminar. Furthermore, this kind of recognition emerges within the global and local concept of Islamic liberation theology and aswaja that make them consider waria as minorities which should be protected, rather than discriminated.
Finally, in such reflection, the discourse of LGBT represented by waria santri, the activism of NU scholars, and their interaction in collaboration notify an alternative worldview to discern a global issue from the local context, in this case is Indonesia. The author concludes the result of this research by saying that this kind of discourse is formed through referring Islamic liberation theology, aswaja, and more specifically the term mukhanats, within global Islam. In the process of interaction, these are interpreted and understood within local context of Indonesia presented by waria case in terms of social and religious life through the act of collaboration under the umbrella of Nahdlatul Ulama and PMII, as organizations tied by aswaja both ideology and methodology. In brief, the rethinking of waria space in the context of Indonesian Islam at the intersection of local and global offers a new expectation and gives a recommendation for all people who do not fit gender binaries but they seek religious practice and experience in their lives.
Rethinking Waria Discourse in Indonesian and Global Islam: The Collaboration between Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University Activists and Waria Santri | Author: Hary Widyantoro (CRCS, 2013)

Farihatul Qamariyah | Thesis Review | CRCS

Thesis title	:	Understanding the Spirituality of Officials Convicted of Corruption: Case  Study of Wirogunan Prison
Author	:	Tjong Lio Ie (CRCS, 2013)
Indonesia is known as a country which is great in dealing with spirituality and religiosity in the society life experiences. Based on the World Values Survey (2005-2009), Indonesia ranked as the 15th highest in Spiritual Index among 45 countries in the world.  Paradoxically, Indonesia is also ranked as a country involved in the listing committed case of corruption. The evidence is Indonesia‘s ranking as 111th out of 180 countries in the world surveyed in 2009 in the release ofannual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI).  By looking at this case, the stream of initial assumption is that spiritually strong people will never commit an act of corruption. Conversely in the actual fact, the case of Indonesia, however, brings on questions of law-enforcement, ethics, religion, spirituality and their relation in daily activities. The thesis Understanding the Spirituality of Officials Convicted of Corruptiontakes the case study of three officials convicted of corruption who are currently imprisoned at Wirogunan Prison, Taman Siswa, Yogyakarta. The primary concern of the research is to examine the connection between spirituality and corruption by focusing on the life experiences of three mid-level Indonesian civil servants currently serving prison terms following convictions of moderate-level corruption. This research consequently comes to some critical questions regarding this fact. Why can one of the most spiritual countries in the world also be one of the most corrupt? Do spiritual values have nothing to do with corruption? Is there any spiritual transformation in the most spiritual countries as their Corruption Perceptions Index shows the highest (meaning the worst) in the world? Answering the list of these questions, the author applies a local approach grounded in the experiences of civil servants who face charges of corruption. The author applies a qualitative method and uses a social constructionist approach to have an overview in understanding the discourse of relation between corruption and spirituality. To obtain the data, semi -structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used by the author. In deciding on the three corruptors as the respondents, the author focussed on those in managerial positions of as lurah or mid-level civil servants. This position is where the power of the positionmight be abused. Of his three respondents, one is Christian and two of them are Muslim. Before doing the participatory observation and direct interview session, the agreement and disclaimer were made to keep their identitiessecret. To see the connection between spirituality and corruption, the author firstly puts a context of defining spirituality, corruption, meaning, and otherconceptual terms in use in this research. This research uses a survey method of Spirit at Work Scale (SAWS) by Kinjerski&Skrypnekemphasizing at the four distinctive factors of man‘s spirituality:  (1) engaging work, (2) sense of community, (3) spiritual connection, and (4) mystical experience. These surveys were further followed with written and oral interviews about both their responses to the categories of the SAWS questionnaire and then about their life stories,covering both their experiences at the time of the acts for which they have been convicted and of dealing with the suffering of imprisonment. Since this research emphasizes its concern on evaluating a meaning, the author uses the tools of spirituality, religion, and psychology as the point of view to examining the case of corruptors and their life.  Through the spirituality and religion, men can interpret their life experiences in the context of suffering, death, and transcendence. Finding a meaning is a significant element since it is the way how men can survive and pass the hardship moments. In psychology as an addition, men can find a meaning of their experience on suffering if they look to the future. Therefore, these three points of view in looking at the case of the corruptors and how they deal with their case on suffered situation are very important. In an illustration for the conceptual discussion above, man can bear any sufferings because he is promised an eternal life in heaven by religions. In psychological context, man is required to become selfless if he is in need of psychological health. There is a sense of future expectation in both reward forward. According to AuschwitzFrankl (1963, P.107), man has to become selfless to find meaning in suffering. In relation with this case, committing corruption against selfless mode because it means self-gratification. Self-gratification in Freud’s statement is the main characteristic of id that always competes with super ego to take control of the ego. To some extent, a selfless mode leads man to the way of finding meaning while self-centered one leads man to meaningless life. Hence, both religion (spirituality) and psychology adopt the same mode of selfless to find meaning in life. The position of spirituality is very significant for the corruptors’ life experiences in overcoming their suffered situation. The respondents’ life story and confession have come to a point of examining whether a spirituality is interplayed or not in looking at the case concerned. The findings through the research questions show that there is a kind of strong connection betweenthe need of spirituality in coping suffering in the context of corruptors’ prison experience. Based on the author’s findings in relation with the connection of spirituality and the cases of corruption he makes several arguments. First, all the corruptors as the respondents of this research possessed a strong spirituality when they were the leaders at their office. This answer is obtainedfrom the SAWS survey method from the measurement of some points such as the spirituality, cognitive, interpersonal, spiritual, and mysticaldimensions. Second, the respondents failed to make balanced act in practicing their spirituality at work. This case is due to their ethical and practical consideration which neglect the critical comprehension of the laws. The respondents‘ premise that corruption is basically about enriching oneself is prevalent which shows the great emphasis on togetherness above individuality. To some extent, it is their unthoughtfulness and lack of professionalism which have caused them to be imprisoned as corruptors. Third, spirituality plays a significant role for them to survive the hardship of imprisonment. The three of them even gained spiritual transformation and found meaning from this situation. Last, the suffered situation initiates them to take a repentance as an inward change that is gotten from the idea of solitude. As mentioned before, the respondents’ score of spiritual assessment showed a high score, it helps them to repent without difficulty. In addition, the author emphasizes his notion on the concept of solitude as an important gate to the account of spiritual transformation. He strengthens his assumption by stating that solitude is the answer where people have to face the atmosphereunthoughtfulness produced by modernity. Solitude in its actualization deals with the context of practice in the daily life. The act of solitude can help people to be aware more on what they are doing of their actions. The respondents‘ life experiences demonstrate the importance of going through solitude as the spiritual gate to experience penitentiary and being born twice. Solitude is also the psychological gate for man to become selfless, find meaning in life and get motivated.