Islam, Oligarki Politik & Perlawanan Sosial [Islam, Political Oligarchy & Social Resistance]

Abstract

A book by Abdur Rozaki, researcher and lecturer at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, with a foreword by Okamoto Masaaki, Associate Professor at Kyoto University, Japan. Based on field research in Madura, this book dissects how local political power after Reformasi and decentralisation came to be controlled by oligarchic networks resting on two principal social figures of Madurese society: the kiai as holder of religious authority and the blater as local strongman. Rozaki shows how the alliance between the two exploits the symbolic capital of religion, pesantren networks, violence, and economic resources to control regional head elections, the bureaucracy, and development projects, including amid the social changes brought by the Suramadu Bridge. At the same time, this book maps the forms of social resistance by residents, activists, santri (pesantren students), and civil society against this domination. This work is important for the study of local politics, political anthropology, the relationship between Islam and power, and the study of oligarchy in Indonesia.