Populist Mobilization In Indonesia:From"Aksi Bela Islam" To Prabowo's 2019 Presidential Campaign

This study examines populism phenomena in Indonesia with the timeframe spanning from after the 2014 presidential election until the 2019 presidential election.Populism here is analyzed using Robert Jansen's populism theoretical framework that viewed populism as a form of political mobilization,or in other words as a populist mobilization with two components:mobilization and populist rhetoric.Employing this definition,two strands of populist mobilizations are found through the literature review,historical analysis,and actual observation on Indonesian political trend.The first one is based on conservative Islamic appeal used by hardline Islamic organizations as best manifested in the series of rallies called Aksi Bela Islam(Action for Defending Islam).The second strand is based on nationalistic and pro-poor sentiment appeal used by Prabowo Subianto,a contender in the 2019 presidential election.Despite based on different appeal with one built on religious dimension and the other mainly on economic dimension,this study argues that both strands of populist mobilization are not mutually exclusive or acting as an opposite for each other,instead,both are highly intertwined.Additionally,this thesis also argues that the Islamic populist mobilization might impose a risk of breaking the long-held political compromise between Islamism and Nationalism in Indonesia by insisting on a single conservative interpretation on the role that Islam should play in Indonesian politics.