Governmentalization of Religious Policies

Abstract

As discussed in the previous chapter, following its success in introducing its development blueprint, including on religious affairs, the New Order regime began to closely manage citizens’ religious life to ensure people were subject to state domination, not only for the sake of national development but also for the construction of an Indonesian identity. In turn, the regime became obsessive in regulating and controlling its citizens’ behaviour including in all aspects of religious life: from the model of God to its practices in daily religious activities. Within this context, the chapter will make use Foucault’s model of “governmentalization,” particularly to examine how political consolidation of the New Order regime in the mid-1970s had an immediate effect on the religious life of citizens.