Ideology, power relation, and political reconciliation : Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah's anti-communism discourse in the post-Soeharto era

Abstract

This dissertation examines the transformation in the discourse of anti-communism in Indonesia after the fall of Soeharto with a focus on Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah. The study argues that the anti-communism discourse is not only a historical heritage of the New Order, but also an evolving discourse that continues to shape contemporary political and religious life in Indonesia. This dissertation uses a qualitative comparative study, with a focus on the period between 1998 and 2025, a period that coincides with the opening of Indonesian democratic sphere after the fall of Soeharto regime and the recent attempts to reassert state power over the discourse of anti-communism. This study refers to various sources, including organizational documents such as the Muktamar (congress) material of NU and Muhammadiyah from 1999 to 2022, and AD/ART (organizational statutes) and internal guidelines, media publications, especially those published on the official websites of NU Online and Muhammadiyah.or.id. To compile a dataset that captures the articulation of anti-communism discourse in contemporary public spheres, I carried out manual web scraping by following keywords such as "communism," "PKI," and the "1965 tragedy." As of 30 July 2025, the data from both websites include at least 61 articles from NU Online and 28 articles from Muhammadiyah.or.id. This study is also supported by a variety of complementary sources such as symposium records about the communism and the tragedy of 1965; interviews and focus group discussions with 31 participants from various levels and generations of the organization. These data are subsequently analyzed through the lens of Robert M. Entman's framing theory, which is based on three interrelated dimensions: ideology, power relation and political reconciliation. At the ideological level, the findings of this dissertation show that both organizations sustain anti-communism through three interrelated belief structures: (1) the construction of communism as foreign and atheistic, which is incompatible with the Pancasila; (2) the persistence of historical stigma rooted in the violence associated with PKI, especially in 1948 and 1965; and (3) a continuing belief in the potential resurgence of communism. At the level of power relation, anti-communism functions as a strategic resource which is mobilized by both state actors and organizational structural level within NU and Muhammadiyah to legitimize authority and shape political alignments. Meanwhile, in terms of political reconciliation, the study finds that engagement with the legacy of 1965-1966 remains limited and conditional, constrained by enduring stigma and legal restrictions, thereby restricting more critical reinterpretations of the humanitarian tragedy in the past, particularly the 1965 tragedy. Additionally, this dissertation develops the notion of "half-hearted reconciliation," a mode of engagement where anti-communism is recognized in NU and Muhammadiyah, but without full accountability and meaningful structural change for both organizations. Overall, the study argues that anti-communism in Indonesia is actively reproduced through the interaction of ideology, institutional power and contested historical memory, shaping the boundaries of political discourse and limit the process of reconciliation in the post-Soeharto era.