Abstract
In the past 50 years, nine out of ten people affected by disasters were in Asia. Southeast Asia, in particular, has been the site of some of the worst natural disasters in the world over the past 10 years. At the same time, many Southeast Asian nations are now “middle-income countries” and for a variety of political reasons, their governments increasingly decline to request humanitarian aid through traditional channels coordinated by UN agencies. This has opened the door for a more active role to be played by domestic and international NGOs (INGOs). Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organizations, is one of the country’s largest and oldest social welfare organizations—running thousands of schools, clinics, hospitals, and universities. Since the 2004 tsunami, it has also become one of the country’s most active private disaster relief agencies, responding to the Yogyakarta earthquake (2006), Sumatra earthquake (2009) and Mt Merapi eruption (2010). Muhammadiyah’s leading role in the area of disaster and humanitarian assistance in Indonesia has furthermore brought it into international political discourses on humanitarian aid.
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Notes
- 1.
My thanks to Philip Fountain for bringing Bankoff’s work to my attention.
- 2.
These figures are found on the official Muhammadiyah website at http://www.muhammadiyah.or.id/id/content-49-det-profil.html (accessed 22 Oct, 2012).
- 3.
Howard Federspiel positions Muhammadiyah as part of the Muslim orthodox reformation of the twentieth century, distinguishing it from syncretic Islam and secularist Islam. Federspiel, “The Muhammadiyah: A Study of an Orthodox Islamic Movement in Indonesia,” Indonesia 10 (October, 1970): 57–79. James Peacock characterizes Muhammadiyah as a puritan movement, in Purifying the Faith: The Muhammadiyah Movement in Indonesian Islam (Berkely: 1978).
- 4.
The hadist are the collection of reports by the first generation of Muslims, about the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. This body of scripture is considered second in authority only to the Qur’an.
- 5.
Although the actual practice of ‘ijtihad’, or individual interpretation of the scriptures, is actually based on collective interpretation by the Majlis Tarjih, the body within Muhammadiyah with the authority to make doctrinal decisions for Muhammadiyah. Thanks to Michael Feener for this insight.
- 6.
The author was involved in facilitating some of this collaboration, in her capacity as Program Director at The Asia Foundation at the time, and as such is familiar with the events as they unfolded.
- 7.
Personal communication from a source requesting anonymity within Muhammadiyah, January 2005.
- 8.
See: http://foundation.youthoffthestreets.com.au
- 9.
The term ‘secular’ (and cognates) is highly contested and multi-interpretable. In this context, Petersen is deploying an understanding of ‘secularism’ as a view of religion as confined to the private sphere, which she ascribes to ‘secularist aid traditions’. In Indonesia, and certainly among Muslim organizations like Muhammadiyah, ‘secularism’ has a rather different, and quite negative connotation, largely implying the absence of religion or religious values. In this article, while I am specifically arguing that it is the Muhammadiyah disaster response activities, not Muhammadiyah itself, that may be labelled partially ‘secularist’, according to Peterson’s definition of the word, I do also wish to recognize that the assumption that mainstream development or aid is a ‘secular’ endeavor that in some cases ‘engages’ with religion is also problematic. The work of Philip Fountain 2013. “The Myth of Religious NGOs: Development Studies and the Return of Religion.” International Development Policy: Religion and Development 4: 9–30. is a useful counter-weight to this notion.
- 10.
My translation—the original is: “Berkembangnya fungsi dan sistem penanggulangan bencana yang unggul dan berbasis Penolong Kesengsaraan Oemoem (PKO) sehingga mampu meningkatkan kualitas dan kemajuan hidup masyarakat yang sadar dan tangguh terhadap bencana serta mampu memulihkan korban bencana secara cepat dan bermartabat” http://www.mdmc.or.id/index.php/program#.
- 11.
Muttaqin indicated that this was a subject of debate within Muhammadiyah, until the Majelis Tarjis (Muhammadiyah’s doctrinal advisory body) issued a fatwa (decree) in 2005 that put the matter to rest.
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Bush, R. (2015). Muhammadiyah and Disaster Response: Innovation and Change in Humanitarian Assistance. In: Brassard, C., Howitt, A., Giles, D. (eds) Natural Disaster Management in the Asia-Pacific. Disaster Risk Reduction. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55157-7_3
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