Identiti Etnik dan Identiti Nasional di Indonesia: Satu Kajian Mengenai Peneguhan Identiti Islam Etnik Banjar

The downfall of the authoritarian New Order Regime of Suharto has led to a new era of political order in Indonesia. The post Reformasi era had created more autonomy to regional government and this has resulted in the reaffirmation of group collective identities within and across the cultural and ethnic divide in Indonesia. This study is an attempt to explore and examine the changes in national governance system that has led the Banjarese ethnic community in Martapura, South Kalimantan, to reafirm their Islamic identity vis a vis the national identity that had long been promoted in Indonesia. The study investigate factors that have prompted the Banjarese ethnic community to reaffirm their Islamic identity in the aftermath of the Reformasi era and its implication on the sustainability of national identity in Indonesia. Using the qualitative research approach and theories of ethnicity and nationalism, this study argued that the re-affirmation of the Banjarese collective identity has resulted in the
heightening of political activitivism based on politics of identity in South Kalimantan. The study demonstrates that the new political atmosphere of freedom of expression and association that was created in the post Reformasi, constitute a crucial factor in the rise of the politics of Banjarese identity. In addition, the new era had also
triggered in the inter-elite political campetition based on identity politics in an attempt to secure the fruits of political benefit as a result of the new regional autonomy policy. This development has culminated in the manipulation and exploitation of cultural and religious symbols among the competing political elites to woo for political support among the Banjarese ethnic community. In Martapura, the
inter-elite political competition, manipulation and exploitation of cultural and religious symbols was clearly manifested in the regional election of the 2000-2005 period. Nevertheless, the study argues that the re-affirmation of the Banjarese ethnic identity does not means to deconstruct the Indonesian national identity. On the
contrary, it serves only as an attempt to strengthen the framework of cultural diversity and ethnic pluralism within the broader notion of Indonesian national identity. The
re-affirmation of the Banjarese ethnic identity was actually aimed to keep the lslamic characteristics remains intact in the context of the framework of unity in diversity that has been promulgated within the notion of national identity in Indonesia. This study provides an alternative framework to the understanding of the Banjarese ethnic identity and the politics of identity from several previous studies on the Banjarese ethnic identity, that tended to mainly emphasized on elements of primordialism and
thus, putting the Banjarese ethnic identity revivalism outside the framework of the construction of national identity in Indonesia. It is hoped that this study would provide an additional comprehension on the politics of identity in Indonesia vis a vis the construction of national identity and nation-building in Indonesia in the post Reformasi era.