Shari’a & Constitutional Reform in Indonesia

Abstract

This book is based on my Ph.D. thesis at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS). It was submitted on 20 February 2005. Credit is due to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) for publishing this book and making it available to a wider audience. While being written, this work has accumulated a few debts along the way. To start with, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Associate Professor Gary F. Bell. Without his continuous guidance and invaluable help, the completion of this work would not have been possible. He has offered many insightful comments and frequent words of encouragement over the years. The earlier stages of this work also benefited from Associate Professor Thio Li-Ann and Associate Professor Victor Ramraj. During my Doctoral Candidate Qualifying Examination (DCQE), they have opened my eyes with their questions and suggestions. I was delighted that after the DCQE Professor Ramraj appointed me as his research assistant in 2003. I would also like to give my special thanks to the Thesis Examination Committee: Teo Keang Sood (Chair), Victor Ramraj, Hikmahanto Juwana and Priyambudi Sulistiyanto for their comments and feedback. Acknowledgements also go to other professors at NUS: Simon Tay, Lim Chin Leng, Michael Ewing-Chow, Dora Neo and Robert Beckman. My wholehearted thanks are due to Professor Wael Hallaq (McGill University) and Associate Professor Tim Lindsey (University of Melbourne) who visited NUS in 2004. Their insightful suggestions and encouragement will always be appreciated. I would like to express my gratitude to my Indonesian sources. They provided invaluable assistance and friendship. The information I gathered from them is essential and critical to the thesis. I also wish to express my appreciation for the support granted by NUS. From Research Scholarship to President’s Graduate Fellowship, the University has been unfailingly generous. I am also grateful to the Asia Research Institute (ARI) for providing Graduate Fieldwork Fund for my research in Indonesia. In preparing this book, I have been assisted in different ways by friends and family. While friends from around the world are too many to list here, I would like to thank Taiwo Oriola for reminding me that at least one chapter of the thesis was publishable. I am also grateful to my old friends, Rudi Irawan and Ahmad Ali Nurdin, for helping me and my family during our stay (and struggle) in Singapore. I am also indebted to Ian Usman Lewis who lent a helping hand in editing and proofreading. Arskal Salim was always ready to share his thoughts, stories and jokes. I thank him for his friendship. I am also very grateful to Dr I.B. Watson for his careful readings of the draft. I wish to thank the library staff at the NUS and the secretarial staff of Graduate Division at the Law Faculty (Zana, Normah, Chin Yee) for their assistance and for being courteous and helpful. I devote my immense gratitude to my beloved wife, Rd. Ina Inayah. This work is only a small token of my appreciation of her devotion, sacrifices, and infinite forbearance. My daughters, Hamamatul Haramain Hosen (born in 1998) and Nurul Haramain Hosen (born in 2000), deserve separate mention for so patiently tolerating all the piles of clippings, files and books, decorating and taking up a lot of space in our small apartment. In addition, the support from my brothers and sisters have given me the strength to make it thus far. Finally, I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to my late father, Professor KH. Ibrahim Hosen and my mother Hj. Zatiah Kadir whose love of knowledge has motivated me to pursue further education. My father (born in 1917) passed away in 2001, two months before I started my course at NUS. He was my first comparative law teacher. He provided the daily example of being an exceptional and extraordinary person, who inspired me to push on in pursuit of my own extraordinary ambitions. It is my hope that he would have been proud of his youngest son’s work. My mother (born in 1928) suffers from breast and lymphoma cancers. Every night she prays for me. Every word typed in this work was inspired by her love, which is the fuel that enables me, a normal human being, to do the impossible. All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my mother. It is to her that I dedicate this work.