The State, Ulama and Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia: Capitalising Co-optation and Capturing the State?

The Suharto (1966–98) government of Indonesia and the Mahathir (1981–2003) government of Malaysia both launched Islamization programs, upgrading and creating religious institutions. The author argues that, while generally ulamas, or religious teachers, had to support state ideologies, they sometimes succeeded in “capturing” the state by influencing policies in their favor. The author builds his argument on strong fieldwork data, especially interviews, and he engages in critical discussion of comparative politics paradigms and the concept of capture.