This section finishes the case-study pair from part 1 — Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Both show religion doing two jobs at once: holding a society together, and, when politicians or militants exploit it, tearing that society apart.
Indonesia: Islam, the state, and separatism
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority country, but under President Suharto (ruled 1967–1998) the state kept religion tightly controlled through the official ideology Pancasila, Pancasila, which required belief in God but did not favour any single faith. This kept a lid on sectarian politics for decades, but it also stored up resentment in regions where religious and ethnic identity overlapped with demands for independence.
- Aceh — a devoutly Muslim province in northern Sumatra; the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) fought the Indonesian army from 1976, partly over resource revenue (oil and gas) but also framed in Islamic identity terms
- East Timor — majority Catholic, unlike the rest of Indonesia; annexed by Suharto in 1975, this religious difference reinforced the region's sense of a separate identity, feeding the independence struggle that succeeded in 1999
- Suharto's fall (1998) — after the Asian Financial Crisis wrecked the economy, Suharto resigned; the sudden loosening of authoritarian control let long-suppressed religious and communal tensions surface openly
Post-Suharto communal violence: Once central control weakened after 1998, sectarian violence broke out between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku Islands (Ambon) and in Poso, Sulawesi (1999–2002), killing thousands. This shows how, in Indonesia, religion becomes most dangerous when a strong state suddenly loses its grip.
Sri Lanka: religion layered onto ethnic civil war
In Sri Lanka the civil war (from 1983) was mainly ethnic — Sinhalese versus Tamils — but religion reinforced the divide. Most Sinhalese are Buddhist; most Tamils are Hindu, with a Tamil Christian minority. Buddhist monks and Buddhist nationalist organisations pushed the idea that Sri Lanka was a sacred Buddhist island that had to be defended, which made Sinhalese politicians reluctant to offer the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) any compromise on autonomy.
Buddhist nationalism as a brake on peace: When President Ranasinghe Premadasa and later governments explored ceasefires with the LTTE in the 1990s, Buddhist clergy and nationalist groups frequently mobilised against concessions, arguing devolution threatened the island's Buddhist heritage. Religion did not start the war, but it hardened it.
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Globalization (covered in part 1) did not just move money and people — it moved culture. Between 1980 and 2005, television, satellite broadcasting and eventually the internet reached deep into both Indonesia and Sri Lanka, changing what people watched, wore, and believed was possible for their lives.
State-controlled broadcasting (1980s)
Under Suharto, Indonesia's only television network was the state-run TVRI, used to promote Pancasila and national unity; culture was tightly managed from the top.
Deregulation and private TV (1989–1990s)
Suharto allowed private, often family-linked, television stations (e.g. RCTI, 1989); imported soap operas, music videos and advertising exposed Indonesians to global consumer culture for the first time.
Post-1998 media explosion
After Suharto's fall, press censorship largely ended; new newspapers, TV stations and eventually internet cafes exploded in number, giving religious, ethnic and political groups (including radical ones) new platforms to organise and recruit.
Sri Lanka's dual media reality
Sinhalese-majority areas saw growing access to satellite TV and consumer goods through the 1990s economic opening, while war-affected Tamil areas in the north and east remained cut off, deepening the cultural gap between the two communities.
Control → open → explode → divide.
Traditional arts and culture
- Wayang shadow-puppet theatre and gamelan music remained central to Javanese identity in Indonesia, but faced competition from imported pop culture
- In Sri Lanka, traditional Kandyan dance and Buddhist temple festivals (e.g. the Esala Perahera) were promoted as symbols of Sinhalese national culture, especially during the war
Globalized/modern culture
- Western and later Indian (Bollywood) films, pop music and fashion spread rapidly through Indonesian cities via private TV and cinema
- English-language education and Western consumer brands expanded in urban Colombo, creating a visible gap between cosmopolitan cities and the war-torn countryside
Culture reflects power: In both countries, who controls the media (the state, private owners after deregulation, or diaspora and rebel groups) shaped whose culture and grievances got broadcast — media access maps closely onto political power.
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By the late 1990s and early 2000s, both case-study countries had produced organisations using terrorism — deliberate violence against civilians to achieve political goals — though from very different roots: one religious-extremist, one ethnic-separatist.
- Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) — Indonesian militant Islamist network formed in the 1990s, linked to al-Qaeda, seeking an Islamic state across South-East Asia
- Bali bombings (12 October 2002) — JI attacked nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists; devastated Indonesia's vital tourist industry (see part 1) and forced the government to pass new anti-terrorism laws
- LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) — founded by Velupillai Prabhakaran in 1976, fighting for an independent Tamil state (Tamil Eelam) in northern/eastern Sri Lanka
- LTTE tactics — pioneered widespread use of suicide bombing (the 'Black Tigers'), assassinated President Ranasinghe Premadasa (1993) and India's former PM Rajiv Gandhi (1991), and controlled territory like a de facto state
| Feature | Jemaah Islamiyah (Indonesia) | LTTE (Sri Lanka) |
|---|---|---|
| Core goal | Pan-regional Islamic state | Independent Tamil homeland (Eelam) |
| Main method | Bombings targeting foreigners/tourists | Suicide bombing, assassination, guerrilla war |
| Effect on economy | Crashed tourism revenue after 2002 | Decades of war spending; north/east economy devastated |
| Government response | New anti-terror laws, police crackdown | Military offensives; on-off ceasefires (e.g. 2002) |
Don't conflate the two: JI's violence was driven by transnational religious ideology; the LTTE's was driven by ethnic nationalism and territory. Examiners reward precision — never describe the LTTE as an 'Islamist' group or JI as 'separatist'.
Link causes across the topic: Terrorism did not appear from nowhere. Trace the chain: authoritarian control (Suharto) or ethnic exclusion (Sinhalese-only policies) → grievance → weak/collapsing central authority after 1998 (Indonesia) or prolonged war (Sri Lanka) → radicalisation → organised terrorist violence.