MEDIA RELATIONS AND MINORITY GROUPS AN A SOCIOLOGICAL REGULATION (WAHABI'S EXISTENCE IN INDONESIA)

Hasan Sazali*, Idawati, Hota Sari

Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

Article Information		ABSTRACT
Received: January 20, 2023 Revised: January 30, 2023 Approved: February 21, 2023 Online: February 24, 2023		In the context of the right to religious freedom. Minority groups have not received serious attention from the upper class, this is evident in the many minority rights that must be fought for. Minority groups are often overlooked or underrepresented in the media, most minority groups play less of a role in television programs. Minority groups are often misinterpreted through prejudices held by the majority. The position of the Indonesian mass media as a social institution in relation to society is very important, where the position of the media has a very power that can be considered to make a better living society. The wahabi movement is sometimes also associated with salafist groups referring to salafist clerics (earlier Ulama), Wahabi or Salafi marking the movement of Islamic conservatism. This movement is associated by some circles with various radical movements, considering that its approach is often to fictionalize or silence others, so the term Wahabi as a pejorative form, a term that contains negative meanings. The study aims to find out relations of media and minority groups to the existence of Wahhabism in Indonesia. Library research method is used in this study. From the findings in this article which uses a literature study, the relationship between media and minority groups in the existence of Wahabi, it can be seen that the media has experienced media success in partiality towards minority groups. Wahabi who feel part of a minority group, by building and establishing relationships with the media, succeed in bringing about new changes, through the media, their guidance as a minority group their rights are successfully fulfilled.
Keywords
Media Relations; Minority Groups; Wahhabism

INTRODUCTION

As the New Order regime fell, various important events occurred in Indonesia, one of which was violence against minority groups. Minority groups have always been in a weak position and have become natural targets of genocide and persecution. In modern era which is considered as a period of relative tolerance and rationality, we also witness that minorities are sometimes the targets of discrimination and repression (Widiyanto, 2014). Various acts of discrimination committed against minority groups have resulted in violations of human rights and crimes against humanity. In the context of the right to freedom of religion. Minority groups apparently have not received serious attention from the top, this is evidenced by the many minority rights that must be fought for. Minority groups are often neglected or underrepresented in the media, most minority groups do not have a role in television programs. Minority groups are often misunderstood through the prejudices held by the majority, ethnic minorities are generally portrayed in the media negatively so that the rights of these minorities are ignored (Cho et al., 2012).

Media is a tool used today. Through the media we can interact with other individuals, there are various kinds of media for communication, this is of course adjusted to the individual's ability to access the media. Media technology greatly impacts the activities of practitioners and journalists in enhancing good cooperative relations (McAllister & Taylor, 2012). The position of the Indonesian mass media as a social institution in relation to society is very important, where the position of the media has a force that can be calculated to bring society to a better standard of living. Media relations or media relations are relations that are built and developed with the media to reach the public to achieve individual or group goals. The general objectives of media relations are: 1) increasing awareness of individuals and groups, 2) changing public or societal attitudes, 3) encouraging actions that support the interests of groups and organizations. The existence of the media is now a necessity for society. As social beings, people must interact whose capital is communication. Communication in today's modern era is very dependent on technology, print, analog and digital broadcasts, as well as both fixed and mobile telephones. As well as online connections are also increasing. So that everyone's dependence on the media makes that person want to access the media at any time to fulfill their information space. Media has been proven to have a significant influence in the real world related to minority issues, such as individual attitudes, the rights of certain groups, many research results of scholars have described how the media and minorities cover issues related to the same problem, this issue becomes a hot topic of discussion (Bleich et al., 2015).

Wahhabism first entered Indonesia in the 1980s, the arrival of Wahhabism to Indonesia was due to the main encouragement of the establishment of the LIPPIA institution (Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences) which LIPPIA is a branch of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University, Riyadh in Indonesia. Then the LIPPIA alumni, after returning from Arabiya studies, they conveyed their da'wah regarding salafi and wahhabi teachings in the community where they live, LIPPIA itself was formed thanks to funds from Saudi Arabia, apart from creating salafi wahhabi dakwah cadres, Saudi Arabia also routinely provides scholarship assistance every year to Indonesian students to study in Saudi Arabia. In Indonesia, the Wahhabi school is growing and developing well, because the Indonesian government does not question the existence of this school of thought (Aisha, 2022). Thus, it is considered that media relations are very important in fighting for minority rights to the existence of a group, the rights that can be asserted by these minority groups are: (1) the right to internal restrictions, (2) the right to external protection. Internal restrictions relating to rights that may be granted by a group to its members aim to prevent the group from destabilizing. Meanwhile, external protection relates to rights that may be granted by a group to the wider community. It can be emphasized that the rights of minorities in Indonesia are in the form of general rights of citizenship and special rights as citizenship (Widiyanto, 2014). In relation to this problem, what is discussed in this article is examining the relations of media and minority groups to the existence of Wahhabism in Indonesia

METHODS

The study in this article uses the library research method, which according to Webster's New International dictionary research is a careful and critical investigation and searches for facts and principles; a very clever investigation to determine something. In library research, more than serving the functions mentioned to obtain research data. The characteristics of the author's library research are not going anywhere, except that they only deal directly with materials and sources that come from the library. Strictly speaking, library research only limits research activities to the process of searching, collecting library collection materials without the need for field research. The materials needed in this research are in the form of books, journals, and library archives related to research problems, as well as documentation, historical materials, collections, manuscripts, all of which have been classified according to research needs.

The steps taken in this study are: preparing completeness, primary and secondary sources, in the form of materials related to the articles studied, in the form of books and articles from international online journals, then developing a framework by classifying the materials what is obtained is in the form of online books and articles, reading and recording books and articles related to the study problem under study to be summarized as needed material according to the problem, finally followed by the process of analyzing data as the findings of the study results concluding the study results in the form of findings.

Figure 1. Library Study Work Steps

RESULTS

In analyzing the problems in this article, a theoretical conceptual framework is developed which is used as a measurable, systematic, and objective analytical tool to look at the relations of the media and minority groups towards the existence of Wahhabism in Indonesia.

The concept of media relations is media relations with all community groups, media relations play an important role in development. Media relations function to unite like-minded groups to articulate needs, put pressure on the government, thus the function of media relations places the practice of public relations with the government in achieving development goals (Taylor, 2000). In a 1969 editorial in Television Quarterly, Communications scholar Cedric C. Clark. (now known as Syed Muh M. Khatib) writes that minorities often experience predictable stages of treatment in media portrayals, especially on television. Clark suggests there are four stages of minority representation: (1) not recognized, that certain minority groups are not recognized by the media, (2) mockingly, certain minority characters are portrayed as stupid, silly, lazy, irrational, or simply ridiculous, (3) in egulations, certain minority figures are presented as enforcers or managers of dominant group norms, and (4) respect, the minority group in question is described as no different from other groups (Fitzgerald, 2010).

The reform period gave birth to press freedom in 1999, the ministry of information, Soeharto's state apparatus for media censorship, officially facilitated media liberalization, this encouraged the rise of imported films, literature, fashion, and music, which sparked a moral panic among many organizations and activists Muslims who consider the representation of a hedonistic lifestyle as a product of westernization and secularization. Media liberalization makes the media a creative space for society, so that media relations are now an important thing in the continuity of people's lives (Abdullah & Mohamed Osman, 2018).

The concept of a minority group is: etymologically a minority is the lesser part or number, or the number that makes up less than half of the whole. Thus minority people say that they are a minority because they are not part of the majority (Davis, 2009). Members of minority groups are different from other groups, depictions of minority groups are more likely to be presented as different groups in customs, behavior, completely with distinctive differences (Zhao & Postiglione, 2010).

The term minority refers to various definitions, where each definition regulates policies on how to deal with minorities, in 1950, the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission defined minorities as, a non-dominant group, in a population that has and wants to preserve ethnic, religious traditions or characteristics or a stable language that is very different from the others in a study revealed that discrimination is one of the significant sources of identity threats that often motivate minorities to avoid the majority (Saleem & Ramasubramanian, 2019):

A group of citizens of a State, constituting a numerical minority and in a non-dominant position in that State, endowed with ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics distinct from the majority of the population, are in solidarity with one another, mutually motivated, implicitly, by the collective will to survival goal is to achieve equality with the majority in facts and law. From this definition, there are several problems faced by minorities, between the various types of minorities and the problems they face, such as differences in the types of religious minorities that are different from the problems faced by racial minorities, but basically the two problems faced by these minorities are demanding the state to provide equality of minorities as felt by the majority. In this case, achieving equality with the majority can be interpreted as a reference to individual rights, without considering the collective rights of minorities, and thus, such a policy of strengthening individualism can deliberately violate what has been the main goal of minorities to preserve their collective will.

There are several types of minorities in the world, first: national minorities, such as Israeli Arabs, who happen to be the majority in other countries. Second, stateless national minorities, such as the Kurds in Syria and Turkey, who have their own unique language aspire to establish their own State. Major religious minorities, such as Sunni Muslims in India, who form the majority in other states. The four minor minorities who happen to have their own State, such as Jews, Russians, who feel affiliated with and even protected by the State of Israel. Fifth, there are racial minorities, such as African-American minorities in the United States and Europe, who face their own types of racial discrimination. The six minor religious minorities, such as the Druze in Syria or the Yazidis in Iraq (Halabi, 2020).

Media diversity originates from cultural diversity and cultural practices, this relates to small-scale specific empirical studies on the media or certain minorities which are major issues in debate among society today, in this case the media is directly involved in voicing minority rights. The results of the study show that the fertility of minority groups assumes that often with assimilation going on, fertility between the majority and the minority will be covered. While the difference between the majority and the minority usually occurs as a temporary phenomenon and is often interpreted in terms of the social, demographic, economic characteristics of the minority group, it is this difference that makes the rights of the minority neglected (Goldscheider & Uhlenberg, 1969).

The position of religious minorities, Muslim minorities numerically the status of a small group/minority produces forms of identity that differ specifically in their positioning in relation to the majority. In fact, without realizing it, the minority position has had a lot of influence in contributing thoughts in the fields of norms, religion, politics, economics, social and culture. The influence of Muslim minority status on their identity and politics has been established in scholarly work. Muslim national leaders began to reverse an earlier process of religious change marked by a strong Wahhabi/ Salafi rebellion against the established Sufi-based order. Since around the 1190s, Muslim and Islamic identities began to change with Muslims identifying more closely with their religion (Mihlar, 2019).

At a glance Muhammad Ibn 'abd Wahhab was born in the Ujainah (Nejd) village, the eastern region of Saudi Arabia, his father was a qadi, he obtained knowledge in fiqh and other Islamic sciences, then he migrated to the Hijaz. In this country Muhammad Ibn 'abd al-Wahhab obtained religious knowledge from the scholars in Mecca and Medina. After a long time demanding that he return to his homeland, and then teaching his understandings, especially regarding knowledge, it was from here that he began to have many followers, many of whom came from outside Ujainah, even though he received many challenges, including from his own family. Because his teachings caused a lot of commotion, he moved to Dar'iah, a hamlet where Muhammad ibn Sa'ud (King Faisal's great-grandmother) lived who had accepted the Wahhabi teachings, and even became its protector and broadcaster. It was from this support that the teachings of al-Wahhab spread and became stronger. Because a theoretical person he always develops his thoughts. And finally in 1773 he and his followers were able to occupy Riyadh. And in 1787 he died, but his teachings still live and take the form of a stream known as Wahhabism. Al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi movement, is very prominent in Saudi Arabia. He is an Islamic figure who was very influential by the religious experience of Ibn Taimiya in particular and the Hanbali school of thought in general. Therefore, it is not surprising that in his movement, he focuses a lot on purifying the faith (Mangasing, 2008).

In Indonesia the term wahhabi is used in an inappropriate way. While it can be used for individuals and organizations that follow theological teachings and Abd-Alwahhab, it is more general in a much broader sense for those who denounce interpretations of Islam. Political change is only one part of a wider Islamist agenda (Woodward et al., 2010). The development of the Wahhabi Salafi group in Indonesia is supported by Saudi Arabia through an international agency channeling donations to the group, so that they can develop their understanding in various ways, one of which is by establishing madrasas and mosques, with the aim that these madrasas will be able to convey messages to all Indonesian audiences. about their movement, that this movement is the first and foremost Saudi institution from which salafism was transmitted to Indonesia. This is where Indonesian Muslims know this movement (Jahroni, 2020). Wahhabi salafi also formed Islamic foundations and media so that they could easily inform various useful activities to the community, so that through media the community would become more familiar with this movement.

Relationship between the media and minority groups towards the existence of Wahhabism

Whether we realize it or not, the phenomenon of the fall of the new order regime in May 1998 marked the arrival of an almost arbitrary euporia of freedom. And for the media, this is the first time, for 30 years, that the mass media has experienced almost unlimited freedom. Starting from mainstream media and alternative media, appearing with those that carry religious messages, from ekstream to elegant, all the expressions of diversity are present to adorn the public and display the identity of its adherents. But the representation of identity that appears in the symbolic order of the media must sometimes be understood as a social construct or ideology that fights behind journalistic practices or media performance. In the context of Islamic media, the media plays an important role as a mouthpiece for alternative discourse as well as a symbol of resistance to the dominant and hegemonic ideology. Any information conveyed through the media will be able to change public opinion, . The presence of new media not only brings change, but is also a challenge, one of the existence of media ethics, such as there are various hate speeches directed at minorities. For this reason, it is important for minority groups to establish good relations with the media, because the media is considered capable of being a place of defense and protection for minority groups. Based on a number of literature studies that, minorities need to get protection through the media in the form of establishing relations between the media and minority circles, the wahabi movement is sometimes also associated with salafist groups that refer to salaf clerics (earlier Ulama), Wahabi or Salafi marked the movement of Islamic conservatism. This movement is associated by some circles with various radical movements, considering that its approach is often cendrung to fictionalize or silence others, so the term Wahabi as a pejorative form, a term that cendrung contains negative meanings. Relations with the media are not often classified as a management function in public relations, establishing and maintaining relations with the media is a very important activity, most texts on media relations show a positive relationship between the media and minority groups as seen from the messages conveyed by the media about minority groups proven information that is conveyed openly, and armed with honesty so that the media is believed to be able to provide information on the existence of minority groups to the Government.

Toberpihakan media towards the fate of the Muslim minority, it has received full support that through the mediaside the government has recognized the existence of various Islamic movements in Indonesia that are in the minority group in this case felt by the Wahabi movement, which demands the state to provide equality of minorities as perceived by the majority. In this case, achieving equality with the majority can be interpreted as a reference to the rights of the individual, without taking into account the collegative rights of the minority, and thus, such a policy of strengthening individualism can deliberately violate what has been the main goal of the minority in order to preserve its collective desires. Thus that the success of this claim of minority rights has been achieved which is marked by the Existence of the wahabi movement in Indonesia.

CONCLUSION

Whether we realize it or not, media relations and minority groups in the existence of Wahhabism, it seems that the media has experienced success in taking sides with minority groups. Wahhabism who feel part of a minority group, in their success in building and establishing relations with the media, Wahhabis as part of this minority group are starting to be able to show success in bringing about new changes, through the media of minority groups their rights have been successfully fulfilled, namely, to get equal rights. with the majority without reducing and being able to preserve their collective will. As evidence, the Wahhabi movement pioneered by Muhammad Ibn 'abd Wahhab, who came from the Saudi Arabian region in Ujainah, experienced, has experienced success in developing his ideas about monotheism and has many followers, and it is seen that the existence of wahhabis in Indonesia is growing and developing well, because the Indonesian Government does not question this ideology. Even though it is still seen in the media that minority groups have not fully gained a place in the media and are still neglected, and minority groups are often misunderstood by the majority in the media, with their success in building and maintaining good relations with the media, minority groups will be able to regain their rights. their right to return can be fulfilled.

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