Collective Nostalgia and Populism in Indonesia

Collective nostalgia shapes Islamist populist mobilization in Indonesia, particularly in the 2024 presidential elections. Nostalgia for a morally pure Islamic community, betrayed by corrupt elites and threatened by “dangerous others,” has long structured the rhetoric of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and other Islamist actors, and was reactivated in 2024 to support the Anies-Muhaimin ticket through speeches, campaigns, and election discourse. However, the banning of the FPI in 2020, fragmentation among Islamic parties, and the absence of a catalytic moment comparable to the Ahok blasphemy case curtailed the political effectiveness of these nostalgic appeals. The persistence but diminished impact of such narratives in 2024 illustrates how memory and longing for a lost moral order can underpin Islamist populist appeal while remaining a fragile foundation for sustained political influence.