The Establishment Of The Indonesian Islamic Bank (BSI) Is Called A Form Of Jihad In National Economic Politics

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Muslim scholar Fachry Ali said the consolidation and merger of state-owned Islamic banks into Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) is another form of realizing the ideals of building an established Muslim middle class in this republic.

According to him, this has actually been attempted by the pre-independence organization Syarikat Islam in the past. However, this desire did not materialize as the organization's top brass turned the Syarikat Islam into a political organization.

“The idea of Syarikat Islam is to build a middle class of entrepreneurs in Indonesia, then they can be economically independent. Well, if it has achieved economic independence, it will certainly be politically independent. But problems arise when Syarikat Islam has turned into a political party," he said in a discussion broadcast online, Monday, June 14.

Fachry added, after the transformation from Syarikat Islam, until now there has been no real effort to form an economic political force based on sharia principles.

"For this reason, until now the Muslim middle class has never been formed until the idea emerged to form the Indonesian Sharia Bank (BSI), which in this context can be said to be jihad in the interests of the nation," he said.

Furthermore, he assessed that the State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) which were established today are a tangible manifestation of the manifestation of the National Political Economy.

“In the past, many SOEs were originally Dutch companies and have now become Indonesian companies by producing many great managerial staff. Therefore, in addition to the economic function, SOEs also have a political element through their economic bargaining power," he explained.

To note, Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) itself is a financial services institution resulting from the merger of PT Bank BRIsyariah Tbk (BRIS), PT Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), and PT Bank BNI Syariah (BNIS).

The business entity that carries out activities based on Islamic principles has assets of Rp214.6 trillion with a core capital of more than Rp20.4 trillion.

Meanwhile, BSI targets the MSME market segmentation to finance large-scale infrastructure projects in line with the government's plan for infrastructure development in Indonesia.