Virtual Democracy

MCA (Muslim Cyber Army) Influences on Political Issues in Indonesia

Pratiwi Fajriyah

1

and Valentina Mariama Sadaedema

2

1

Political Science Department, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

2

Political Science Department, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keyword: virtual democracy, religious populism, MCA, Indonesia

Abstract: A wave of democracy has existed since the end of the Cold War. Democracy is an ideal system for

developed countries, that should be practiced in developing or third world countries. The wave of

democracy that has struck third world countries, including Indonesia, has caused impacts through the entry-

era of globalisation. A democracy based on freedom and human rights has a tremendous impact on the

dynamics of society. The freedom that comes from using social media both positively and negatively poses

as a lighter in the context of the development of religious populism. One of the items of evidence of the

development of religious populism is the existence of a social media account named MCA. MCA utilises

social media in channelling aspirations related to political issues. This focus of this research is on how

social media utilisation by MCA can change society’s mindset related to political issues. The methods used

in this research were social media analysis and literature studies. The MCA movement is indicated to have a

political goal because it always disseminates information that is on a tangent to political issues. As a result,

it can be said that virtual democracy has an impact on the growth of the religious populist movement in

society as well as MCA.

1 BACKGROUND

Globalisation is a phenomenon that is inevitable for

every nation, including Indonesia. Moreover,

globalisation is initially interpreted as a form of

economic liberalisation which has a significant

impact on the political sphere of the state. The

power of globalisation has an impact and is related

to the encouragement by society of participation and

democracy. The relationship between participation

and democracy is close and mutually connected.

Public participation can help to take control of the

state, which means that the state cannot act

arbitrarily. The urgency of the public’s participation

is important because it is the spirit of the democratic

implementation occurring in the country.

Democracy itself is also born from the demands of

the outside world, or in other words, democracy is a

mandatory requirement for a country in the

globalisation era. In the 21st century, globalisation is

encouraged by the latest technological advances,

namely the internet. The internet becomes more

interesting when democracy makes it simpler to

know the needs of democracy itself. Therefore,

societies face a new era of democracy called the

"democracy digital era".

The democracy digital era provides a space for

public participation in the country. Digital

technology is supported by the internet which can be

used to provide a new public space that can be used

by the whole of society. "Digital technology not

only increases participation, but also offers certain

advantages. As a virtual tool, the internet makes

participation activities easier". Furthermore, it can

also attract society to participate. Based on political

theory,

Sastroadmodjo (1995) suggested that the factors

that affect the participation rate of society are

modernisation and mass communication.

Modernisation is considered to be the ability to

facilitate access to participation through the

availability of devices which are more efficient and

effective. This availability of devices is presented by

the use of the digital era. In addition, participation in

politics in particular is increasing because of mass

communications through a variety of information

communication networks.

Fajriyah, P. and Sadaedema, V.

Virtual Democracy.

DOI: 10.5220/0008818601730181

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs (ICoCSPA 2018), pages 173-181

ISBN: 978-989-758-393-3

Copyright

c

173

Images of participation and democracy in the

digital era can be seen through the track record and

data analysis focused on the users of social media.

Social media becomes a representation of the

presence of a digital age which is used as a public

space for society to express various aspirations.

Based on the data from Hootsuite, there are 132.7

million internet users in Indonesia, with 130 million

being social media users. The numbers show that

societies who are made up of internet users have

increased in the digital era. Digital democracy is an

effort to implement the concept of democracy

without being confined by the limitations of time,

space, and other physical conditions (Hacker and

Dijk, 2000).

The advantages offered by social media are the

main attraction for the political world. People who

use social media use a new term to describe internet

users, which is netizen. The improvement of

political communication through the internet is used

by political actors to reach new goals. Political

actors aim to win the hearts of netizens in order to

become the king of social media. The requisite

politics will make the virtual world as successful as

the real world that they want to build and control.

Netizens have the freedom to make groups with

different backgrounds and interests in order to show

their political existence and ideology through social

media. In some cases in Indonesia, the accounts

contained in social media can even have a specific

background as a part of their religious identity. Why

does this happen?

The phenomenon of religious populism is

participated in through social media, including

Indonesia. The high sentimentality of religion freely

supports participation in the era of digital

democracy, which has encouraged the emergence of

movements of identity in social media. In fact,

accounts focused on religious identity are not

uncommon, who also often upload and proclaim

about political issues. Recent political phenomenons

grow along with the development of social media.

Social media is one of the communication tools that

must be owned by everyone

2 EMPIRICAL BACKGROUND

In Indonesia, the dependence on social media

provides both positive and negative impacts. One

positive impact is providing transparent information

that is easily accessible. On the other hand, the

negative impact of social media is that hoax news,

which is not trusted, can be spread through social

media. The news is widely open on social media

networks but it is not necessarily verified. It is used

by individuals with a particular identity to influence

their readers through preaching.

One of the groups that use a religious identity is

the MCA (Muslim Cyber Army). The MCA is a

group that uses the Islamic faith as the basis for the

group’s formation. The MCA spreads their post

through social media networks such as Facebook,

Twitter and Instagram. The MCA group has been in

existence since 2016, which was marked with Habib

Rizieq’s statement that Jokowi blocked him online,

calling for the help from the Muslim Cyber Army.

Because of the statement from Habib Rizieq, the

MCA strengthened the news put through social

media. One event that is a marker of the MCA is the

212 events organised through social media; the 212

events accused the former Jakarta Governor, Basuki

Tjahaja Purnama, of being a blasphemer in order to

deepen the case against the other political actors.

One of the MCA’s missions through preaching is

to reject hoax news and to rebuild the good image of

the religious leader, Habib Rizieq. In contrast, the

news that they make have cornered one of the

parties. In fact, they often spread news content that

contains SARA (Tribe, Religion, Race, Inter-Group)

and politics. The MCA account provides information

related to one political actor or another political

party. Thus, with such news, many readers believe

the news even though the news is not necessarily

true. The distribution of the news through social

media allows it to spread quickly. Moreover, the

impact of the news that includes political issues will

affect political stability.

The formation of the MCA and the phenomenon

of religious populism greatly affects the public

stigma. In addition, the use of social media is one of

the strategies used changing the social stigma and

stockpiling the MCA. The phenomena showed that

religious populism that is accompanied by the

development of technology, such as social media, is

the result of democracy. Democracy in cyberspace

also has a significant impact in relation to shaping

the mindset of society, especially concerning

political issues. Therefore, in this paper, the authors

will discuss how the Muslim Cyber Army movement

in Indonesia can change the mindset of society

towards political issues through social media

3 METHOD

This paper consisted of several stages that began

with data collection. This was continued by the

ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs

174

analysis of the data. When observing the movement

patterns of the MCA in social media, the authors

used the qualitative research method. Through the

qualitative method, this paper produced descriptive

data in written and spoken forms, thus allowing

people’s behaviour to be observed in relation to the

MCA movement in social media.

The data collection technique used in this paper

came from the secondary data in the form of

documentation. The documentation was in the form

of national and international journal literature. The

observations related to the movement of the MCA

were observed directly through the social media

accounts of the movement on Twitter, Facebook and

Instagram account.

Overall, the data analysis process involves some

attempt to interpret the data in the form of text or

images. Researchers need to prepare the data that s

to be analysed in order to understand and interpret

the real meaning of the data. After interpreting the

data, it will be analysed using a predefined theory.

4 LITERATURE REVIEW

4.1 Identity Politics

An identity will always refer to several things,

including the social, political and cultural. In the

current global condition, a person can have more

than one identity. An identity will continue to grow

and is not final. Identity is a special characteristic

that becomes the entry point for other people or

other societies to introduce themselves.

Castelle found that "Identity is the foundation of

the construction process and psyche-cultural culture

of an individual that gives meaning and purpose to a

particular individual. This is because the formation

of identity is a process of internal dialogue and

social interaction."

Another definition came from Stuart Hall (in The

Question of Cultural Identity, 1994), who said that

identity is something that is actually formed by

unconscious processes that transcend time. In

identity, there is something that is "imaginary" about

integrity. Identity remains incomplete, and is always

"in progress" and "being formed".

The politics of identity itself is an individual’s

participation in their social life which is determined

by their cultural and psychological background.

Empirically, the politics of identity is constructed

from the actualisation of political participation in the

cultural roots of the local community. Moreover, it

has a process of internalisation that is continuous in

the cultural fabric of society in a social interaction.

The rise of culture and the local community in the

form of identity politics should be a corridor to

declaring a commitment to democracy and sticking

to Pancasila as the crystallisation of the cultural

values of the nation. It can maintain and preserve

life in order to live in the harmony and glory of the

Republic of Indonesia.

4.2 Digital/Virtual Democracy

The concept of digital democracy was born

alongside the development of technology. The high

level of public interest in using technology is used as

a new way to meet their aspirations. Digital

democracy itself is the result of the synergy between

digital technology and democracy. Democracy

offers the world a future, which is the dream of the

digital technology era. It upholds the values of

freedom of information and communication, and

digital technology comes with a guarantee of

effectiveness, efficiency, transparency, openness and

accountability. Nikos Frangkis (2007) found that

“…digital democracy could be defined as any

electronic exchange in the democratic process, both

from the citizens' perspective, and that of politicians

and the political system. It reflects, in this particular

ambit, the tendency toward physically substituting

politically significant participation in events by

using electronic communication means”.

Digital democracy itself combines the concept of

representative democracy and participatory

democracy with an emphasis on the use of digital

technology devices. Democracy in a digital era is a

revolution that offers what democracy offered in an

earlier era. Democracy in the digital era is accepted

by society because it offers a way to deliver the

aspirations easily. The purpose and direction of the

digital democracy uses communication networks at

the global level and it is able to penetrate the

boundaries of space and time.

Based on the data released by “We Are Social”

by January 2018, there are 132.7 million internet

users in Indonesia with a penetration rate of 50%.

Apparently, people who are actively using the

internet are also active when it comes to using social

media; as many as 130 million with a penetration

rate of 49%.

Here we can see that the level of active users of

social media in Indonesia is quite high, so it

facilitates the democratic process online. This does

not mean that democracy in a face to face manner is

unnecessary. Cyber democracy or virtual world

Virtual Democracy

175

democracy remains a stepping stone to be followed

up with concrete actions, so there is a good synergy

between democracy in the virtual world and the real

world.

There are four benefits gained from social media

from the practice of democracy (Fayakhun, 2017).

The first is access to information. Social media

(Socmed) is used as a source of information access

that accommodates the aspirations of society

because it promotes the public’s interest. The second

is as a tool of interaction. The high number of social

media users in Indonesia causes limited interactions

in cyberspace. However, the interaction becomes a

way to strengthen democracy. The third is a space of

participation. For social media, democracy becomes

a new place to encourage people to participate in all

aspects of life. The fourth is as a place to

decentralise information. Social media is helpful in

bringing the government closer to its citizens so then

societies can be involved in the practice of

democracy.

4.3 Populism

The definition of populism by KBBI is an

understanding that embraces, recognises and

upholds the rights, wisdom, and interests of small

communities. The definition of religion has an

understanding that is more inclined to religious

practices and emotions. The understanding of

religion in this discussion is that it is this close

understanding that makes people's life more

segmented.

Populism has four characteristics. First, the

movement represents the interests of marginalised

groups. Second, it is used against the systems and

sub-systems that are the cause of the

marginalisation. Populism rejects the setting up of

the government and the political elite. Third, the

populism movement spreads the discourse of

economic crises, politics and morality that erodes

the existence of the nation and of the state. Fourth,

the populist movement also displays religious

figures but it is also able to provide solutions to the

problems of the country. The figure becomes a role

model for societies who follow this movement.

(CSWS, 2017).

The traces of contemporary populism are

triggered in various countries such as the United

States, which is marked by "Trumpism". Trumpism

began to exist when Donald Trump became an

elected candidate in the US presidential elections. In

the Europe, it is characterised by the UK

government through "Brexit". The events that have

hit Indonesia are through the occurrence of massive

protests from Muslims responding to the blasphemy

committed by the former Jakarta Governor, Tjahaja

Basuki Purnama (Ahok). Through these events, the

wave of populism is increasingly prevalent and it is

growing into a big movement.

Figure 1. Characteristics of Populism.

Data Source: CSWS Fisip Unair FGD “Religious

Populism” at November 23, 2017.

The movement of populism in Indonesia is

growing in the lower classes and also can be found

in the majority of the middle classes. Both of these

circles are people who are always dissatisfied with

the policies and leadership style of the main political

actors. In addition, there is the dominance of one

particular party that does not have any ideological

similarities. "Islamic populism" is defined as a trend

that has anatomy that is similar to populism

(specifically, right populism). This term makes

Islam an identity group. The populist Islamic term

can also be used to differentiate between radical

Islam and Islamic political movements in electoral

politics (Hadiz, 2017).

The religious populism movement that has

developed in Indonesia is caused by Western power

in the political, cultural, social and economic fields.

The emergence of the phenomenon of civil war in

the Middle East, the discrimination against Muslims

in Western countries, the expulsion of the Rohingya

ethnic group and the economic crisis has hit the

lower classes of Indonesian society, where the

majority are Muslims. The phenomenon that

happened recently is not a profitable position for

Muslims. Marginalised Moslems, hit by the crisis,

will foster a sense of solidarity among fellow

adherents of Islam and join them in spreading the

issue of discrimination and marginalisation. These

Anti

Establishment

Nativism/0

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pocalyptic

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ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs

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conditions give birth to the radical movements that

oppose the teachings of the West as well as the

symbols of non-Muslims.

Based on the index showing the income gap

between the rich and the poor in the world,

Indonesia is ranked in fourth position in the world,

behind Russia, reaching 74.5% above India (58.4%),

Thailand (58%), and Indonesia (49.3%); 10% of

Indonesia’s people control 75.7% of Indonesia's

wealth. Other data has shown that two thirds of

wealthy people in Indonesia are a crony; people

close to power. Referring to the crony-Capitalism

Index, and related to the position of people who

became rich due to their proximity to power,

Indonesia was ranked the world's sixth, under

Russia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, the

Ukraine, and Mexico. (Herdy, 2017)

Based on the above data, Indonesia has a gap of

49.3%. The nominal data shows that Indonesia still

has a high gap level between the rich and poor. This

gap helps the movement of religious populism. The

culmination of the religious movement was at the

same time as the demonstrations against the

blasphemy cases focused on former Jakarta

Governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok). After

the 212 demonstrations, the populism movement

increasingly began to exist in social media. Social

media is used as a communication tool that is

effective at promoting the mission of their

demonstrations. After the 212 demonstrations, there

became one movement called the Muslim Cyber

Army (MCA).

4.4 Muslim Cyber Army (MCA) in

Indonesia

The MCA (Muslim Cyber Army) is a movement

without form and structure that operates in social

media. The development of the MCA movement is

through social media and news that is related to

Islam or political issues. It is recorded in history that

the MCA emerged in Indonesia in 2016. It is marked

by a tweet from Adam Harvey, a Journalist at ABC

for Southeast Asia, who stated: "Radical Indonesian

cleric Habib Habib Rizieq says that Jokowi is

blocking him online. Calls for help from Season

Cyber Army."

One of the religious leaders that is a role model of

the MCA, Habib Rizieq, said that his social media

account was blocked by the government. Habib

Rizieq, commonly called HRS, voiced that there

should be a cyber-war and asked the MCA to join

him.

In 2017, the MCA was developed by the events

of 411 and 212. The demonstration on behalf of

Islam when dealing with the religious defamation by

the former Governor of Jakarta has strengthened the

radicalism of the religion. Additionally, it was also

used by political actors to get their own victories.

These events resulted in widespread religious

radicalism. Political issues about religion do not

seem to happen in Indonesia. After the events of 411

and 212, the issue of religion has always been

associated with political issues. As a result, the

former Jakarta governor, who is of Chinese

ethnicity, is not allowed to take on a governmental

position.

Figure 2: The beginning of the “MCA” or “Muslim Cyber

Army” movement emerged

Source: Ismail Fahmi, PhD (The War On MCA)

Figure 3: Keyword Trail: “MCA” or “Muslim Cyber

Army”

Source : Ismail Fahmi, PhD (The War On MCA)

In 2018, the police arrested 14 members of the

MCA in various regions in Indonesia. The pros and

cons concerning the actions of the government have

spawned a social media war. One pro-government

Twitter is @digembok, which always de-legitimised

the MCA.

Virtual Democracy

177

Figure 4: Trigger Developed “MCA” : Statement of Cyber

Warfrom HRS

Source: Ismail Fahmi, PhD (The War On MCA)

The war of the MCA and the government's pro-

account has become a cluster. A cluster is a

combination of social media accounts. In this case,

the cluster is divided into two smaller clusters,

which are the cluster of the pro-government and the

cluster that is counter-government. The arrest of 14

members of the MCA made the pro-government

cluster wider and the MCA cluster narrower. This

will not last long if the pro-government is negligent

in maintaining the cluster, as the MCA will find

gaps to attack back. The patterns of the social media

wars that occur between the clusters ran counter to

one another until now. One counter-government

movement is the MCA, which is still heavily in the

news, especially on the issue of governance and

politics. The MCA presents a religious leader who is

considered to be capable in solving the problems of

the country.

4.5 MCA Characteristics

The MCA, which is without form and structure, is a

movement united only because of the solidarity of

having a similar ideology. Networking members or

sympathisers are not bound. To join the discussion

room of the MCA via Facebook, they only require

mentioning the Syahada sentence twice,

acknowledging that Muhammad is the Messenger of

Allah and recognising Jesus as a prophet. The last

requirement is that if the member conducts phishing,

then they will be blocked from the group.

The MCA is considered to have an effective

strategy in attracting society. According to the data

from online news republika, it is proven that from

2016 to 2018, there were 102,064 MCA accounts

and 20 admin accounts. The workings of the MCA

are to accommodate hoax news, videos and

provoking images for the purpose of dissemination.

The target of their message is as an actor of the

government and political parties. Some of the

accounts that make up the cluster cons of

government are the Cyber Moeslim Defeat Hoax,

amounting to 145 people, The Family Team Cyber

which has nine members, the Sniper Army Team

that has 177 members and six administrators and

accounts that are similar to the MCA but that do not

show the MCA identity such as the

@indonesiabertauhid Instagram account that already

has 466k followers and@teropong.rakyat who has

63.7k followers. Accounts that are not on behalf of

the MCA can be regarded as a right hand or relation

of the MCA based on the patterns and types of data

transmitted. This is because they deliver from the

same structure.

Picture 5: Joining Requirements Member of MCA Muslim

Cyber Army Indonesia Group

Source: Facebook Muslim Cyber Army Indonesia

From the above data, the followers of each

account are not small. Over 2 years, the MCA drew

the attention of the Muslim community in Indonesia.

The number of followers listed above does not

included the number of members or followers on the

Facebook group. The group of the MCA on

Facebook has as many as 3,417 followers. The use

of social media in reporting strategies for public

attention is considered to have a high level of

ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs

178

effectiveness. As a result, there are many accounts

related to MCA that are developing fast.

Basically, the accounts of the MCA all have the

same pattern. There are some characteristics that can

be seen in the MCA movement. The first official

account is named the MCA (Muslim Cyber Army).

To identify whether the account is an account of the

MCA or not can be seen in the group or account

name. Some groups use the MCA name openly. But

some, especially Instagram accounts, do not show

the identity of the MCA. In other words, they use the

identity of the religion of Islam or Islamic symbols.

Second, the social media accounts of the MCA or

that use Islamic symbols have the same pattern of

reporting positive news that rivals the government.

The MCA recognises that members of the MCA

clarify the policies of the government subsidies and

spread the news that the policy is a hoax.

The MCA recognises that they can go against

each policy from the government, as well as counter

every crevice of government reporting. Third, the

news is disseminated in the form of a provocative

proclamation. The purpose is only to provoke, so

then the news presented is provoked and related to

the community issues raised. Fourth, one wave

populism can be seen from religious leaders who

feel able to solve the problems of the state and of the

nation. The MCA movement upholds Habib Rizieq

as a role model in both religion and society.

According to the MCA, Habib Rizieq should be able

to overcome the country’s problems. This is proven

because the early occurrences of the MCA are

characterised by a post about Habib Rizieq stating

that "Radical Indonesian cleric says Habib Rizieq

Jokowi is blocking him online, calls for help from

Season Cyber Army". From these statements, the

MCA movement started to develop in Indonesia.

Figure 7: Example of Provocative News

Source: Facebook Muslim Cyber Army News

4.6 Impact of MCA movement

The MCA movement has changed people’s mindsets

on the public degradation issues related to politics

and the government. The changing of the legitimacy

of the Muslim community is triggered by the level of

publicity. As mentioned above, the wave of

populism has four characteristics, and one of them is

that the wave of populism occurs because there are

people who are against being marginalised. It makes

them provide news against the authorities because

the government is considered to be the cause of the

marginalised party. The MCA is a movement that

goes against the government or the ruling political

party because the MCA feels that the political elite

has led to marginalisation, especially that of

Muslims. The MCA attracts so many Muslim

members who jointly undertake counter-government

reporting.

In addition, the societal legitimacy of the

government has declined because of the social media

war. The government, which is the stake holder in

the country, should be able to solve the problems

related to social media with a pattern of mediation.

This will help the social media war case not grow

fast in the eyes of the general public. The

consequence of the presence of the clusters being

segmented makes the society become firmer.

5 ANALYSIS OF THE THEORY

OF IDENTITY POLITICS

Emerging identities refers to several conditions such

as social, political and cultural. As described above,

identity is a special characteristic of any one person

or community that becomes the entry point for other

people to introduce themselves. Castelle found that

"Identity is the foundation of the construction

process and culture of an individual who gives

meaning and purpose to a particular individual,

because the formation of identity is a process of

internal dialogue and social interaction."

Identity as described by Castelle refers to the

basic construction of psycho-cultural culture.

Psycho-cultural qualities and identity can be

manifested into religious and ethnic identities.

Identity formation is built by a complex process

through experience, confidence, or interactions with

the environment. This is the reason why identity

construction is not a short time process. The process

of identity formation does not apply finally because

the identity can be changed with the development of

Virtual Democracy

179

knowledge and through interactions with the

environment.

Talking about the MCA, the topic of

conversation will lead to the religious identity of

Islam because members of the MCA consist of

Muslims who uphold the teachings of Islam. They

deny the existence of non-Islamic symbols or

Western concepts. Members of the MCA are united

on the basis of religious affiliations in common

solidarity. MCA cadre members are very flexible.

One of the conditions that they must have is Islam.

In addition to the religion of Islam, members of the

MCA also feel that Muslims are marginalised by

government officials. Identities are formed in such a

way that they can be obtained through the

experience of Muslims who feel marginalised by

government policy.

The MCA is formed with the goal of the

existence of the Muslims. The MCA movement is

intended to indicate the identity of the Islamic

religion and the power of the Muslims if they are

united. One fact that cannot be avoided is that the

state of Indonesia has a Muslim majority population,

but Muslims feel that the government is not pro-

Muslim. It causes the existence of the MCA

movement to demonstrate against the government.

They believe that if Muslims are united, then it can

shake the political stability of the government.

Cressida Heyes revealed that "Identity politics is

a flagging political activity in a broader sense,

insulated by injustice experiences along with

members of certain social groups." Cressida Hayes’

opinion of the understanding of the politics of

identity is associated with the formation of the

MCA. Before the MCA formed, a wave of populism

swept through many countries. Indonesia

experienced the populism movement due to the

condition of having marginalised communities. The

MCA were formed to strengthen the existence of the

identity of the Muslim religion. Identity politics are

based on the experience of Muslims who are against

the governmental policies. This makes them come

together as a marginalised group.

6 CHANGE THE PUBLIC

MINDSET WOULD BE A

POLITICAL ISSUE

The MCA, as a Muslim group that attacks the

government, always gives news that they call the

"clarification" of the government policy. The

negative news about the government will decrease

its public legitimacy. If the legitimacy of

government fades, then their political legitimacy will

also fade.

The MCA has gathered a lot of members over

the span of 2 years because the MCA upholds an

Islamic religious identity. In fact, Indonesia is a

unitary state that upholds multiculturalism.

However, the concept of multiculturalism is not

enough to maintain stability in the society.

Multiculturalism has various cultures and religions

that are a particular challenge for the government

when it comes to being fair to all people. Indonesia

has finally found out the impact of multiculturalism

for itself. One group of people feel marginalised by

the government in particular. As a result, the MCA

movement formed as an impact of multiculturalism

and religious populism.

The MCA, in changing the understanding of its

members related to politics and government issues,

will not escape from the negative publicity. The

MCA does not state that the news is negative

coverage because the MCA uses the term

"clarification" concerning the policies established by

the government. The negative news related to the

government and politics makes and shapes people's

mindset. This can also decrease the public

legitimacy of the government.

Figure 8. Mindset’s change of society by MCA

7 CONCLUSION

Democracy in the digital age is the direct impact of

globalisation, particularly the advancement of

information and communication technology.

Powered by the high number of social media users,

there is more secure community participation and

aspirations. Social media then grows and develops

into a new container that serves as a source of

information and participation, and that involves the

decentralisation of information and interaction.

Through social media networks, all information will

be open widely. On the other hand, the negative

impact of social media is a change in the

dependency stigma attached to an object affected by

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the news through social media. Information may be

wide open in social media networks, but it is not

necessarily information that has been verified.

The development of the digital era in Indonesia

has been followed by a phenomenon that has been

described as religious populism. The high

sentimental religion freely supports participation in

the era of digital democracy, having encouraged the

emergence of movements of identity in social media.

The religious populism movement developed in

Indonesia because of some of the Western power

shifts in the political, cultural, and economic social

spheres; this includes the emergence of the

phenomenon of civil war in the Middle East, the

discrimination of Muslims from Western countries,

the expulsion of the Rohingya ethnic group, and the

economic crisis that hit the lower classes of society

Indonesia.

The common thread that can then be inferred

from the above phenomena is the presence of social

media as a forum for a wide variety of background

accounts of the Islamic populism movement that is

capable of changing the mindset of society when

dealing with political issues. In fact, one of the

The Muslim movements, the Cyber Army

(MCA) have been utilising social media to raise and

discuss hot topics that will be able to lead the

reader’s opinion. The MCA movement, to some

extent, has changed the mindset of the people and

the legitimacy of the public degradation issues

related to politics and the government. The shift in

the mindset and legitimacy of the Muslim

community has been triggered by the level of

publicity in the neutralised structure.

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