ISLAMIC POLITICAL PARTIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: THE ORIGIN AND POLITICAL PROBLEMS

Purpose: The objective of the study was to describe factors that influenced the establishment of the Islamic political parties and its political problems in South East Asia. Methodology: The research methodology used in the present research study is a literature study method with qualitative analysis. The data obtained from documents and books which were studied by online and offline. The gathered data analysed by using political theories. One of them was the analysis of the emergence of Islamic political parties. Main Findings: The study had two main findings. First, there were six factors which influenced the establishment of Islamic political parties, that is the demography, political system, political ideology, contagion, international political economy, and political competition. Secondly, there were four problems faced by Islamic political parties in winning the political contest, especially in the general election. The first problem was the division of local cultural identity, followed by the unfavorable situation for Islamic political parties, political ideology, and the quality of Islamic political parties themselves. Implications: It had a theoretical implication on the harmony between Islam and democracy, the emergence of Islamic political parties, and the problems. It revealed that there was no problem between the existence of Islamic political parties and democracy. Novelty: When the secular political party lost public trust, the voters did not automatically shift their political votes to the Islamic political parties.