Generally, the religion including Islam has a considerable influence on the
politics and governmental system in a country. But of course the role of Islam in
politics and government will be different when Islam as the majority religion
compared when Islam became a minority religion. It becomes interesting to be
explored further, so as to see concrete evidence the authors determined to
compare the influence of Islam in the politics and government in Indonesia and
Thailand. The results of research showed that there is a significant imbalance
between the role of Islam in Indonesia and Thailand for politics and government.
In Indonesia since the struggle until independence era, the Muslim leaders and
activists are aware that in order to improve the condition of the country, it takes a
political struggle to deal with attempts to obtain power to influence government
and public policy making. This can be evidenced by the existence of Islamic party
and Islamic mass-based party from the first general election to date. In addition,
at the level of government the role of Muslim activists and scholars are also
greatly affected. Instead, in Thailand show that Islam has a small portion in
politics and government. This is evidenced by the lack of political access and
opportunity to participate in the governmental system. Even in a particular
regime, Muslims get very discriminatory treatment. Like as in the administration
of Prime Minister Phibul Songkhram and Thaksin Shinawatra. This condition is
supported by the prevailing political system in Thailand, where the authority of
the regime is absolute and inviolable. As an impact, insurgents groups in Thailand
namely BRN and PULO continued to express special autonomy. With the special
autonomy it is expected that the conflict in Southern Thailand will subside. This
research uses qualitative research with descriptive analysis approach.
Keywords: Islam, politics, government, Southeast Asian countrie
