The Authority and Religion in the 2024 Mojokerto Regent Election: the Perspective of Foucault's Power Relations and Knowledge Theory

Abstract

Power in the sense of authority according to Paul-Michel Foucault has a close relationship with religion. Foucault views power as positive, because it is able to produce the scope of objects and rituals of truth. Power and religion are often like one entity, but it is not uncommon for the two to clash. The issue of power and religion is reflected in the 2024 Mojokerto Regent Election (Pilbup). Candidate number one is the incumbent and the son of prominent cleric, candidate number two is also the son of prominent cleric and the son of former two-term Mojokerto Regent. This research purposed to analyze authority relations and religion in Pilbup Mojokerto from the perspective of Foucault’s power relations and knowledge theory. This research uses a discourse analysis approach in the mass media about the Pilbup Mojokerto. The results of research conclude, in Foucault's view power works with a series of certain rule systems to produce a chain of power. The relationship between power and knowledge is inseparable, because power produces knowledge, and knowledge has power. In the context of Pilbup Mojokerto, the relationship between power and religion occurs with the production of each candidate's religious identity. Knowledge production about performance that has been carried out during one period, and as representatives of NU cadres by candidate number one. Knowledge production about a figure with qualified religion (ex-scholar of Al-Azhar University Egypt), the son of a famous kiai, and the son of a former two-term Mojokerto Regent, as well as various kinds of massive knowledge production through religious-titled activities by candidate number two. So that the power relations that occurs is a relations of governmentality that makes the subject in the relationship have self-control, not a relationship in the form of power domination that limits the subject's actions.