Brunei has become the first country in Southeast Asia to fully implement Sharia criminal law on a national level. But the move is just the latest in a growing trend of conservative politicians across the region pandering to hardline Islamist groups to prop up their support. Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s core supporters come from modernist-oriented, theologically conservative Muslim clerics, activists, and organisations, said Alexander Arifianto, a research fellow at the RSIS in a commentary.