PKS and PAS: Ideological similarities, different orientations?<\/p>\n
Ahmad Ali Nurdin
\nBandung<\/p>\n
To compare two Islamic political parties in Southeast Asia,
\nthe PKS (Indonesia's Prosperous Justice Party), and PAS
\n(Malaysia's Pan Islamic Party), is interesting. Several reasons
\ncan be put forward to justify such a comparison.<\/p>\n
First, unlike radical groups that try to enforce Islamic law
\non the streets, both the PKS and PAS use the constitutional
\nprocess and follow democracy's rules of the game by establishing
\nIslamic political parties.<\/p>\n
Second, the PKS and PAS have played significant roles in
\nbringing about political change in both Indonesia and Malaysia.
\nAlthough the PKS is a new party in Indonesia, many describe it as
\nthe most solid in Indonesia and as having a clean and well-
\norganized image.<\/p>\n
The newly established party gained only 1.4 percent of the
\nvote and 7 seats in the House of Representatives in the 1999
\ngeneral election (at that time it was still called the Justice
\nParty). After it changed its name (as required by the legislation
\nas it failed to win a minimum 2.5 percent of the vote) to the
\nPKS, it won 7.3 percent of the votes and 45 seats in the House.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, PAS, an opposition party in Malaysia since its
\nestablishment in 1951, is powerful in Kelantan and Trengganu
\nstates. In the 1999 elections, PAS won state-level control of
\nboth Kelantan and Trengganu. However, it suffered from
\nembarrassing losses in the 2004 election because of the
\npopularity of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.<\/p>\n
Third, both the PKS and PAS are widely believed to be
\nidentical as Islamic parties that have an Islamic agenda as their
\nobjectives. However, are these parties' programs, strategies and
\ntheir responses to Islam and the state all that similar?<\/p>\n
From the historical perspective, one can argue that both
\nparties have been influenced by Islamic movements in the Middle
\nEast, especially Egypt, as well as Pakistan. The ideological
\ninfluence of the Ikhwanul Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood) movement
\nled by Hasan al-Banna in Egypt can easily be found in both
\nparties' strategies, programs and pronouncements.<\/p>\n
For al-Banna, the founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood, the
\nMuslim world's decline was symbolized by its acceptance of
\nWestern forms of government. Thus, he believed that Muslims should
\nreturn to Islamic values. Returning to Islam implied the
\nestablishment of an Islamic state, according to al-Banna.<\/p>\n
The tarbiyah (education) movement model, a cornerstone of the
\nPKS, has been clearly influenced by the methods the Muslim Brotherhood
\nused to recruit its members. According to al-Banna, the basic
\nunit of his organization is the cell or "family". The main role
\nof each family unit is tarbiyah (education) and dakwa
\n(propagation). This tarbiyah model, popular among Muslim students
\nin leading universities in Indonesia during the 1990s, has been
\nadopted by the PKS to recruit its members.<\/p>\n
The influence of Middle Eastern ideology is also found in the
\nPAS. According to Safie Ibrahim in his book The Islamic Party of
\nMalaysia: Its Formative Stages and Ideology (1981:74), PAS
\nideology has been heavily influenced by the Jamaati-Islami
\nmovement in Pakistan and the Ikhwanul Muslimin movement in Egypt.<\/p>\n
However, although both the PKS and PAS share similar
\nideologies imported from the Brotherhood movement, they also have
\nsignificant differences, particularly as regards their views on
\nthe Islamic state.<\/p>\n
PAS positions itself as an opposition party and has often been
\noppressed by the government. Meanwhile, the PKS was established soon
\nafter the fall of Soeharto in 1998, which means that as a party
\nit never experienced Soeharto's iron fist.<\/p>\n
Looking at the current political platforms and objectives of
\nthe two parties, it is clear enough that they have different
\norientations as regards the relationship between Islam and the
\nstate.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, PAS since its establishment has stated that
\nestablishing an Islamic state is its main objective. In Kelantan,
\nwe can see how Islamic law has been being enacted at the state
\nlevel.<\/p>\n
The PKS, on the other hand, has never clearly stated so far
\nthat its final objective is the establishment of an Indonesian
\nIslamic State.<\/p>\n
Thus, it is understandable that in the last two elections
\n(1999 and 2004), as pointed out by Greg Fealy and Anthony Bubalo
\nin their work Joining the Caravan?: The Middle East, Islamism and
\nIndonesia (2005:70), the PKS has emphasized the "secular" themes
\nof fighting corruption, socioeconomic equality and the need for
\ncontinued political reform instead of Islamic state issues.<\/p>\n
However, this is not to say that PKS leaders have abandoned
\ntheir earlier commitment to Islamist causes.<\/p>\n
The question therefore arises: why do the PKS and PAS
\napparently have different orientations when both of them are
\nstrongly influenced by the Ikhwanul Muslimin movement, which
\nclearly states that fighting for the establishment of the Islamic
\nstate is compulsory? It could be argued that it is the real
\nsocio-political situations prevailing in Indonesia and Malaysia
\nrespectively that lead to these different orientations.<\/p>\n
As an established opposition party in a federal system, it is
\neasier for PAS to fight for it objectives at the state level. If
\nPAS becomes a successful ruling party at the state level, it will
\nbe easier for it to try to implement its concept of an Islamic
\nstate.<\/p>\n
The PKS, on the other hand, is still struggling in Indonesia,
\nwhich is a unitary rather than a federal state. Indonesia also
\nhas a presidential system. That is why the PKS is hesitant to
\nproclaim itself an opposition party or to say that the
\nestablishment of an Islamic state is its main objective. We do
\nnot know what would happen if the PKS become the ruling party --
\nwould an Indonesian Islamic state be its main goal?<\/p>\n
Finally, it would be interesting if the parties were to hold
\ndiscussions and share information on their respective ideologies
\nand manifestos. Would it be possible for the PAS to follow and
\nadopt the PKS strategy of attracting Muslim voters in Malaysia by
\nemphasizing more secular issues? Or, conversely, could the PKS
\nlearn from the PAS experience in Kelantan and make itself even
\nmore acceptable to Indonesian Muslims (particularly hard-line
\nMuslims), by proposing an Islamic State as its main objective?<\/p>\n
The writer is a lecturer in the School of Theology at the
\nSunan Gundung Djati State Islamic University, Bandung.<\/p>",
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