Executive post a real test for PKS: Observers

Executive post a real test for PKS: Observers

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The victory of Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) candidate Nur
Mahmudi Ismail in the Depok elections will be a concrete test for
the party and himself as to how far they can curb corruption and
set nondiscriminatory policies.

Former executive director of the Center for Electoral Reform
(Cetro) Smita Notosusanto said the PKS had never played a role in
the executive branch so its clean track record was of a little
value.

PKS has long been known as a clean party in the legislative
branch.

"Being in the executive is a much tougher job because they
must directly deal with policies. Now, they are keeping the
money. It's very different from a role in the legislative branch
when all you have to do is express ideas," she told The Jakarta
Post on Friday.

Smita cited an example of how Nur Mahmudi was linked to a
markup scandal, a problem that has not been cleared up until now,
when he was a minister of forestry.

Muslim scholar Nur Mahmudi was minister of forestry in
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's Cabinet.

He is also a popular Muslim intellectual and former president
of the Justice Party (PK), which later evolved into the PKS. He
is now a lecturer at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB).

Local elections officials said on Thursday that Nur Mahmudi
won the Depok mayoral elections, reaffirming PKS' hold on the
fast-growing regency.

Nur Mahmudi garnered 232,610 or 43 percent of total ballots
casts, while Golkar Party candidate Badrul Kamal had 206,781
votes, or 38 percent of the vote.

Smita said that Nur Mahmudi's tasks as mayor, however, were
made easier by the fact that PKS also dominated the legislative
election.

PKS won the legislative election in Depok in 2004, winning
24.49 percent of 722,225 votes.

"However, Nur Mahmudi and PKS can't just put forward agendas
as the combined votes from other parties are much bigger than
PKS' own votes. So, any proposed policies will be fought closely
in the legislature," Smita said.

Meanwhile, political analyst and Depok resident Wawan
Ikhwanudin rejected suggestions that Depok would become "greener"
or lean more heavily toward Islam following the election of Nur
Mahmudi.

"PKS has less than one third of the legislative seats and Nur
Mahmudi only won by several thousand votes over Badrul. In
addition, Depok residents are very heterogeneous and too smart to
be forced to obey any sectarian policy," he told the Post.

He also argued that PKS' domination was also weakened by the
fact that they had difficulties in selling many of their
proposals to other parties.

Another Depok observer, Adnan Topan Husodo of the Indonesia
Corruption Watch (ICW), agreed that besides curbing corruption,
Nur Mahmudi and the PKS must work hard to be more tolerant toward
proposals of other parties.

"Curbing corruption can't be done alone. They need support
from other parties. There will be a backlash if they force policy
that does not accommodate the interests of other ideologies as
they won't get support from other parties," Adnan told the Post.