Indonesian Islamic parties unfazed by PAS defeat

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The leaders of the country's Islamic parties have reluctantly accepted the defeat of political Islam by Malaysia's dominant secular political grouping in the neighboring country's national elections on Sunday, but said it was far from being final.

Responding to the trouncing of the opposition Parti Islam se- Malaysia (PAS) in predominantly Muslim Malaysia, they said it did not necessarily reflect a weakening in support for Islamic parties.

They claimed that PAS's defeat to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's secular National Front coalition was only incidental to the Indonesian situation, and that Islamic parties in Indonesia would be able to address any challenges they faced.

"What happened to PAS in Malaysia is not final. It is connected with the party's internal problems and domestic politics in that country," Hamdan Zoelva, an influential leader of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), said on Tuesday.

Badawi's comprehensive victory is seen by those opposed to political Islam as countering fears that increasing religious sentiment in Malaysia could be expressed in radicalism and extremism. Taking a tough stance against the militants, Badawi, who took over the Malaysian leadership from his predecessor, Mahathir Muhammad, last October, has changed Western perceptions of the country as a risky place following terrorist network Al- Qaeda's attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and the Jamaah Islamiyah terrorist group's bombings in Bali on Oct. 12, 2002.

Mutammimul Ula, a worker with another Islam-oriented party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), concurred with Hamdan and said that the Islamic parties in Indonesia would continue to push their manifestos to strengthen political Islam here.

"We are working hard to win the hearts of the people," he told The Jakarta Post.

Djoko Susilo, a legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN), a moderate Islamic party led by Amien Rais, said he was fearful that Indonesia's Islamic parties would face a similar fate in the legislative elections scheduled for April 5.

He said that PAN as a moderate Islamic party in Indonesia was targeting more votes than it received in the 1999 elections. "We need a religion, but moderation is also necessary," he said.

Political analyst Saiful Mujani from the Freedom Institute has observed that Islamic parties were losing popularity in Indonesia due to their inability to accommodate modernity.

He said that there had been a change in political culture among Muslim voters.

Saiful, a graduate of Ohio State University, insisted that Islam was not a marketable political commodity among Indonesian voters.

Sharia, which was espoused by a number of parties, was proving to be less attractive to voters as time went on.

"Muslim voters can easily distinguish Islam as a religion from the Islamic parties fighting for political influence. Most voters support those parties with secular platforms due to the changing culture," he said, adding that this had been borne out by the 1999 elections.