Justice Party drums up better education

The Justice Party is an Islamic-based party founded by a group of young Muslim scholars and activists last year. The party's secretary-general, Anis Matta, recently spoke with The Jakarta Post about the party's vision and its preparations for next month's general election.

JAKARTA (JP): The Justice Party makes no secret about its ideology: Islam. But nothing in the party's vision or platform says it is striving to establish an Islamic state.

When the party says it is campaigning for the supremacy of law, it is not even talking about shariah, or Islamic law.

"We're not thinking about imposing Islamic law in this country. At least not until society is ready for it," secretary- general Anis Matta said.

The Koran, the Muslim holy book, is not detailed about civil law, much less criminal law, Anis said. This means that apart from those laws stated in the Koran, other laws are the function of place and time. In Islam, the main principle is that all man- made laws must serve the public interest, he said.

The Justice Party's election platform resembles other proreform parties contesting the elections, including the call to abolish the military's political role, amend the Constitution and push Indonesia toward democracy and a civil society.

The party will campaign for a civilian president, although Islam does not ban a member of the military from holding the country's highest office. "It's just that we've had a bitter experience with a military president in the past," Anis said.

The party already has a presidential candidate: Didin Hafidhuddin, a scholar who until his nomination earlier this year was not well-known outside the world of academia.

How does Islam influence the party's vision and platform?

"Our ideology is Islam. Islam is a complete system. Islam does not have the shortcomings found in other ideologies. Our political behavior will be founded on Islamic values," Anis said.

The Shariah Council, the highest body in the party, ensures the party's policies and behavior conforms with Islam.

The Justice Party will campaign for better education and for a freer flow of information.

"The key word for a civil society is education," Anis said.

He said one of the characteristics of a civil society was a rational, knowledgeable and well-informed public.

"It is important that people have access to sources of information," he said.

Anis said the level of ignorance in Indonesia was higher than most people realized.

Many political parties are led by people ignorant of politics and the political structure. People's political behavior will never mature as long as their political leaders are not knowledgeable, he said.

The Justice Party views information as essential in helping raise the level of people's education.

Anis said he was not as concerned about whether the press was free as he was about ensuring people had access to information. "An uneducated public tends to be irrational and that is why `money politics' flourishes, because people will not cast their votes based on informed choices."

The Justice Party also is campaigning to raise the status and public appreciation of art and culture.

"The fact that most graduates from the school of letters end up working as journalists indicates there is something wrong with the arts and cultural education," Anis joked.

The party's obsession with education can be traced to its origins.

The party began as a loose forum set up in the 1980s by Muslim campus activists concerned with promoting social education. In 1993, the forum founded SIDIK, Islamic World Contemporary Study and Information, to carry out political studies and research.

"When president Soeharto resigned (in May 1998), it opened up an opportunity for us to take part in building a democracy. That's when we decided to form the party," Anis said.

The party was declared on Aug. 9, 1998.

The party's stated vision is to build a just and prosperous nation with Allah's blessing, and to establish an honest, clean and respected government.

From its original 250 members, the party has built up its strengths in the regions and now boasts over one million active members. The party is represented in 26 provinces -- with East Timor the only province where it does not have a branch -- and in over 300 regencies.

One of the appeals of the Justice Party is its youthful look, which it derives from its executives, all between the ages of 20 and 40. Party president Hidayat Nurwahid is 37 years old, his deputy Abu Ridho Abdi Sumaiti is 34 and Anis is 30 years old.

The party is run on a shoestring budget and is helped by the fact that most of its executives are young people whose lifestyles have barely changed since their college days.

"Our legislative candidates travel by road or by sea rather than by air. They don't receive lavish receptions. Often we have to book our own hotels and arrange our own transportation, and this means nonairconditioned transportation," Anis said.

"This has kept our operational costs low," he added.

The party is largely funded by Rp 2,000 monthly contributions from party members and the zakat, or the Islamic obligatory tax, amounting to 2.5 percent for those who earn more than Rp 300,000 a month, and an additional 2.5 percent professional zakat for those who earn more than Rp 500,000 a month.

Anis denied the party had received donations from Middle Eastern sponsors.

The Justice Party has succeeded in raising funds from the public for its work in assisting displaced people in Ambon, Maluku, and Sambas, West Kalimantan, but the money is kept in a separate account from the party's own funds.

With little money to spend on the election campaign, how does the party reach out to voters?

"We've been conducting a door-to-door campaign. We find this much more effective in attracting voters and in changing their perception that ours is a militant party," Anis said.