Muslim-based parties turn inclusive ahead of polls

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Islamic-leaning political parties contesting this year's general elections have selected more non-Muslim candidates, a move to pluralism that has been welcomed by political commentators.

Several Muslim-based political parties such as the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and even the strict Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), have nominated prominent non-Muslims in their lists of legislative candidates.

The PKB's high profile non-Muslim candidates include, AB Susanto, the former chairman of the Forum of Indonesian Catholic Communities (FMKI), who tops the candidacy list for the Jakarta I electoral district, and Ajeng Theresia Indrawati, who ranks seventh. In North Sulawesi, Ferry Tinggogoi, a Christian, heads the PKB's candidacy list for the legislative election.

PAN, the political party supported by members of the country's second largest Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah, has enlisted among others, legislator Alvin Lie, a Buddhist, in its roster of legislative aspirants for Central Java and Rev. Janes Johan Karubaba for West Papua.

The party's leader Amien Rais has said religious affinities is no longer an effective way to attract voters and the time is right for faith-based parties to shed their exclusive outlooks.

In a similar vein, the PKS, a political party that has long been interpreted as a political vehicle for Muslim hardliners, has also embraced those from other religions into its fold.

In Papua and North Sumatra, the PKS has put up a majority of non-Muslims to contest seats in the provincial legislature.

Earlier PKS leader Hidayat Nur Wahid said thousands of Christians from South Maluku had joined the party.

The same was true for PKS candidates in the two provinces.

"It was the locals who first approached our party branches in the provinces and expressed their willingness to run for legislative positions. There are no strings attached," Untung Wahono, head of PKS political affairs, defense and security told The Jakarta Post.

He said the PKS did not object to non-Muslims representing it. "We consider them representatives of certain groups whose rights needed to be freely exercised," he said.

Muslim scholar Komarudin Hidayat of Paramadina Mulia University said by including non-Muslim candidates, Islamic- leaning political parties were taking a great leap forward in promoting pluralism and religious tolerance.

They were sending voters a message they should not vote for candidates based on their religious background but on their personal integrity and political vision.

On the downside, Komarudin said the move could at worst be interpreted as a cynical grab for voters, at best a pragmatism motivated by necessity.

"These parties have been frustrated by their failure to garner support from people of other religious beliefs, and now they have turned to embracing them. However, these parties can not leave their original constituents behind," he said.

He said political parties such as PAN and the PKB could not forget their grassroots supporters were Muslims, members of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, respectively.