PAN likely to revise platform

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The National Mandate Party (PAN) looks certain to insert religious terms of "faith and devotion" into its existing platform that recognizes state ideology Pancasila, the party's deputy chairman Andi Mappataeng Fatwa said on Tuesday.

Fatwa said the demand was widely heard when he toured a number of provinces recently. PAN's provincial branches, even in areas where Muslims are not the majority like Bali and Maluku, supported the modification, according to Fatwa, who is the deputy House of Representatives speaker.

But he was quick to dismiss allegations that the party, once known for its nationalist orientation, would emerge a sectarian grouping in a bid to lure Muslim voters.

"PAN remains open to everybody and respectful of pluralism. The terms indeed have a religious nuance, but it is not directly associated with a particular religion."

"Even the State Policy Guideline adopts those terms. We just emulate it," Fatwa said.

He admitted, however, the change was intended to help the party gain more votes from Muslim supporters in the next elections in 2004.

"I believe we could win between 15 percent and 20 percent of the votes, an identical vote sharing between the former Masyumi and PNI in the 1955 elections," Fatwa said, referring to the Muslim modernist-oriented party and Indonesian Nationalist Party which dominated the first polls ever held in the country's history.

Fatwa is in the city to attend PAN's first congress, which runs from Thursday through Sunday. He is scheduled to meet with Governor Hamengkubuwono X and members of the provincial legislature on Wednesday.

Political analysts have warned that the planned revision to the platform could endanger the position of the party's chairman, Amien Rais, on the political stage.

Pratikno of the school of social and political sciences at Gadjah Mada University, here said that the change would confirm public allegations that the party had changed into a sectarian party, thanks to its participation in the loose coalition of Muslim-based parties called "the axis force". (swa/44)