Part 1 of 2: What's taking the PKS so long to make up its mind?

Santi WE Soekanto, Jakarta

Never has the cohesiveness of the community that makes up the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) been as sorely tested as it is today -- and by a challenge they are not used to facing.

Oppression and enmity they handle well. After all, the Tarbiyah (a campus-based Islamic movement that emphasizes education), which gave birth to the PKS, survived decades of the New Order oppression of anything Islamic or anything un- Pancasila, when intelligence agents censored sermons and spied on the movement's Koran reading groups.

In fact, the community grew all the more solid and stronger after enduring those years of hardship.

No, it is the sweetness of power, or at least the allure of being powerful enough to take one's pick, that is causing the party to strain at the seams. Some officials of the party described with relish the community's predicament thus: "The PKS is like a beautiful girl having a great many suitors asking for her hand." The girl may enjoy being wooed and take her time in making her decision, but her parents and everybody else in the family are racked by anxiety that she might make a bad choice and ruin the rest of her life.

After winning 7 percent in the 5 April election (a great leap forward compared to the less than 2 percent the party gained in 1999), the PKS, which used to be called the Justice Party, suddenly found itself to be the political flavor of the year. The cream blob that every baker wanted to have on top of his political cake.

This is why during the final day of the party's lawmaking council convention in April, one presidential candidate called and offered to fly from Yogyakarta to Jakarta that very moment and undergo a "fit and proper test" to win the party's support for his candidacy. The council declined because it had by then already made up its mind to be an "engaged" opposition.

Another presidential hopeful had, in fact, read the potential of the PKS better and earlier, reportedly making repeated visits to the top man in the community (whose name is not even on the party's list of officials but whose recommendations have significant weight in the formulation of party policy).

The self-imposed deadline for the announcement of who the party will endorse has come and gone, and still the PKS is not able to come up with any name that best suits its criteria: namely 1) the candidate's position on sharia, 2) a willingness to share power, and 3) a willingness to enter into a political contract.

Apparently none of the suitors passed muster -- some failed the selection early on, but others managed to keep themselves on the party's list of potential partners. Yet, some PKS leaders still think the party has to recommend a candidate for its supporters who seek guidance regarding who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election.

Coming closest to the requirements is Hamzah Haz, but his approach to Islamic ideals is considered piecemeal, rather than comprehensive, as the PKS would like to have it.

Megawati Soekarnoputri has never been a choice (not for gender reasons because unlike other Islamic groups, the PKS is open to the possibility of having a woman president and it has in fact supported Megawati in the past). Her poor record is the more important factor, as is her stance on the question of sharia. In fact, her recent speech about how some religious schools produced fanatics irked a large number of PKS supporters.

Gen. (ret) Susilo Bambang Yudhyono is not a choice either -- one obvious reason being his stance against sharia.

That leaves Gen. (ret) Wiranto and Amien Rais.

Amien, for many observers, looks a foregone conclusion given his roots in Muhammadiyah and his personal reputation as Mr. Clean (which fits in nicely with the PKS' main selling point during the legislative elections, namely, that it is a clean and caring party).

But Amien is a tough ball for the PKS to play with -- he runs on a non-Islamic party platform, and he is not willing to make concessions on the possibility of power-sharing. "He came to us and just wanted us to support him, full stop," one source said.

Further, Amien is indeed a devout Muslim, he fasts every other day, he lives relatively simply (he is the "poorest" of the presidential candidates). But his outspokenness borders on arrogance, some say, and his earlier assertion that an Islamic party is too small a shirt for him to wear (though this did not prevent him from seeking the Islamic PKS' support) rankles on some people's minds. His wife does not really cover her hair, and neither does one of his daughters.

Further, the "Father of Reform", once the dream choice for some Indonesian Muslims for not being afraid to appear exclusive (in Islamic terms), has caused more than a few eyebrows to shoot up by starring in Christmas and Chinese New Year greeting advertisements -- a big no-no for the Tarbiyah activists.

But Wiranto is no less a political hot potato for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). He is running for Golkar, the party that the PKS once vowed never to have anything to do with.

He was the man who in May 1998 vowed to protect Soeharto -- the embodiment of the corruption that the PKS wants to combat. His human rights record gives rise to so many question marks, from the Trisakti and Semanggi cases to East Timor. How he came upon all those billions also needs to be explained.

But this is one suitor that really tugs at the heartstrings of PKS officials. His wife and two daughters wear the Islamic head scarf, and another family member is a supporter of the PKS. His wife, Uga Wiranto, appears from her interviews to be a pleasant army general's wife, whereas Amien's wife, Kusnasriyati, sometimes comes across as a hard and brittle woman.

This is not to say that the PKS would base its decisions on a reason as trivial as the grooming of a candidate's wife. But, in the world of Islamic politics, details such as your wife's head scarf can really make a difference in tipping the balance in your favor.

The writer, a journalist with Aisyah magazine, can be reached at santi_soekanto2001@yahoo.com.