PDS to lead by moral example for new nation

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As a new, small party that relies on support from minority groups, the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) vows not to play second fiddle in national politics, but to take the lead as a moral force.

PDS chairman and presidential candidate Ruyandi Hutasoit said on Thursday that the party proposed to remedy the ailing nation by leading by example in upholding ethics.

"We start within ourselves. PDS executives must be financially stable, otherwise they will be prone to corruption and enriching their families if they win legislative seats," said Ruyandi, a surgeon by profession.

The party statute rules that smokers cannot sit on its executive board and threatens to dismiss those who are found to have accepted bribes.

"Smoking is against our basic principle: make peace with God, ourselves, the community and the environment," Ruyandi said, listing the moral values the party practiced.

PDS secretary-general ML Denny Tewu said the party aimed to fulfill the 3 percent electoral threshold required to contest the presidential election, or winning at least 17 seats in the House of Representatives.

Denny said the party stood a fair chance of winning at least one House seat in the Jakarta, West Java, East Java, West Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua electoral districts, due to their large Christian communities.

"We have nominated our best candidates for the elections, members who are not only willing to work, but are also committed to upholding our moral values," he said.

Although the party has a Christian base, reflected in its logo featuring a cross and a white pigeon, the party seeks to reinstate nationalism and pluralism -- the legacy of the country's founding fathers.

Denny said although so far the party's central board of executives were dominated by church community, some of its regional branches, including in Aceh and Seribu Islands, were run mostly by Muslims.

Ruyandi said several PDS founders had suggested that the party avoid the use of Christian symbols, but most insisted that their ideological identity be kept intact.

"We are not upholding sectarianism, but we think social relations will improve if everybody has an identity. People don't like to communicate with strangers," he said.

He assured that the party did not aim to convert, and that it was "against such a move".

No Christian-based parties contesting the 1999 elections met the 2 percent electoral threshold, or 10 House seats.

The population of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, is 90 percent Muslim.