PKS pushes for clean local administrations

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The emergent Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is determined to run clean and transparent local administrations in areas where its members won in regional elections, and vowed to provide its politicians with overwhelming executive skills and to create a grand design of how an administration should be run.

PKS, which came sixth in last year's election, is predicted by many analysts to pose a significant challenge to major parties due to its well-structured management and untainted record.

Thus far, PKS candidates have won office in at least 40 regions, either on their own ticket or in coalition with other parties.

"For legal policies, the party will optimize support and assistance for our members on every issue being faced in the area, such as graft eradication or a clean legal system, and how to approach them," PKS' head of politics and legal affairs Untung Wahono said on Friday on the sidelines of the party's first national congress here.

Untung, who also sits in the House of Representatives Commission III for legal and human rights affairs, said providing training programs for its politicians, especially those running a local administration, was also crucial to maintain its appeal with the public.

"Not only to establish a clean and transparent government, but our performance is also important to avoid a decline in public support for the party because this is the first time we have had members in executive posts," he said.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) won large support in the 1999 general election, and put many of its people in executive posts. Its support plummeted in the 2004 elections apparently due to public disappointment with the party's performance.

Untung said PKS, with the assistance of local autonomy experts, would draw up a design of how to run an administration and enforce the law effectively.

"It includes how to install a clean police chief, prosecutor, or to work with honest auditors. It all depends on the leaders, so we need to improve the capability of our members on legal enforcement skills," he said.

The party central board has guidelines of how to run an administration, and these would be adjusted for the situation in each area, Untung said.

For control, he said, the party would also empower its members sitting on local councils so that the policies issued by the executive would not run contrary to either the aspirations of the public or the goals of the party.

PKS' head of general elections Muhammad Razikun said the party had targeted to secure at least 20 percent of the vote in the 2009 election, up from 7.5 percent in 2004.

The target, he explained, was made based on the situation in some of the major parties, which has seen them being involved in ugly internal disputes with splinter groups emerging.

"We're still targeting areas such as Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, and Banten. Also East and South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Maluku and West Nusa Tenggara," Razikun said.