PPP congress reveals tolerance, maturity

The United Development Party has just concluded its congress without any serious delay. Political scientist Amir Santoso says that if post congress weeks are free from incidents, the relatively congress may reflect the dawn of the spirit of maturity in the Moslem-oriented party.

JAKARTA (JP): In an earlier article published on Aug. 26 I predicted that Ismail Hasan Metareum would regain his position as chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), and I was proven to be correct.

Whoever intends to observe politics in Indonesia cannot be content with watching the indicators that appear on the surface. If one were to look only at the surface indicators, vocal candidates such as Sri Bintang Pamungkas and Matori Abdul Djalil would emerge as probable "formatters" on the electoral board. As it turned out, neither of them are holding any position whatsoever on the new party board.

Such is the practice of politics in Indonesia. Those who are vocal, that is, those who campaign are usually not elected. On the other hand those who remain silent hold a good possibility of becoming a member or even a chairman of an organization.

Indonesian culture

This indicates that the public is, as yet, averse to overt and brazen campaigning for office. In Indonesia, to present oneself is considered as a show of arrogance or stirring up trouble. Those who have ambitions of becoming a party chairman will have to be aware of this aspect of Indonesian culture.

Cross alliances among MI (Muslimin Indonesia) and NU (Nahdlatul Ulama) candidates during the conference, such as between Ismail Hasan Metareum (MI) and Hamzah Has (NU) and between Matori (NU) and H.M. Dault (MI) -- although based more on personal ambitions -- is an indication that element feelings are weakening. This a welcome development which will, hopefully, continue to grow to ensure the preservation of party unity.

The defeat of NU's Matori, who enjoys the support of the Rembang Group of ulemas, is an indication that the ulemas were not unanimous in their support of Matori. On the other hand, Ismail Hasan's supporters of the MI faction showed enough support for their candidate for him to win. This shows that NU suffers from a weakness of coordination and organization as well as a lack of ability on the part of some of the ulemas to interpret the political trend at the national level.

Normally the ulemas have shown themselves to be willing to accommodate the wishes of the government. This time, however, some of them failed to endorse Ismail Hasan, who has the government's support, and gave their support to Matori. This, however, is no indication of opposition on the part of the ulemas against the government, but rather reflects their opposition to the MI. It is also an indication of a lack of information on their part regarding the government's wishes. In other words, the government's lobbyists have not been very successful in their efforts with regard to some of the ulemas.

The fact that the conference proceeded without incident, on the one hand, indicates that the level of tolerance among the participants was quite high. This is characteristic of the MI and NU, both of which usually prefer to avoid conflicts with the government, in contrast with a group like the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). On the other hand, it seems that in handling the PPP conference the government did not learn the lessons of the PDI conference which took place not so long ago.

Tolerance

The PPP congress has shown that, while Indonesia's Moslem society is quite heterogeneous, it also possesses a high degree of tolerance. For this reason I believe that Moslems in Indonesia will never become "fundamentalists". They will react only when real pressure is put on Islam, as happened during the colonial period and during the heyday of the Communist Party around 1965. Because of this tolerance, Islam is a unifying factor in Indonesian society and this characteristic sets this country's Moslems apart from many others in the world.

If no further protests occur in the wake of the recent PPP congress, such as the establishment of rival PPP party boards (as was the case with the PDI) or attempts to "deflate" the party's influence as happened during the 1987 general elections, there will be reason to re-evaluate the maturity of the PPP in general, and the NU faction in particular.

Victory and defeat should indeed be taken in a spirit of good sportsmanship and maturity to keep the party and this country's Moslem society intact. After all, a congress is merely one individual event, in the context of the PPP's continual efforts towards the improvement of the living conditions of Indonesia's Moslems.

The writer is a lecturer in political science at the University of Indonesia.