Promoting the true face of PKS: A response to general suspicions

Fahri Hamzah ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 07/19/2008 11:02 AM  |  Opinion

This daily (The Jakarta Post) has several times run good articles on the Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS), but has also frequently published bad news casting suspicions on the party.

Most recently, Sara Webb and Olivia Rundunuwu wrote about the doubts of one moderate group which sees the party's increasingly strong influence as a threat to the future of liberty in Indonesia (Islamist Party sets its sights on polls, presidency, The Jakarta Post, July 11, 2008).

I consider this article to be normal and a direct consequence of the freedom of expression. There is nothing questionable about it, and it quotes many sources from inside and outside the party.

But the PKS necessarily sees the article as a challenge to prove its commitment to democracy and freedom. If elements within the party do in fact disagree with the party's commitment to developing democracy in Indonesia, then we cannot prevent skepticism from emerging.

That is why such a commitment cannot be uttered merely as a verbal expression; it must be put on paper as the party's official document, announced to the public and registered as a state document. That is why the PKS has been very actively in campaigning to publicize the party's statute, its key official document, following the party's Bali congress.

The party has also conducted in the past three months a series of discussions to examine the party's platform for national development. As a result, the campaign has won unbelievably warm support at dozens of campus meetings and public seminars.

At a recent seminar in Jakarta on developing civil society, three keynote speakers -- the finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra and the chief justice of the Constitutional Court Jimly Asshiddiqie -- gave the PKS their constructive criticism and input. Azyumardi noted that many people, especially foreign nationals, have misperceived the party, so he called on the party to disseminate its statute and platform in English (PKS rejects idea of establishing an Islamic State, The Jakarta Post, April 21, 2008).

Trying to ascertain the reality behind the emerging doubts about the PKS, these suspicions could be coming from certain individuals who are unfamiliar with the party's platform. They could be insiders, but so far they have been mostly outsiders who feel they know much about the party though not from its founding documents. Many shallow and misleading questions and doubts have sometimes emerged in the media as a result.

First, these aspersions give the impression that the PKS aims to set up an Islamic state. Such suspicions would not emerge if the public read the above-mentioned documents. The PKS platform clearly separates the state, the market and civil society, a position not seriously taken by other political parties. The PKS gives the state a limited role in dealing with the market and civil society. If the PKS comes to power, it will be our central policy that the state has to redefine its role.

Second, there is a growing suspicion that the PKS will block the influx of modernization and globalization (fashion, tourism, investment, etc.). The question is, who can actually do that and stop the clock? People who want to go backward are those frustrated about the future. And frustration is prohibited by all religions, including Islam.

What we are doing today is similar to what the two Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Muhammad Yunus offered when they called on the world to take globalization as a means to alleviate poverty and sectoral gaps. Otherwise globalization will be misunderstood, inasmuch as human beings will face uncertainty and crises.

Examining history, no country but Indonesia has faced four crises simultaneously: energy, food, environmental and financial. We can imagine these crises' negative impact on humans and world harmony, which is why we need to uphold justice at all levels. The PKS demonstrates that importance by putting these ideas in its name and addressing them in its platform. It is impossible for us to reject modernization; we have to be fairer to the earth on which we are living and we must make tireless efforts to create harmony and balance.

Third, the PKS is classified as a movement which tolerates the use of violence. We regret such an impression has come from intellectuals. Conclusions must be based on facts, or at least precedents, otherwise such opinion can be considered fitnah. A fitnah must be responded to. All accusations directed at the PKS must be responded to as part of the public concern about a party that has the chance to come into power.

The level of public support for the PKS in the 2009 general elections will be determined by many factors. The people are awaiting their chance to renew their hopes after all the parties and national leaders in the past decade have been outdone by the complexity of problems which they cannot resolve.

The people will observe whether the PKS with its platform and programs can answer the big questions. People have learned that political jargon and empty pledges, including the selling of religion, does not enable elected parties to deliver new, strong leaders who are able to defuse these prolonged crises.

In the long run, people will elect parties that have sophisticated figures and cadres. The PKS is convinced that, with its current status as a cadre-based party, it can deliver its best son to lead the nation, otherwise this party will remain a political vehicle for political opportunists.

The writer is deputy secretary-general of the Prosperous Justice Party and member of the House of Representatives and can be reached at fahrida@rad.net.id

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