New chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Luthfi Hasan Ishaq said in his inaugural speech that the party was confident of finishing among the top three parties in the 2014 general election.
“I believe that God will help us to be among three largest parties in the next election,” he shouted to about 5,000 party members during the closing ceremony of the party’s second national congress at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Jakarta on Sunday.
The PKS has been under the spotlight since it announced during the congress, which ran from June 16 to 20, that the party would become more inclusive and embrace pluralism.
But a senior researcher from the Indonesian Survey Institute, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, said the statement might just be political strategy rather than a serious commitment.
“I don’t see any seriousness to apply the commitment. It is just a strategy to change the party’s exclusive image and broaden its political base,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Since 1998, the PKS, which was until 2002 named the Justice Party, has gained a reputation as being a conservative Muslim party. Along with several other Islam-based parties, the PKS pushed for a constitutional amendment to Article 31 on education in the Constitution. The article now reads “keimanan dan ketakwaan”, words derived from Arabic meaning faith and devoutness.
Last year, the party also drew fire for its agenda on the deliberation of the pornography law. Critics of the law say it draws strongly from Islamic law and posed a risk to national harmony.
During its national congress, PKS leaders repeatedly declared the party would open its arms to non-Muslims, promising they would have same rights and opportunities as Muslim members.
Burhanuddin said he was not confident the party would be able to attract more non-Muslim members due to its image as a party that endorses increasing the role of Islam in public life.
He also said it was impossible for the party to transform into a nationalist party by changing its Islamic ideology. He explained that any attempt at that would alienate its traditional support base of urban and orthodox Muslims.
“In my opinion, the PKS should target Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah [the country’s two biggest Muslim organizations] followers to gain more votes,” he said.
According to him, it is more crucial for the PKS to revise its image among NU and Muhammadiyah followers because many of them still denounce the party for advocating extremely conservative Wahhabi ideology.
During the closing ceremony of the congress, the chairman of the PKS Advisory Council, Hilmi Aminuddin, inaugurated representatives of the party’s newly elected national board members including Luthfi as chairman, Muhammad Anis Matta as secretary-general and Mahfudz Abdurrahman as treasurer.
Luthfi vowed the newly inaugurated national board would serve all party members and constituencies across the country.
“This party wasn’t built by its leaders, but by its members. Don’t ask what we can give you, ask what you can give to the party,” he said.
Anis Matta said the national board would focus on operational work, while for the party’s policies concerning national strategic issues, would be handled by the party’s faction at the House of Representatives.
He said the party had shown significant progress since being established in 1998. “We aim to maintain the positive progress the party has made,” he told reporters after the closing ceremony.
