O

ver 80 percent of the Indonesian population is Muslim. So, by definition and by simple calculation, as well as by basic analytical thinking, a Muslim-based political party will easily win in elections in Indonesia.

In reality that’s not the case. Even the biggest and most influential Muslim-based political party that the country had had since general elections were first introduced in 1955 — the Masyumi Party — only secured 21 percent of the vote, behind the nationalist-based Indonesian National Party (PNI), which secured 22 percent of the votes.

The performance of Muslim-based political parties has not improved since then, including the performance of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which is the sole subject of Dilema PKS: Suara dan Syariah (The PKS dilemma: Between Elections and Sharia).

The book, written by Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a researcher at the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), is a continuation of Burhanuddin’s master’s thesis at the Canberra-based Australian National University (ANU) titled: “Thinking globally, acting locally: Analyzing the Islamist activism of Indonesia’s Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) from a social movement theory perspective”.

Burhanuddin did not touch on the issue of the Muslim-based political parties’ poor electoral performance in general, as he narrowed the scope of his analysis on the PKS only. His choice of the PKS was apparently due to the party’s steadily improving performance at the ballot box — some political analysts have even categorized the PKS as the world’s second-most successful Muslim-based political party, after the Turkey’s Justice and Development Party.

As a Muslim-based political party, the PKS has continuously improved its performance and achievements in the three general elections since it was established in 1998.

After securing 1.3 percent of the vote — ranking seventh among 48 political parties contesting the 1999 general election — the PKS’ electoral achievement tremendously improved in the 2004 general election, when it won the support of 7 percent of the voters, ranking sixth among 24 political parties contesting the election.

The PKS’ dominance continued, although it could only slightly increase its election achievement to 7.88 percent in the 2009 general election. But it was one of only two political parties that recorded an increase in the 2009 election, besides the eventual winner, the Democratic Party.

Its rank in the 2009 election increased to fourth place, outclassing the United Development Party (PPP), the oldest existing Muslim-based political party that was established in 1973 as a product of the New Order and other Muslim-based political parties — the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB).

Based on his own analysis and observation of other academic authors — both locals and foreigners — Burhanuddin concluded that the PKS’ resilience and continuing presence in Indonesia’s political arena could not be separated from its enduring stamina to have its presence and political stance on many key and critical issues continuously exposed.

The PKS, according to Burhanuddin, is the only political party — not only the only Muslim-based party — that has been actively mobilizing its members and sympathizers to go into the streets nationwide to protest irregularities in the country and to perform nonelectoral and extra-institutional activities, such as being at the forefront in the humanitarian missions in times of natural disasters, or when criticizing the US foreign policy on the Islamic world under George W. Bush.

To the surprise of many, including opponents and critics, the PKS has organized such street rallies peacefully and sympathetically, with minimum — if not zero — reports of violence, despite the massive participation of hundreds of thousands of people at PKS protests.

Also in the book, Burhanuddin explores the dilemma that the PKS has had to face in order to maintain its steady progress in the five-yearly general elections while at the same time struggling with how to maintain the party’s identity and ideology as a Muslim-based political party.

There have been repeated and continuing internal discussions within the party’s rank-and-file to find a way out of such a dilemma, including the idea of declaring the PKS an open party, which would mean the party’s membership and leadership would be open to non-Muslims as well.

Such internal debates continue. It remains to be seen which policy the party will take, especially as the 2014 general election is approaching. The general public can only wait to see if the PKS will really “tone down” and “compromise” its identity as a Muslim-based political party for the sake of increasing its electoral achievements and becoming the winner, as has Turkey’s AKP.

In general, the book on PKS by Burha-nuddin is worth reading. It is fruitful not only for the PKS itself, but also for other Muslim-based as well as nonreligion-based political parties on how to increase their electoral achievement.

Most of all, it is also fruitful as a source of information for the Indonesian people in general.