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Analysis: Another Islamist party is heading for the rocks ahead of 2024
Trouble is brewing at the United Development Party (PPP), the country’s oldest Islamist party and among the seven parties in the coalition government, after chairman Suharso Monoarfa was toppled by what appears to be a slip of the tongue that offended kiai, the elderly heads of Islamic boarding schools.
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Chairperson of the Mukernas V Committee of the United Development Party (PPP) Achmad Baidowi (center) and PPP Deputy Chairperson Fernita Darwis (two right) at the close of the Mukernas V PPP in Jakarta, Sunday (12/15/2019). One of the results of Mukernas V was to accelerate the PPP IX Congress to elect the new PPP Chairperson which was only held after the simultaneous local elections in 2020. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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rouble is brewing at the United Development Party (PPP), the country’s oldest Islamist party and among the seven parties in the coalition government, after chairman Suharso Monoarfa was toppled by what appears to be a slip of the tongue that offended kiai, the elderly heads of Islamic boarding schools. It now joins other Islamist parties heading into turmoil in the lead-up to the general elections in February 2024.
Suharso’s position as National Development Planning Minister in President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s Onward Indonesia Cabinet was no guarantee that he would hold on to the PPP chairmanship. The charismatic kiai are among the party’s key constituency, and other senior party figures were quick to seize the opportunity to oust him.
Last week, the Law and Human Rights Ministry approved the PPP’s new executive board chaired by Muhammad Mardiono, who is on the President’s advisory board, meaning that the government has recognized Mardiono’s leadership over Suharso’s.
Jokowi has kept his distance from the PPP’s internal power struggle although Suharso holds a key Cabinet post regarding the economy, which includes overseeing the capital city development project in Kalimantan. But it is now likely that the President will have to replace Suharso as development minister with another figure from the PPP.
The ouster occurred on Sept. 5, when senior party leaders called for an emergency national congress while Suharso was abroad. The congress, which was attended by representatives from the party’s 29 regional branches, endorsed his expulsion and appointed Mardiono as active chairman until 2025, so he will be helming the party going into the 2024 election. The move came following a video that went viral on YouTube, which shows Suharso telling the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) about the practice of giving money each time he visited pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) to drum up support and get the kiai’s blessing.
It’s not so much what he revealed, which was public knowledge, but the way he said it that upset the kiai.
In the video, Suharso claims that he was unaware about the practice of giving money to pesantren. He was only made aware shortly after making such a visit when he received a WhatsApp message asking if he might have forgotten to leave something behind, perhaps “a souvenir”, for the kiai.
