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Analysis: PKB, NU elite rivalry takes a new twist
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Chairman of the Nation Awakening Party (PKB) Muhaimin Iskandar pays his respects to vice president-elect Ma’ruf Amin as they meet in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Friday, July 05, 2019. Muhaimin is eyeing the chairmanship of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). (JP/Dhoni Setiawan/Adi)
T
he rivalry between National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar and the ruling Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) brothers Yahya Cholil Staquf and Yaqut Cholil Qoumas has taken a new turn as they use the organizations to undermine each other.
Muhaimin, who is also deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, has announced plans to set up a special House committee to investigate the chaotic organization of the Indonesian Haj pilgrimage, which will implicate Yaqut as religious affairs minister. In response, Yaqut's brother Yahya, who is the chairman of the NU, formed a committee to "return PKB to its roots," which only means to remove Muhaimin from the party he has led for 20 years.
The NU considered the PKB to be born from the womb of the NU and claimed that the current PKB leadership had driven the party away from the NU. Muhaimin rejected the idea that the PKB was exclusively for the NU.
Nevertheless, the PKB is also considered to be enjoying good times under Muhaimin's leadership, having secured a measurable number of legislative seats and strategic cabinet positions since he took office in 2005. Most recently, the PKB won 16 million votes, or 10.62 percent of the total, in the 2024 legislative elections, placing it fourth behind the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Golkar and Gerindra out of a total of eight parties that passed the parliamentary threshold.
Muhaimin insists on forming a special House committee after he and other lawmakers found many major problems facing Indonesian pilgrims, including inadequate services and misuse of the country's haj quota by the Religious Affairs Ministry. Although the House has already agreed to form the special committee, there are several disagreements among lawmakers on the matter, as the incumbent lawmakers have only a short time left before the new lawmakers are inaugurated on Oct. 1.
The conflict between Muhaimin and the Yaqut brothers is seen as a remnant of their dispute over the presidential election, in which the NU backed Prabowo Subianto while Muhaimin ran for vice president as Anies Baswedan's running mate. During the campaign, Muhaimin claimed to have secured the support of the majority of NU supporters and leaders in the group's strongholds such as Central and East Java, which proved to be ineffective as Prabowo reigned supreme in the two provinces.
Brimming with confidence after its political gamble paid dividend, the NU elite believes it has adequate support from the incoming administration to take over the PKB from Muhaimin. Muhaimin, however, was quick to shift the PKB’s support to Prabowo after the Constitutional Court confirmed Prabowo’s victory. Talks are reportedly underway over the possibility for the PKB to join the next government.
