Secular Parties
Democratic Party (Partai Demokrat)
The
secular-nationalist Democratic Party was established in 2001 as a
political vehicle to carry Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the presidency in
the 2004 elections. Intellectuals, academics, and nationalist
politicians supported the initiative. It met success in 2004, winning 55
seats. In the 2009 elections, it nearly tripled this number to 148
seats—neither an easy nor a typical feat for an Indonesian political
party. It has also served as a model for other aspiring presidential
candidates to form their own political parties.
Hoping to appeal
to the most Indonesians possible, the Democratic Party calls itself a
moderate, centrist party. It has been so committed to this label that it
can be difficult to discern a consistent ideology in the party’s
policies. Yudhoyono’s record, however, reveals that the party supports
economic liberalization, political and cultural pluralism, and an
internationalist outlook.
The Democratic Party has not had an
easy last few years. Since its victory in 2009, it has become the target
of numerous corruption investigations. As a result, several of its
leading members (including the party chairman and party treasurer) have
resigned. Other parties have taken advantage of the graft and kickback
scandals to criticize the Democratic Party, noting that Yudhoyono made
combating corruption one of his primary objectives in the 2009
elections.
Now that Yudhoyono has nearly completed two successful
terms as president, he wants to make the Democratic Party a viable
political organization in its own right, partly as a way of protecting
his legacy. To achieve this, the party is holding a convention for
eleven nominees who have been short-listed to become its presidential
candidate. The shortlist includes the Indonesian ambassador to the
United States, Dino Patti Djalal, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan,
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, and former Indonesian
army chief of staff Pramono Edhie Wibowo, who is also Yudhoyono’s
brother-in-law and, for now, the rumored front-runner. The winner of the
convention will be determined by three national polls, although some
suspect that Yudhoyono, as the new party chairman, will make the final
determination. The decision is expected to be finalized by May 2014 at
the latest, after the legislative elections for the lower house of
parliament, the House of Representatives, have concluded.
The
Democratic Party’s support is distributed across Indonesia and
concentrated in urban areas and the middle class, but this support is
dwindling. As a result, the party is not projected to maintain its
position as the biggest party in parliament in 2014, although it will
likely stay within the top five.
Golkar (Party of the Functional Groups)
Golkar, a large secular-nationalist party, is the oldest operating
party in Indonesia. During the New Order, or the era of former
Indonesian president Suharto, who presided over a centralized,
authoritarian government for three decades and was forced out in 1998,
it was the official government party and thus controlled parliament. All
government employees were expected to vote for Golkar, and Golkar
always supported Suharto’s policies.
The party has held its own
surprisingly well in the three elections since Suharto’s ouster. Pivotal
to this success has been its effort to reform its image and sideline
politicians considered too close to Suharto and the military. Economic
development through liberalization is Golkar’s chief policy, and its
claim to legitimacy is based on its cadres’ technical expertise and
business experience (although it still uses populist programs to boost
its popularity in rural areas). It is secular in its outlook and has
typically erred on the side of religious tolerance. Its vertical and
horizontal organization has meant that of all political parties in the
country, Golkar enjoys support that is spread most evenly across all the
regions.
Golkar has yet to nominate a winning candidate for
president, but it was the largest party in the House of Representatives
in 2004 and the second-largest party in 2009 (after the Democratic
Party). It is poised for strong results again in 2014.
As a party
with a long history and strong institutional roots, Golkar does not
revolve around a single personality. It is also one of very few
Indonesian parties to consistently hold conventions to determine a
presidential candidate. This means that Golkar’s fortunes are unlikely
to rise and fall with those of a single candidate and that it is
unlikely to depart from the national political scene anytime soon.
But factional conflicts within the party have eroded its unity, and it
struggles to come together behind a chosen candidate. The three newest
parties in parliament—Gerindra, Hanura, and NasDem—were all created by
dissatisfied ex-Golkar politicians.
PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle)
During Yudhoyono’s decade-long tenure as president, PDI-P has
consistently represented itself as the populist, secular-nationalist,
“pro-poor” voice of the opposition. PDI-P’s support is based primarily
in Java, which is heavily Muslim, but the party has been consistently
vocal in its support for religious tolerance and pluralism and its
opposition to policies that appear to impose Islam as a state ideology.
PDI-P grew out of the Indonesian Democratic Party, which was the
primary opposition party to the ruling Golkar during Suharto’s New
Order. It moved from opposition to ruling party when its current
chairwoman, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was president (2001–2004), but
PDI-P’s inability to drive reforms as the ruling party in parliament
disappointed its followers.
There are notable differences
between PDI-P’s policies during its stint in power and those it has
pursued as an opposition party. Economic nationalism, for example, has
formed a significant plank of the party’s policy platform throughout
Yudhoyono’s rule. When the president enacted fuel hikes in 2005 and
2013, PDI-P strongly objected on the grounds that these policies would
burden the poor. However, PDI-P pursued a fuel subsidy reduction while
it was in power in 2003. Similarly, as an opposition party, PDI-P has
been a strong critic of the military, but when it was the ruling party
it regularly used military force to crack down on separatist movements.
PDI-P is not quite a personal vehicle for its matriarch, Megawati, but
it does draw heavily upon her star power. The memory of her father,
Sukarno, who was Indonesia’s charismatic first president, remains very
prominent in PDI-P.
In 2014, the party faced a big decision:
nominate Megawati for the fourth time or undergo a changing of the guard
and nominate the popular Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi.
On March 14, PDI-P chose to nominate Jokowi, hoping to capitalize on
his widespread appeal during the parliamentary as well as the
presidential elections.
With 94 seats in the House of
Representatives, PDI-P is currently the third-largest party in
parliament. Nonetheless, it claims to be ready to return to a position
of leadership in 2014, and polls indicate that the party could land in
first or second place in the lower house elections. By choosing to
nominate Jokowi, PDI-P has substantially increased its chances of
driving Indonesia's future.
Gerindra (Great Indonesia Movement Party)
Gerindra is the “hot” new party in Indonesia’s political landscape. It
is a secular party whose chief ideology appears to be fierce nationalism
and defense of the unitary state. On economic policy, the party’s chief
patron, former lieutenant general Prabowo Subianto, claims to desire a
balance between populist “national interests,” foreign investment, and
subsidy cuts.
Gerindra was established in 2008 as Prabowo’s
political vehicle after he failed to win the 2004 presidential
nomination of his original party, Golkar. Gerindra’s policy platform
remains hazy and at times contradictory since its primary purposes are
to facilitate Prabowo’s presidential campaign and appeal to as many
Indonesians as possible.
Gerindra has substantial financial
resources provided by Prabowo’s brother, Hashim Djojohadikusomo, one of
Indonesia’s richest men. This allows Gerindra to operate well-designed
public relations campaigns to boost its profile. In 2009, the party won
26 seats in parliament, and it is likely to improve on that result in
2014.
To further enhance its chances of success, Gerindra began
absorbing smaller parties from across the political spectrum as early as
2011. However, Gerindra’s singular devotion to Prabowo will make it
difficult to fashion a broad coalition of interests and develop
extensive nationwide networks.
Hanura (People’s Conscience Party)
Just like the Democratic Party and Gerindra, Hanura is a political
party created to fulfill an individual’s presidential ambitions. Its
patron is former general Wiranto, who—like Prabowo—failed to find
success within Golkar, which prompted him to establish Hanura in 2006.
Also like Gerindra, Hanura has spent the past five years as an
opposition party and promotes a highly nationalist ideology lacking in
specifics. It sets itself apart by targeting parts of eastern
Indonesia—particularly Sulawesi—as a voting base. Wiranto’s Christian
and Chinese running mate could also bolster Hanura’s popularity beyond
the Muslim strongholds of Java and Sumatra.
Hanura was the
smallest party in parliament in 2009, when it won seventeen seats and
3.8 percent of the national vote. This is just above the new
parliamentary threshold for the 2014 elections, which requires a party
to receive 3.5 percent of the national vote in order to be eligible for
parliamentary representation. Most surveys suggest Hanura will increase
its share and make the cutoff. The recent addition of media tycoon Hary
Tanoesoedibjo as the party’s chief patron will boost Hanura’s resources.
So far, however, Wiranto’s presidential campaign has been eclipsed by
Prabowo’s.
PKPI (Indonesian Justice and Unity Party)
PKPI, a
firmly secular and nationalist party that has vocally supported
Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party since 2004, splintered from Golkar in 1999
on the grounds that Golkar was drifting toward accommodating Islamic
interests. It is strongly affiliated with the armed forces and has the
backing of Suharto’s vice president, former general Try Sutrisno. Its
focus on maintaining national unity has even been used to justify its
support for passage of a conservative anti-pornography bill.
PKPI was initially excluded by the General Elections Commission on the
grounds that it had not offered sufficient proof of nationwide support, a
decision that was later overruled by the Election Supervisory Body.
NasDem (Nasional Demokrat)
NasDem began as a civic mass organization founded by several Golkar
leaders in 2010. In July 2011, the NasDem Party was forged out of this
organization by media mogul Surya Paloh. Thanks to its organizational
strength and Paloh’s wealth, this brand-new secular-nationalist party
had no difficulty qualifying for the 2014 elections, although it may
still pursue partnership with PDI-P.
Despite projections that
NasDem will win seats in parliament, the cohesion of its leadership is
still very much in flux. A number of high-profile politicians have left
NasDem since its inception, with Paloh’s tight grip over the party
possibly being at the root of these disputes.
Islamic Political Parties
PKS (Prosperous Justice Party)
PKS is known for its educated, politically savvy leaders, its
well-developed organizational and electoral strategies, and its modern,
pragmatic Islamic ideology. When it burst onto the national scene in
2004, going from seven to 45 seats in the House of Representatives,
international observers wondered if the party represented the future of
political Islam in Indonesia. PKS seemed positioned to transform the
landscape of Indonesian politics.
The party won 57 seats in
2009, but its credibility took a big hit in January 2013 when its
chairman and other staffers became implicated in a graft scandal. The
credibility of other Islamic parties implicated in the scandal was also
damaged as all had made moral leadership a central pillar in their
campaigns.
Since then, PKS has tried to repair its reputation but
appears to have lost its way. Despite being in the ruling coalition,
PKS opposed the Yudhoyono government’s fuel price increase in an
apparent play to populism, prompting Democratic Party leaders to urge
PKS to leave the ruling coalition.
The party has also struggled
to appeal to both conservative, rural Muslims and progressive, urban
Muslims. PKS has supported the implementation of sharia law, but it
recently decided against adopting the ultraconservative Wahhabism
ideology. It has showed very poorly in opinion polls, which indicates
that PKS may not even meet the national electoral threshold required to
join the House of Representatives in 2014.
PAN (National Mandate Party)
PAN is an Islamic political party, and it is by far the most moderate
of all the religious parties that will be competing in 2014. It was
established by democratic reformist Amien Rais in 1998 and is
unofficially affiliated with the Muhammadiyah movement, the more
modernist of Indonesia’s two largest and oldest Muslim organizations
(the other being Nahdlatul Ulama).
Of the Muslim parties, PAN
also has the most evenly distributed support across the nation: it is
the only Muslim party with a representative in the lower house from
Papua, and it has also sponsored several Christian candidates. Since the
1970s, Indonesian parties have been categorized as either “Islamic” or
“secular-nationalist,” depending on whether the party explicitly
identifies itself as Muslim and grounds its policies in Islamic
teachings. PAN rejects this standard Islamic-secular dichotomy, claiming
to be an “open” party based on Indonesia’s pluralist national
philosophy, the Pancasila.
The party has supported Yudhoyono’s
ruling coalition since 2004. Its current chair, Hatta Rajasa, is also
Indonesia’s coordinating minister for economic affairs, and his daughter
is married to Yudhoyono’s son.
PAN’s electoral fortunes have
been fairly stable since 1999. It won 46 seats in the 2009 legislative
elections. The 2014 electoral threshold is higher than it has been in
previous years, so PAN will likely join forces with smaller parties that
have been deemed ineligible to compete for the election, including the
Prosperous Peace Party, a moderate Christian party. In the past, PAN has
competed with PKS for the votes of urban, middle-class Muslims. PKS
appeared to be winning this contest, but its corruption-related travails
may give PAN an advantage.
PPP (United Development Party)
Like PDI-P, PPP is the direct descendant of a Suharto-era party—in 1973,
all of Indonesia’s Islamic parties were forcibly merged under one
umbrella called PPP. Now, PPP has become a conservative Islamic party
that supports the inclusion of religion in public education. In 1998,
the party replaced Pancasila with Islam as its ideological foundation.
PPP appears to be assuming a more hardline stance with time, especially
where minorities are concerned. The chairman of PPP, Minister of
Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali, has proclaimed both Shia Islam and
the Ahmadiyya sect, an Islamic movement that began in the late
nineteenth century, to be heretical. He has also praised the
vigilanteIslamic Defenders’ Front, which has attacked churches, “sinful”
businesses, and Ahmadiyya communities.
Suryadharma argues that
dialogue with radical groups is more effective than alienating them
politically. For the 2014 elections, PPP even nominated a spokesman from
the Islamic Defenders’ Front, Munarman, for a House of Representatives
seat, although the party rescinded the nomination when it did not meet
the requirements of the Election Commission.
PPP’s shift toward
hardline Islam has not been rewarded by voters. Its political fortunes
have been on the decline since 1999, and it lost twenty parliamentary
seats between 2004 and 2009, bringing its total to 38. In a bid to
recover lost ground, PPP has moderated its most extreme stances, such as
the demand for including the Jakarta Charter (which requires Indonesian
Muslims to follow sharia law) in the amended constitution. It has also
invited all other Muslim parties to join its campaign in 2014—except for
PKS and PAN, which it does not consider truly Islamic.
PKB (National Awakening Party)
Though it was only established in 1998, PKB has deep roots in Nahdlatul
Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization. This connection has
linked PKB to a voter base of rural, traditionalist Javanese Muslims.
Yet the party’s policies have generally skewed closer to moderate Islam.
Unlike Nahdlatul Ulama, for example, PKB does not advocate that
Indonesia become an Islamic state, and it supported Indonesia’s
controversial decision to host the 2013 Miss World contest.
As a
result of these competing influences, PKB leaders have not been able to
articulate a consensus on a clear party platform, an issue that is
exacerbated by the party’s failure to develop a vertical and horizontal
organization independent of the personal factions of its leaders.
The party’s most famous leader was the “eccentric” former president
Abdurrahman Wahid, who envisioned the party as secular-nationalist and
whose leadership prompted two splits within PKB. These splits eroded
confidence in the party, and its seat allocation has dwindled from over
50 in both 1999 and 2004 to 28 in 2009.
In 2014, PKB is highly
unlikely to field a presidential candidate, but its two would-be
nominees represent the divergent strains within the party: Mohammad
Mahfud MD, a well-respected former chief justice of the Constitutional
Court who refused an invitation to join the Democratic Party convention,
and Rhoma Irama, a pop star who has made inflammatory racial and
religious comments.
PBB (Crescent Star Party)
PBB is the
smallest Islamic party competing in the 2014 elections as well as one of
the most conservative. The central platform of its campaign is the
bottom-up implementation of sharia law.
Since its creation in
1998, however, PBB has been bedeviled with splits and turbulence. Its
most visible parliamentary candidate in 2014 is graft convict Nazaruddin
Sjamsuddin. The party had also nominated another highly visible graft
convict, former police general Susno Duaji. Although his conviction was
upheld by the Supreme Court, Susno defied attempts by the attorney
general’s office to take him into custody. He eventually turned himself
in and is now in jail, and PBB promptly replaced him with his daughter
on its list of candidates.
Polls suggest that PBB will not win
more than 1 percent of the national vote. No doubt sensing the need for
partners, PBB has expressed interest in joining a coalition of Islamic
parties and in 2010 floated the possibility of a strategic merger with
Hanura.
