IHT, Thursday, April 8, 2004
Asia Letter: Indonesian Islamist party is quietly gaining ground
Jane Perlez
JAKARTA Clean. Healthy. Caring.
.That was the slogan of the highly tuned Justice and Prosperity Party, a religious
Islamic party led by well-educated men and women that performed surprisingly well in
Indonesia's parliamentary elections on Monday. Unlike the mainstream secular
parties that depended on politicians as personalities, and ignored the issues of a
feeble economy and rampant corruption, the Justice Party listened. It played down its
religious tenets, and played up popular concerns. It spurned big rallies - although the
one rally it did hold attracted a crowd estimated at 100,000 - and concentrated on
talking to small groups of voters.
The strategy paid off. The jump from 1.4 percent of the vote five years ago to perhaps
as much as 10 percent by the time counting is completed is a significant gain.
This is particularly so when the two large secular parties here - one led by the erratic
President Megawati Sukarnoputri and the other by a former Suharto official, Akbar
Tandjung - appear to have shed votes, or barely held steady.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has a history of Islam that is
relaxed and inclusive. In some parts of Java, the densely populated island of verdant
rice fields and dormant volcanoes, elements of Sufism, even hints of leftover
Hinduism, are incorporated into Islamic practice.
Indonesia also has a history since its independence in 1949 of separation of mosque
and state. The Parliament reaffirmed that stance in a vote two years ago.
The Justice Party does not see things that way. As a small but fast growing,
exquisitely organized party, it is well poised to capitalize on dissatisfaction with the
downhill economic and social trends that the secular parties, stuffed with avaricious
politicians, have chosen to ignore.
The Justice Party means business. A cadre-based organization with 400,000 core
members who are obliged to attend small weekly "learning circles" - party cells, in
plain language - the party worked hard for its results Monday.
"They showed that having a focused message works," said Paul Rowland, the
resident representative of the National Democratic Institute, a Washington-based
electoral education organization.
In the old Parliament, the Justice Party held seven seats. In the new Parliament, it
could hold more than 40, a small but potentially potent voice in the 550-seat
Legislature. Unofficial results from Monday's election show the party surpassed the 5
percent popular vote benchmark and qualified for the first time to field a presidential
candidate. Counting is not expected to be completed for another week.
By 2009, the next cycle of national elections, it expects to be one of the major
parties, a not unreasonable prospect as the field of 24 parties that fielded candidates
in this year's election dwindles through attrition.
"We are going to win the elections in 2009 in the big cities," said a confident
Zulkieflimansyah, 31, a Western-educated economist and party leader, as he was
driven to his polling place in one of Jakarta's middle class areas soon after dawn on
election morning.
Indonesia's political realignment of devolving more power to the regions is already
under way, and will be well entrenched by then. That will make it possible for the party
to win a lot of governorships, he said.
What does the party believe in? "For us, politics is one of the ways to spread true
Islam, one of the ways of enlightenment," he said. "Islam is not what many in the
West see: a sword in the left hand, a Koran in the right hand."
Islam is a way of life, he said. "We say Islam can be used as a framework for
solutions." This means that the Justice Party favors the introduction of Islamic law.
Because he has experience in the West, including five years studying in Britain,
Zulkieflimansyah hastened to try to allay fears. Islamic law, he added, does not mean
cutting off hands and feet as a method of punishment.
About 40 percent of the party's candidates for Parliament were women. They
appeared on candidate lists wearing very conservative dress that is still unusual in
Indonesia. Dressed all in white, they favored severe head coverings that left no room
for stray hair.
Zulkieflimansyah insisted that the party's interpretation of Islam meant women were
not relegated to the kitchen.
But according to his wife, Niken Saptarini, who holds a master's degree in economics
from a British university and who lectures once a week at the University of Indonesia,
she will need permission from her husband if she wants to work more. Although she is
chafing at her domesticity, she has not been given that permission yet, she said, and
their four children come first.
What is most novel about the Justice Party is its soft-sell approach to politics and its
direct application of American marketing techniques.
Zulkieflimansyah speaks knowledgeably about how Philip Kotler, a professor of
marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, in Evanston,
Illinois, helped perfect the appeal of Pampers disposable diapers, even to mothers
who found it tough to afford such an up-market brand. Frequency of contact and an
upbeat message were essential to Pampers' success, he said.
Similarly with the Justice Party.
Attendance at the weekly "learning circle" is compulsory for the cadres. The first 10
minutes are devoted to discussing chosen verses from the Koran and their application
to the situation in Indonesia, Zulkieflimansyah said. In his "learning circle," 9 of the 10
members hold doctorates, he added.
For the just-concluded elections, the "learning circles" concentrated on five points: the
party's determination to battle corruption, unemployment, lack of education, erosion of
social capital and the threat of disintegration of Indonesia because of civil conflict.
The latter represented an appeal to the nationalist feeling that runs strong among
Indonesians. Islamic belief was the unspoken but obvious common thread running
through the platform.
The United States has not entirely ignored the import of the Justice Party.
The American Embassy in Jakarta last year awarded Zulkieflimansyah a six-week trip
to the United States, where he met senators and mayors, academics and ordinary
people, on the International Visitor Program.
Zulkieflimansyah, who easily won his parliamentary seat, is not shy to point out that
previous participants in the program, among them Tony Blair and Hamid Karzai, are
now world leaders.
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