By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, April 21 (Antara) - The idea to bring Islamic
political parties to join as a major nationalist counterpart in a
"Greater Indonesia coalition" is being questioned whether it can be
realized.
Not all the Islamic parties had the same
attitude regarding the idea, which was raised by the National Mandate
Party (PAN) Advisory Council's Chairman Amien Rais in Jakarta last
Thursday.
Some suspected that the idea was raised in an
effort to bring PAN General Chairman Hatta Rajasa to pair as a running
mate with Prabowo Subianto, the presidential candidate of the Great
Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).
The Gerindra is a
nationalist party, which won the third place (about 11.80 percent of the
votes) based on unofficial quick counts on the results of the April 9
legislative election.
Based on the unofficial quick
counts, two nationalist parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDIP) won the first place with 18.90 percent of the votes and
the Golkar Party secured the second place winning 14.30 percent.
Like the Gerindra, the two first and second winners of the legislative
elections had also announced their own presidential candidates, the PDIP
with Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi and the Golkar with its
general chairman Aburizal Bakrie (ARB). Yet, these three contestants
needed to form a coalition before they can nominate their candidates.
Therefore political parties were making efforts to establish a
coalition, as none of the 12 electoral contestants in the April 9
legislative election won a minimum 25 percent of the votes.
According to regulations, contestants should achieve the presidential
threshold of 25 percent of the votes before they can nominate a
presidential candidate in the July 9 presidential race.
Amien Rais, a figure who initiated a central axis coalition of Islamic
parties in the 1999 presidential election and succeeded in putting
Abdurrahman Wahid on the presidential post, mooted the idea to forge a
coalition of the Islamic parties.
But this time, he hoped
the coalition of Islamic parties will join one of the three nationalist
party winners in a greater Indonesia coalition.
By
winning over 30 percent of the votes in the legislative elections, the
Islamic parties, namely the National Awakening Party (PKB) with 9.20
percent, the PAN with 7.50 percent, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)
with 6.90 percent and the United Development Party (PPP) with 6.70
percent, can form a coalition of its own to contest against the other
three nationalist coalitions.
However, Amien Rais said a coalition of axis force was too narrow and suggested that it join the nationalist one.
"The central axis coalition is too narrow. I propose the terminology '
greater Indonesia coalition' because the combination of Islamic parties
will not be able to solve the problems of this nation alone, so it needs
the participation of a nationalist party," Amien Rais said at the
meeting of mass organization figures and leaders of Islamic political
parties in Jakarta last Thursday.
However, the idea seems
to be facing obstacles. The PKB had stated it will stay outside the
coalition, while the PPP was still facing internal problems.
PKB Executive Board Chairman Marwan Jafar said he suspected that the
idea to form the great Indonesia coalition was raised to accommodate the
interest of a certain group.
"We will stay outside this
coalition because we are afraid it will be offered to a certain
presidential candidate," he said.
He said he was
suspicious that the PAN advisory council chairman's proposal had a
hidden agenda through a coalition in the name of Islam.
"It's good if he has sincere intention but who knows his agenda," he added.
This was also raised by PDIP cadre Fahmi Habcy, who suspected that the
idea was to form a 'Pra-Hara (Parbowo-Hatta Rajas)' duo.
"His political maneuver can easily be read. It is impossible for Amien
Rais to do the political acrobatics, if he is sincere. He must have
short-term political targets, such as power sharing or ministerial
posts," the PDIP's young intellectual said last Saturday.
Fahmi suspected that Amien Rais acted as a political anchor in the
formation of the "Pra-Hara" pair-up, or Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa
presidential and vice presidential duo.
Political
observer Igor Dirgantara of the University of Jayabaya said he agreed
with Fahmi, saying the reason for the greater Indonesia coalition was to
support Prabowo Subianto's presidential nomination and to put Hatta
Rajasa as his running mate.
"May be this coalition has the
goal to support the Gerindra Party and the Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa pair-up
for the July 9 2014 presidential election," Igor said.
He
said if it wanted to support Prabowo, it must have the intention to
fight against Jokowi, the PDIP presidential candidate, in the
presidential race. Rais hoped that the greater Indonesia coalition will
constitute the 'reincarnation' of his axis force scenario during the
1999 presidential election.
With the scenario, the PDIP,
winner of the legislative election at that time, was defeated by the
axis force in the presidential election, where Abdurrahman Wahid of the
PKB was named President and Megawati Soekarnoputri of the PDIP only won
the vice presidential post.
So, he said now the greater
Indonesia coalition is probably to be set up to hamper the progress of
the PDIP like in the 1999 presidential election. But now it is
different, namely the greater Indonesia coalition will only name a vice
presidential candidate in the coalition with the Gerindra.
The Gerindra in the meanwhile had indicated it will develop the greater Indonesia coalition.
"We
are doing all this in that context (coalition with the United
Development Party/PPP)," Prabowo Subianto said when attending an event
where the PPP announced its support of Prabowo's Gerindra for the
upcoming July 9 presidential election.
"Our plan is to
lobby political parties. So far, we have established communications with
almost all political parties, including the National Awakening Party
(PKB), the PAN, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Democratic
Party, the Golkar and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura)," Prabowo
added.
PPP General Chairman Surayadharma Ali agreed to the establishment of the greater coalition.
He
was convinced that Prabowo will be open to the possibility of
coalescing with other parties. "If (what we create) is not a greater
Indonesia coalition or we are only both (the PPP and the Gerindra in the
coalition), it will be meaningless," he said.
The PPP
support seems to be facing constraints. It is facing internal rift
following Surayadharma Ali's move to declare his party's support for the
Gerindra. However, he said on Sunday his support for the Gerindra is
not yet formal.
"The PPP had not yet formally established a coalition," Suryadharma Ali said.
Meanwhile, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), one of the Islamic
Parties that is expected to reinforce the greater Indonesia coalition,
said it will not hesitate to form an Islamic coalition in order to
channel the hopes of Muslims.
"We will never doubt
establishing such a coalition because it constitutes the aspirations of
Muslims. All fears were later unrealized, so we should wait and see,"
Hidayat Nur Wahid, former PKS president, said in a discussion on "Doubts
About the New Coalition," on Saturday.
Hidayat said the
PKS had no doubts about the establishment of an Islamic coalition based
on the statements of Islamic mass organizations and the Muslim
community, which desired that an Islamic force be created that can
accommodate Muslims' hopes and nominate its own presidential candidates.
"The
Islamic mass organizations had expressed their aspirations that the
Islamic political parties should unite and nominate its own presidential
and vice presidential candidates. After all, the votes collectively
gained by Islamic parties in the recent legislative election reached 32
percent," he said.***1***
(T.A014INE)
EDITED BY INE
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