Jakarta – The Islamic-oriented Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has claimed it senses a conspiracy to alienate it from the coalition that supports the current administration.
PKS chairman Tifatul Sembiring said certain individuals or groups had attempted to edge his party out of the coalition that supports the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
"I don't want to name names, but their characteristics are of the 'pro-New Order regime ideology', and they have tried to push PKS out of the coalition," he said on the sidelines of a party gathering on Sunday in Bogor, West Java.
"It (the alleged conspiracy) was one of the reasons for us to insist on maintaining our stance as a government partner, while providing constructive criticism," he added as quoted by Antara.
Before Susilo announced a Cabinet shakeup last week, the Kalla-led Golkar held a national leadership meeting in Jakarta, reaching a conclusion that the country's largest party would lobby other political groups to back the current government.
The party was also rumored to have demanded more Cabinet seats in the reshuffle, but Susilo gave it only one more, bringing the total number of its ministers to three.
Golkar, which was previously led by Akbar Tandjung, had challenged Susilo's candidacy by backing the bid of the rival pairing of Wiranto and Solahuddin Wahid, along with the National Awakening Party (PKB) during the presidential election.
Also ahead of the Cabinet shakeup, PKS publicly asked Susilo to increase its Cabinet seats to four. However, the President refused to respond to the request.
Nevertheless, a recent national meeting of PKS patrons decided that the party would continue supporting the Susilo-Kalla administration, despite growing protests from grassroots constituents who opposed the government policy of raising the fuel prices in October.
"It has been decided by our board of patrons, whose members are from all over the country. Once decided, there will be no more discourse," Tifatul said.
According to Tifatul, the victory of Susilo and Kalla in the 2004 presidential election was mainly due to the efforts of four political parties: the Democratic Party (PD), PKS, the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI).
"We can't deny that fact. It was these four parties that contributed to the victory as they fought hard to persuade people to vote for the pair," he said.
Should the PKS be pushed out of the coalition, Tifatul said, the government's attempts to eradicate corruption and other crimes would no longer be effective.
Before deciding to support the Susilo-Kalla pairing, the party had signed a political contract for them to pledge their commitment to good and clean governance, he added.
Tifatul said that so far the cooperation between Susilo and Kalla to eradicate corruption had been effective, with a number of big-time corruptors already sent to jail.
"We've established a task force comprising financial forensic experts to investigate dubious transfers, money laundering and other crimes. These attempts have irritated many corruptors. That's why they want us out of the (pro-Susilo) coalition," he said.
He said PKS would continue to get public support, particularly because of its "effective and efficient" efforts to combat corruption, as well as other crimes like drug abuse, gambling and prostitution.