Armando Siahaan – The country's various Islam-based political parties must consolidate their splintered ideologies and find a strong figurehead if they are to bounce back from their poor showing in last year's general elections in time for the polls in 2014, party insiders and analysts have said.

Romy Romahurmuzy, deputy secretary general for the United Development Party (PPP), said on Tuesday that Islamic parties had failed to distinguish themselves from the major nationalist parties on various issues.

"There's no central issue in society on which we differ from nationalist parties," he said. "Fringe issues like Shariah banking or the haram-halal debate don't attract much public or media attention."

Romy said voter behavior had also contributed to the decline of religious parties, pointing out that in most cases, the more devout a person was, the less likely they were to vote for a religion-based party. "The voters may have faith, but not in faith-based parties," he said.

Mahfudz Siddiq, a lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), agreed that voter behavior showed little confidence among Muslims in parties espousing the faith. Therefore, he said, it was important for Islamic parties to do away with religious concepts and focus on programs that were "objective, inclusive and modern."

M Qodari, a political observer from pollster Indo Barometer, said a 2008 study on public perceptions of Islam-based parties showed 43 percent of respondents believed there was no policy difference between Islamic and nationalist parties. He suggested that labeling a party Islamic automatically alienated voters of other faiths and narrowed down its voter base.

Qodari said one way to address the issue would be for the various Islamic parties to unite. Although most parties would likely be hostile to the idea, a proposal currently in the House of Representatives to double the threshold needed for parties to hold legislative seats could lead to some consolidation among the parties, he added.

Qodari said another key reason Islamic parties had failed to make good on their strong initial showing in the 1999 polls was their failure to produce strong leadership. "Three of the most popular leaders in the country's history are Sukarno, Megawati and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," he said. "None of them came from an Islamic party." Mahfudz said the popularity of Islamic parties had waned following the withdrawal from the limelight of iconic leaders such as Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and Amien Rais.

Romy agreed that Islamic parties had come to prominence in 1999 on the popularity of such leaders, and singled out Gus Dur as a unifying leader who helped popularize Islamic parties while espousing pluralism. However, Gus Dur's failed presidency later proved a handicap, tarnishing Islamic parties' standing with voters, he added.

In the 2009 polls, Islamic parties took a combined 29 percent of the vote, down from 38 percent in 2004 and 37 percent in 1999, according to Indo Barometer.

Historically, no ruling party has ever been an Islamic one. The most successful showing by such a party in the polls was by Gus Dur's National Awakening Party (PKB), which won 12 percent of the vote in 1999, finishing third behind the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party.

The PKS was the most successful Islamic party in last year's polls, but it won less than 8 percent of the vote to finish fourth overall behind the Democratic Party, Golkar and the PDI-P.