As hopes grow that a US war with Iraq may be averted, much attention is being paid to the Justice Party (Partai Keadilan, PK), which has demonstrated strong grass roots support during the campaign against a war.
Anti-US demonstrations over by radical Muslim organizations in Indonesia are nothing special. But the demonstration organized by the relatively small PK on February 9 that froze the center of Jakarta provided a new angle on Indonesian opposition and threw a new spotlight on the small party.
PK won seven seats – a mere 1.8% of the party – when it first entered Parliament in 1999, splitting the Islamic vote with mainstream parties such as the United Development Party (PPP), Amien Rais' National Mandate Party (PAN), and Yusril Ihza Mahendra's Crescent Moon Star Party (PBB).
PK was formed largely among a group of alumni of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB). The group, through effective use of the media, succeeded in winning public sympathy for the party's stance, on a commitment to peace.
PK is seen as the expression of a new generation of Muslims who promote the uncompromising purification of Islamic belief and strict adherence to religious morals.
Its leaders see a simultaneous push for political modernization as a natural part of their Islamic commitment – jihad in the most positive view of the word.
PK strongholds tend to demonstrate strong outward adherence to orthodox Islamic values. Baby girls are often dressed in full jilbab, even although girls in countries such as Iran adopt the veil only on puberty.
In Jakarta, around the Bangka area, the behavior of strong pockets of PK supporters suggests that morality has become a fashion statement, but one that applies the best moral principles.
Wahabi roots
PK owes its roots to the neo-Wahabi movement. This movement's name is taken from its founder, Mohammad Abdul Wahab (1703-1787), and aims to purify Islamic practices, using Saudi Arabia-influenced Islamic teaching as a role model.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Wahabism was revived by, among others, the Moslem brotherhood or Ikhwanul Muslimin in Egypt, led by Hassan al-Banna, and Jamaat-I-Islami in Pakistan, led by Abul-a'la al-Maududi.
As a party which relies largely for its social base on university campuses, PK is closely linked to the United Action of Indonesian Muslim Students (KAMMI), which is the offspring of the Wahabi revival on campus. It is ideological closer to the Egyptian model than to the Pakistan.
Another Muslim student organization linked to PK is the Association of Inter-Campus Muslim Student Action, or Hammas. This organization is responsible for a marked increase in Islamic political activities in the major universities and links students from 56 universities across Java and some of the larger universities in Sumatra and Sulawesi. Hammas does not owe allegiance to PK, and also has strong links to PPP, PBB and PAN.
Despite its tendency toward Islamic fundamentalism and a commitment to establishment of an Islamic state in Indonesia, PK supports democracy and the rule of law as its goal. The theory has been put into practice. PK voted with PAN in supporting the amendments to the 1945 constitution and the dismantling of the political role of the military.
Its MPs look more like Muslim preachers than politicians. Party cadres are recruited through mosques, especially those on campuses, and at pesantren, the Islamic boarding schools. PK's network extends through the country via the mosque.
PK cadre monitor the level of activity at mosques in areas in which they have followers. Should attendance drop, the area is visited and interest in religious observance is reactivated.
Clandestine operations The party's operational techniques were born during the Suharto era, when the student groups that led to its formation acted in a far more clandestine manner.
The choice of Egyptian neo-Wahabism as a role model recognizes the strong tradition of clandestine organization in Hassan al-Banna's movement there, which faced strong pressure from the military regimes of Gamal Abdul Nasser and Anwar Sadat.
PK founding groups worked in small groups as mosque "helper" – Usro – or in small student groups.
Party president Hidayat Nur Wahid has solid credentials as an activist blacklisted by Suharto. He comes from a family of teachers and activists in mass organizations. Educated in the modern Islamic boarding school of Gontor in East Java, he was an early member of the Indonesian Islamic Union (PII), a movement dedicated to a state based on Islam.
PII was outlawed by Suharto because it rejected the five principles of Pancasila as the sole state ideology.
Hidayat left for the Middle East, attending Medinah University in Saudi Arabia, where he was a noted student. He was active in the Indonesian Student League and served as its general chairman.
Hidayat did not get on well with officials from the Indonesian Embassy, refusing to attend the mandatory "P4" Pancasila indoctrination course that all students had to take.
Hidayat developed a following among the campus community back in Indonesia, especially at Muhammadiyah University and the Jakarta Islamic Religion Institute (IAIN).
Hidayat was instrumental in the process of creating PK. He initially declined the leadership, preferring to sit for a while on the party's policy committee, the Syuriah, morally higher than the day-to-day leader.
Islamic political analyst A.E. Priyono told Laksamana.Net that PK is a unique creation, in that it accepts parliamentary democracy, and plays a positive role in it, but is intellectually closer to radical Islamic groups.
Its philosophical basis is very similar to that of Hisbut Tahrir (Liberation Party), The Sunni Communication Forum (Forum Komunikasi Ahlusunnah Wal Jamaah – FKAWJ, the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) and the warlike Laskar Jihad.
Most of these groups bluntly reject democratic models and the multi-party system as a Western invention, and incompatible with Islam. Above all, Hisbut Tahrir and the other radical Muslim organizations share fierce anti-Western and anti-Zionist propaganda.
Hisbut Tahrir is a branch of the Middle Eastern movement of the same name centered on Lebanon. The neo-fundamentalist group has called for the Indonesian nation-state to be abolished and replaced by the classic model of an Islamic state, the caliphate. Another Islamic expert, the controversial Ulil Abshar Abdalla, dismisses Priyono's classification of the groups. "The polarization between Islamic groups that support the democratic system and those against it is now deeper than the polarization between the radical and moderate Islamic groups," Ulil told Laksamana.Net.
In Ulil's mind, in the post-Suharto political setting, the state is no longer an exclusive arena. Thus all Islamic forces, be they radical or moderate, have the opportunity to compete within the democratic system. Thus, whether Islamic groups are within or outside the system is no longer relevant.
In this situation, adds Ulil, it is more important to classify PK as a party supporting democracy and the rule of law than it is a Muslim fundamentalist group. As such, it should be seen as a moderate element in the political spectrum.