Jakarta – The leaders of Indonesia's Islamic parties have reluctantly accepted the defeat of political Islam by Malaysia's dominant secular political grouping in the recent elections, but said it was far from being final.
Responding to the trouncing of the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), they said it did not necessarily reflect a weakening in support for Islamic parties.
They claimed that PAS' defeat to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's secular Barisan Nasional coalition was only incidental to the Indonesian situation, and that Islamic parties in Indonesia would be able to address any challenges they faced.
"What happened to PAS in Malaysia is not final. It is connected with the party's internal problems and domestic politics in that country," Mr Hamdan Zoelva, an influential leader of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), said on Tuesday.
Mr Mutammimul Ula of the Islam-oriented Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said the Islamic parties would continue to push their manifestoes to strengthen political Islam in Indonesia. "We are working hard to win the hearts of the people," he said.
Mr Djoko Susilo, a legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN) led by Dr Amien Rais, said he was concerned that Islamic parties here would face a similar fate in the legislative elections on April 5. But he noted that PAN was a moderate Islamic party. "We need a religion, but moderation is also necessary," he said.
Analyst Saiful Mujani from the Freedom Institute argued that Islamic parties were losing popularity in Indonesia, partly due to their inability to accommodate modernity. As the Indonesian political culture changed, Islam in the form that is being promoted by some of the parties is increasingly losing its allure among the electorate.
He said: "Muslim voters can easily distinguish Islam as a religion from the Islamic parties fighting for political influence. Most voters support those parties with secular platforms due to the changing culture. This was borne out by the 1999 elections."
Meanwhile, President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday urged supporters not to accept money to vote for rival parties. "On April 5, be alert to those people spreading money around," she told about 10,000 supporters at a soccer field just outside Jakarta.
The previous 1999 elections were marred by vote-buying, and analysts say most major parties, including Ms Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, will likely resort to the practice this time around.
Ms Megawati's party is expected to lose votes at the polls. It garnered a third of the vote in the first free elections in 1999, following the fall of dictator Suharto.
But some surveys show it could emerge behind Golkar Party, the one-time political vehicle of Suharto, as many critics accuse Ms Megawati of not caring about millions of Indonesia's poor who voted for her in droves five years ago.