Sunanda Creagh, Jakarta – An Indonesian Islamist party seen as a likely partner in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's coalition said it wanted energy and mining contracts to be renegotiated and the death penalty imposed in the worst cases of corruption.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has done well in some local elections because of its emphasis on clean governance, but religious minorities in the officially secular but predominantly Muslim country are nervous about the party's Islamist agenda and likely influence on policy-making.
Tifatul Sembiring, chairman of the PKS which won about 8 percent in parliamentary elections last week, said his party may join Yudhoyono's Democrat Party, which won a fifth of the vote, to form a coalition.
That coalition may also include the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), two small Islamic parties, he told Reuters in an interview, as well as the Golkar Party, giving the bloc a majority of seats in parliament.
The PKS is eying as many as five cabinet posts in the next government, up from three in the current alliance, and would push for the renegotiation of key contracts in the resources sector which are unfavourable for Indonesia, Sembiring told Reuters in an interview.
These include a contract to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China from the BP-led Tangguh project in Papua, eastern Indonesia, as well as contracts with mining giants Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining Corp of the United States, he said.
Tangguh will produce 7.6 million tonnes per year and has contracts with several companies including China National Offshore Oil Corp.
"Tangguh is not fair, in my view. It makes Indonesia not satisfied," he said. "We should review all of the contracts to make them fair. We don't reject foreign companies but we want a win-win solution."
The PKS, which like the Democrat Party takes a tough stance on corruption, would also push to give authorities such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) greater powers, Sembiring said, and may advocate the death penalty in corruption cases involving big sums, of more than 1 trillion rupiah (61 million pounds).
"It would be a lesson for the younger generations," he said, adding that stamping out corruption in the police would be a priority.
But reform of the bureaucracy, another policy it has in common with Yudhoyono's Democrat Party, would be hard to achieve as cutting jobs among the country's millions of civil servants could lead to unrest, he said.
The PKS, which is regarded by some Indonesians, particularly the religious minorities and women's groups, as a hardline Muslim party, has tried to broaden its appeal to non-Muslims in the past couple of years.
However, it has supported the introduction of sharia by-laws in some parts of the country and recently caused a stir when a PKS official tried to ban a traditional form of dance in West Java because he considered it too sexy.
Sembiring said his party supported sharia principles, rather than sharia law.
"I don't mean cutting off hands, I mean following your religious teachings. We don't want people to become atheists. We want people to have a religion. If you are a Muslim, you must obey your religion. If you are a Christian or Jewish or other, please obey your religious teaching too," he said.
"But you must have a belief, because people with a belief have a moral code. People who are atheists, I don't know how they have moral control." (Editing by Sara Webb)