Surabaya – A preacher and former chairman of the Reform Star Party (PBR), a splinter of the United Development Party (PPP), Zainuddin MZ, said politics was "no place for clerics".

"The prophet taught us that if you give an assignment to the incompetents, then you are condemned to see their failures. I have proven this saying when I was active in politics for three and a half years," the cleric was quoted as saying by Antara news agency in a sermon at a Surabaya hospital on Saturday night.

Zainuddin, popularly known as "the cleric with a million followers, helped establish and chaired the PBR in 2002. It was initially called the Reformed United Development Party (PPP Reformasi).

The PBR followed in the footsteps of other Islamic parties and was defeated by secular and nationalist parties including the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Democratic Party during the 2004 legislative elections. It garnered only 2,764,998 votes, or 14 seats at the House of Representatives.

In 2009, the party gained 1,264,333 votes and failed to pass the electoral threshold of 2 percent. Most Islamic parties, with the exception of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the PPP, faced the same fate.

"My time in politics has made me realize than the political stage is not for clerics. That's why I quit and returned to preaching again," he told his audience, which included National Education Minister Mohammad Nuh and chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama's East Java branch, Mutawakkil Alallah.

"The difference between clerics and politicians is that clerics, as followers of Prophet Muhammad, always think of the people all, while politicians think of the people only when campaigning."

Some Muslim scholars have voiced concerns over how politics divides and weakens the role of Muslim clerics. One of the main issues raised at the national congress of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization, was how steer the organization away from politics.

The organization has called on the government to abolish regional elections as many of its members have been involved in often violent local political bickering.