Markus Junianto Sihaloho – After claiming to have already secured the support of dozens of senior clerics from Nahdlatul Ulama in East Java, the United Development Party has vowed to continue to seek more support from Muslim leaders in the area.
Romahurmuzy, deputy secretary general of the party, also known as the PPP, said on Sunday that its general chairman, Suryadharma Ali, had on Saturday met with influential clerics in Malang and Banyuwangi to discuss future collaboration.
During the meeting, Suryadharma talked about the party's prospects for the 2014 elections and a possible role in uniting the Muslim vote across the country, Romahurmuzy said.
He said the clerics had expressed enthusiasm in supporting the PPP at the next polls, although there were two other political parties that traditionally represented NU communities: the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU).
According to Romahurmuzy, the clerics had also said the Muslim vote needed to be reinvigorated in order to create leverage in the House of Representatives when pushing for legislation that would "accommodate aspects of the Muslim way of life."
"The PPP is ready to be the foundation for Islamic politics in Indonesia. If certain political powers keep trying to marginalize the Muslim vote, disharmony is likely to happen," he said.
During the meetings, the PPP leadership also underlined the importance of creating a Muslim-voter bloc in East Java to help win local elections.
"We want to return to the past era when East Java was the largest contributor of Muslim votes. If the PPP can secure the votes from this area, it will surely bring betterment to the people in the area," he said.
Saturday's meetings follow up earlier meetings with clerics in East Java. The first was held on Dec. 25, with about 36 senior NU clerics from the western parts of East Java pledging to support the PPP in 2014.
That declaration was disputed by the PKB, which considers itself to be the main political vehicle for the NU, and sparked protests from senior PKB officials.
Prominent figures such as Yenny Wahid, daughter of the late President Abdurrahman Wahid, a patron of the NU, and Marwan Jaffar, head of the PKB faction in the House, said the clerics who made the deal with the PPP did not have a strong supporter base.
Yunarto Widjaja, an analyst from Charta Politika, said the PPP was vying for support in East Java as a way to secure its voter base in light of recent moves to raise the threshold needed to gain representation in the legislature.
He warned, however, that support from clerics had in the past proven to be fickle. "The clerics' support guarantees nothing," he said. "Jusuf Kalla gained similar support in 2009 but still lost. The NU's followers nowadays are more independently minded."
Yunarto said now was the best time for the PPP to pick up NU support because the PKB was currently suffering from deep internal divisions between supporters of Yenny and those of Wahid's nephew, Muhaimin Iskandar.
"The strategy is to regain control of Muslims, mainly from the NU and from East Java, because they largely voted for the PPP during the New Order regime," he said.