Jakarta – The United Development Party (PPP), which was established by a group of Islamic parties in 1970s, doubted that the existing Islamic parties will merge ahead of the 2014 polls despite a new legislation raising the bar for political parties to join elections.
PPP chairman Suryadharma Ali said during the party's national working meeting on Friday that his party was open to everyone but admitted that it would be difficult for the existing Islamic parties to merge and form a single party. "A formal fusion of Islamic parties is very unlikely," he said.
The idea of unifying the existing Islamic parties was recently thrown by Crescent Star Party (PBB) founder Yusril Ihza Mahendra in response to the passing of the new law on political parties that imposes harder electoral requirements.
The law stipulates that the verification process must end two-and-a-half years before the next elections. This means all registering parties have to fulfill requirements by July or face being excluded from the next elections.
It also requires parties to have offices in all 33 provinces, 75 percent of the cities and regencies in each province, and 50 percent of the districts in each city and regency. The offices must be permanent, at least until the election has ended.
The legislators are also currently mulling increasing the parliamentary threshold from the current 2.5 percent to between 3 and 5 percent, a policy that could edge out smaller Islamic parties.
Yusril said that he had encouraged his colleagues in PBB to join PPP to empower political Islam in the 2014 elections. Officials from the two parties said that they had met several times to talk about possible alliance but no agreements have so far been reached.
Despite Suryadharma's doubts, PPP officials are currently in talks with several Islamic or Muslim-based parties such as the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU) and the Reform Star Party (PBR).
PPP deputy secretary general Ngudi Astuti said her party would welcome if smaller Islamic parties such as PBB and the PBR want to join them to anticipate the increase in parliamentary threshold. "If the parliamentary threshold increases to 10 percent, the Islamic parties absolutely have to cooperate," she said.
Political analyst Arbi Sanit said that it was virtually impossible for Islamic parties to merge to their different interpretations of Islam. "In Islam, there are those who are called modernists, traditionalists and radicals. Each of these groups think that what they believe is the only truth," he told The Jakarta Post.
The PBB is known as a modernist Islamic party while the PPP is now closer to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), an organization that representes traditional Islam.
The Justice Prosperous Party (PKS), the other Islamic party at the House of Representatives besides the PPP, is known for its link to the tarbiyah movement inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna.
Arbi said that the future of political Islam was bleak. "The performance of Islamic parties continue to decline since the 1955 elections. They cannot even coalesce, let alone merge into a single party."
The PPP, however, insisted that Islamic party is indispensable in Indonesian politics. "Islamic political party is very important in Indonesia, as the country is dominated by muslims," PPP's Ahmad Yani said.
The party is now readying for the 2014 elections, including by holding its national congress earlier. "We have yet to decide what month of holding the congress. But, it's surely will be held this year, one year ahead of its schedule in 2012, in order to prepare for the next election." (rcf)