Ezra Sihite & Dessy Sagita – The Prosperous Justice Party has denied it pushed for a change to the Indonesian Red Cross's emblem, saying the claim was part of a smear campaign against the party ahead of 2014 elections.

Fachri Hamzah, chairman of the party known as the PKS, said on Sunday that he was surprised to hear media reports that his party had demanded a change to the logo of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI).

"We can't just change it as we would have to amend a law on the PMI first. It means it should be done through the House of Representatives," the PKS lawmaker said.

Fachri added that it was impossible for his party alone to change the logo. "It's not about whether we've ever proposed it. We just can't do it. That is just a black campaign against us," he said.

PKS secretary general Abdul Hakim also denied that his party wanted the logo replaced. "What the PKS proposed was that we should make the PMI the only official humanitarian body in Indonesia," he said.

Last year, reports circulated that a PKS member proposed that the PMI change its emblem, saying it had been inspired by the Christian cross. The PKS member, who would not reveal his name, said that the logo was against Islam. When the news broke, it drew widespread criticism.

An official at Red Cross headquarters, Muhammad Muas, said on Saturday that it had received a request from the PKS to change its logo. He said that the organization refused because the logo was agreed upon at the Geneva Convention in 1949.

Muas said that PKS's demand for a logo change was baseless. "This logo has nothing to do with any religion.

It's neutral," he said. "Besides, Indonesia is not a faith-based country and not a secular one. We uphold Pancasila [the Five Principles] as our ideology that supports our plurality." He added that the country's founding fathers, Suharto and Muhammad Hatta, had agreed on the emblem.