Endy Bayuni, Jakarta – Corruption scandals may be hurting every major political party in Indonesia, but when such allegations hit the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), they have the potential to destroy the main Islamist party, which has grown since its founding 15 years ago chiefly on a strong morality campaign platform including a clean government.
Media reports suggesting that attractive women celebrities may have been involved in the beef import scandal has not helped the reputation of the PKS, which in 2008 led the successful campaign in the legislature to push for a tougher Pornography Law.
With the general election less than a year away, how the PKS handles this crisis could make or break the party's fortunes at the polls. Time is not on its side.
The controversy over the confiscation of the PKS' operational cars by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as part of its investigation gave the party a reprieve this past week to momentarily divert public attention to issues of legal procedures and away from the more haphazard moral issues.
The party quickly distanced itself when its chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, was arrested by the KPK in February on charges of corruption in beef import trade. Instead of helping him defend his honor, party elders replaced him and left him to fight the allegations alone.
Since then, the PKS has struggled to clear its name as the investigation constantly reveals that there may be more than initially meets the eye. There were suggestions of complicity involving Agriculture Minister Suswono, a PKS member, who apportioned the beef import quotas. The KPK is also looking into the role of the son of Hilmi Aminuddin, the most senior and revered PKS leader, in the beef import trade.
While Luthfi remains in detention, the corruption court has started to try two executives of the trading company that received the quota.
The central figure of the scandal,however, is a political broker who goes by the name of Ahmad Fathanah. He was arrested shortly after allegedly accepting a Rp 1 billion (US$100,000) bribe from the beef importing company. The KPK believes Fathanah had planned to deliver the money to Luthfi.
But it was the presence of attractive women answering KPK questions in the investigation of Fathanah that could cause the most damage to the party's reputation.
There was Ayu Azhari, an actress and singer, who went to the KPK office to deny that she had accepted large sums of money from Fathanah only to go back the next day to return all the money and gifts she received from him.
There was also Vitalia Shesya, an adult magazine model, who returned a car, a luxury watch and cash that she said were given to her by Fathanah. And there was Tri Kurnia Puspita, a dangdut singer, who also returned a car and items of jewelry to the KPK.
It doesn't help the PKS' cause that these women were obscure about what they gave in return for all the generous gifts. This only fueled public imagination.
The consistent link to the PKS in these media stories has only infuriated the party's elders. The party insists that Fathanah is not a member and that the KPK evidence against Luthfi is circumstantial.
The PKS believes that the allegations are part of a vicious campaign to destroy the party ahead of the 2014 election. It points to discriminatory practices by the KPK, noting that Anas Urbaningrum, the ousted chairman of the ruling Democratic Party, remains free even though he, too, has been named a suspect in a separate corruption scandal.
Other big parties have been hurt by corruption scandals, including the main opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Golkar, which like the PKS is a member of the coalition government. With all parties hard- pressed for cash, it is left to the creativity of their leaders or treasurers to raise funds. Some of them may have broken the law in the process, intentionally or not.
But the public, and possibly voters too at the polls, judge the PKS by a higher standard because of the constant moral message that it has conveyed. When it comes to hypocrisy, the public is much less forgiving.
In only its third participation in a general election, the party pooled 7.5 percent of the national vote, coming in fourth, and again joined the coalition government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. At its congress in 2010, the PKS declared its target to move into the top three in the 2014 election. To broaden its appeal, it has tried to shed its Islamic image and started to campaign using more secular issues, albeit with moral overtones.
The actions of its executives, however, may defy its ambitions. Last year, a PKS member of the House of Representatives was caught on camera watching porn videoclips on his tablet while the House was in session. A disgruntled PKS founder has submitted documents to the KPK that he said was evidence of corruption within the party. The KPK has yet to act on these documents.
It's too early, however, to dismiss the PKS' chances in the 2014 election.
Only a few weeks after the corruption scandal involving its chairman came to light, the PKS saw its candidates winning gubernatorial elections in West Java and North Sumatra in February and March,respectively. But local elections have their own dynamics from the wider national election next year.
A not guilty verdict for their former chairman just before the elections, as the party certainly hopes for, could be a boon and reaffirm its claim of a national conspiracy. A guilty verdict, however, would almost surely destroy the party.