Indonesian Islamist party eyes polls and presidency

By Sara Webb and Olivia Rondonuwu

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A small, influential Islamist party in Indonesia is alarming moderates who fear this secular but predominantly Muslim country may head for wider use of sharia law and become less tolerant of other religions and cultures.

The sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago, home to the largest Muslim population in the world as well as to substantial Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist minorities, has enshrined religious freedom in its constitution.

But with the rising influence of the PKS party, some moderates fear Indonesia will tilt towards more conservative Islamic and nationalist policies such as Islamic laws requiring women to wear hijabs and permitting polygamy, curbs on minority religions, and perhaps a cooler welcome for foreign investors.

"You can forget about the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees freedom for all kinds of minorities," said former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who remains influential in Indonesia's biggest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama or NU.

"They would try to enact Islamic law," he said, referring to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an Islamist party which draws inspiration from Egypt's banned Islamist party the Muslim Brotherhood.

Already, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a reformist ex-general who depends on a coalition including Islamist parties, has bowed to pressure from militant Muslims by ordering restrictions on a controversial Islamic sect last month.

In the decade since former president Suharto's ouster, which ended 32 years of autocratic rule, democracy has flourished.

Indonesia has new political parties, direct elections for the president and local leaders, and greater freedom of speech, including a wide range of moderate and extremist religious views.

Among the new parties was the PKS, which has won a string of recent local polls, rattling established rivals such as Golkar, Suharto's political machine, and PDI-P, headed by former President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Now the PKS aims to increase its political clout by winning a fifth of the votes in next year's elections so it can take a stab at the presidency, to the alarm of moderates. In Indonesia, parties with a strong showing in the parliamentary election can field a candidate in the presidential ballot.

TACKLING CORRUPTION

Some moderates see the PKS as a non-violent, Indonesian version of Palestinian Hamas. Both were inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, and its founder Hassan al-Banna, and owe much of their success to the fact they focus on non-corrupt government and an effective network to win grassroots support.

Promising "clean, caring and professional" government, the PKS has wooed ordinary Indonesians frustrated by widespread graft and the lack of jobs. It has also won respect by responding quickly to disasters, such as the tsunami in Aceh, with offers of medicines, food and money.

"The political map of Indonesia, it's changed," said Tifatul Sembiring, PKS chairman.

The PKS won 7.3 percent of the vote in the 2004 general election, earning a handful of cabinet posts. Now the party wants to shake off its Islamist reputation and has adopted a more pluralist approach in order to win 20 percent in 2009.