Indonesians lose faith in Islamic parties

Handout photo shows supporters of the Party of the Functional Groups (Golkar) waving flags and shouting slogans in Bogor, West Java yesterday during the final day of campaign rally. Indonesians head to polls with a song and dance in the third national legislative elections since the fall of the 32-year Suharto military dictatorship in 1998, the country's latest chance to prove that its 11-year old 'Reformasi' movement of democratic change is on track.Photo: AFP

As Indonesia heads to legislative elections this week, Islamic parties in the world's largest Muslim-majority country are facing the daunting prospect of their worst election showing yet.
Despite efforts to project a modern image, opinion polls are showing sliding support for Muslim parties -- and the grinding to a halt of years of apparently resurgent political Islam since dictator Suharto's fall in 1998.
With growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy slowing, analysts say Islamic parties' moral message is being overshadowed by voters' more earthly concerns.
"I don't care if the parties and candidates are religious. I'm choosing people to run a country, not a mosque," 45-year-old Jakarta shop assistant Mohammad told AFP.
"You can't pray away a bad economy, unemployment, poverty and crime."
That appears to be a belief shared by many of Indonesia's 171 million voters, around 90 percent of who are Muslim.
While Islamic parties won 38 percent of the vote in the last elections, in 2004, a recent survey showed the combined support of the country's half a dozen Muslim parties had slipped down to around 24 percent.
Among those feeling the pinch is the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an offshoot of the banned Egyptian Islamist organisation Muslim Brotherhood, which just a few years ago was considered the rising star of Indonesian politics.
Now, the PKS is just trying to look cool.
When the party staged a massive rally in the capital last week, party president Tifatul Sembiring crooned on stage alongside dreadlocked band members.
The display is nothing novel for an Indonesian election, where karaoke is a more common fixture of campaigning than policy debate, but for the usually dour PKS it is an attempt to soften an image of intolerance.
The party was a key backer of a much-criticised anti-pornography law passed last year, which is widely seen as a threat to cultural traditions and non-Muslim minorities.
"The PKS insulted us. Just wait and see, we won't vote for them," said Mas Nanu Muda, a practitioner of the traditional "Jaipong" dance recently criticised by party grandees as being too erotic.
"Our party is not fundamentalist, but moderate. A majority of voters are Muslims so they'll vote for us," PKS president Sembiring said.
The PKS, which got 7.34 percent of the vote in 2004, had boasted that it would win 20 percent this time. Polls suggest however that it will be lucky to gain five percent, a result that would be nothing short of a humiliation.
The problem for Indonesia's Islamic parties -- none of which advocate an Islamic state or the widespread introduction of Islamic law -- is that they have failed to make the case that they can be trusted with practical issues.
"The issue isn't about having an Islamic state or a secular state. The hot issue is about the economy. When people are occupied by economic questions they become more rational and they compromise about religion," Indonesian Survey Institute researcher Dodi Ambardi said.