VZCZCXRO9380
OO RUEHBC RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDT RUEHKUK RUEHLH RUEHPB RUEHPW
RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHJA #0812/01 1280812
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 080812Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2293
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 000812 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP 
NSC FOR E. PHU 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/07/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PDEM KISL ID
SUBJECT: MAJOR ISLAMIC PARTY WORKS TO REVAMP IMAGE 
 
REF: JAKARTA 709 
 
Classified By: Pol/C Joseph L. Novak, reasons 1.4(b+d) 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  Members of the Prosperous Justice Party 
(PKS)--Indonesia's largest Islamic-oriented party--are 
concerned by what they see as the party's disappointing 
results in the recent legislative elections.  Although the 
party did not do poorly (indeed it received slightly more 
support than in 2004), it had expected to do much better. 
With respect to the July presidential election, the party has 
thrown in its lot with President Yudhoyono's re-election 
effort.  END SUMMARY. 
 
CONCERNED BY ELECTION RESULTS 
 
¶2.  (C) Indonesia's largest Islamic-oriented party--which 
commonly goes by the acronym "PKS"--is concerned about its 
showing in the April national legislative elections. 
According to projected results from the April 9 elections, 
PKS won approximately 8 percent support nationwide, a slight 
increase over its 7.5 percent share in 2004.  While that 
represents an incremental gain, the party had very high 
expectations for this election, with some of its cadre 
predicting that it might achieve 15-20 percent of the vote. 
Hopes were raised, for example, by the party's victories in 
gubernatorial races in West Java and North Sumatra in early 
¶2008. 
 
¶3.  (C) Of particular concern to PKS was its relatively poor 
showing in the influential Jakarta capital region, which has 
been one of the party's strongholds.  In the April election, 
the party garnered a respectable 18 percent of the vote, but 
it came in second to President Yudhoyono's surging Partai 
Demokrat (PD).  The most recent figure was just half of the 
35 percent of the vote it received in 2004 when it shocked 
other parties by attaining plurality support in the region. 
 
INTRA-PARTY FRICTION 
 
¶4.  (C) The electoral returns have helped renew a 
long-running intra-PKS debate.  PKS Senior MP 
Zulkieflimansyah (known as "Zul") acknowledged to us the 
internal tensions plaguing the party, asserting that it was 
becoming increasingly divided between "moderates" and what he 
characterized as "hard-liners."  The moderates want the party 
to do a better job of branching out and selling the party to 
the Indonesian public writ large.  The hard-liners, however, 
still hold out hope to create an Islamic state and want the 
party to focus on steps toward that. 
 
¶5.  (C) The party's reformers tend to be Western-educated 
technocrat types, who advocate change and innovation.  As 
long as there is tension between the two groups, Zul added, 
the party would likely never receive more than ten percent of 
the popular vote.  Zul--who considers himself a 
moderate--maintains that the majority of PKS is now committed 
to change and sees this transformation into "a mainstream 
party" as inevitable. 
 
¶6.  (C) Zul commented that the PKS moderates are picking up 
even more traction in the debate due to the April electoral 
returns.  The moderates are asserting that the party was 
positioned too far to the right during the recent election 
and lost touch with the average Indonesian voter.  According 
to Zul's narrative, recent PKS actions have been seen as more 
fundamentalist than reformist.  In particular, PKS support 
for the controversial anti-pornography law (which civil 
lbertarians see as anti-individual rights) and other aspects 
of the party's platform pushed the party away from the center 
(which is where Yudhoyono's Partai Demokrat won the 
election).  Other PKS contacts assert that the party should 
have focused more on anti-corruption as an issue (a push 
which helped President Yudhoyono's PD party). 
 
¶7.  (C) One issue that Zul did not focus on was polygamy. 
Some of PKS's leaders were included in a recently 
NGO-published "polygamy" list, including Zul.  Many 
Indonesian women strongly oppose polygamy and PKS leaders' 
associations with the practice have hurt the party.  The 
party has tried to tout a pro-woman agenda, but according to 
former PKS DPR member Nursanita Nasution--who recently lost 
her bid for re-election--no female PKS candidates won seats 
in the recent legislative elections. 
 
WORKING WITH PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO FOR NOW 
 
JAKARTA 00000812  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶8.  (C) Ahead of the July presidential election, PKS has 
endorsed President Yudhoyono's re-election effort.  Although 
he probably will not be chosen, PKS has nominated party 
leader Hidayat Nur Wahid as a potential vice-presidential 
running mate.  At this point, PKS is clearly focusing on 
receiving choice Cabinet positions if--as expected--the 
President wins re-election.  Over all, although it did not do 
as well as it wanted in the April elections, PKS retains 
sizable influence as the country's largest Muslim party and 
due to the fact that it basically maintained its core support 
when other Islamic-oriented parties experienced a sharp 
decline (see reftels). 
 
HUME