38 islam, politics and change
Meanwhile Kees van Dijk explains that the ambiguity visible in pks
political behaviours is a logical consequence of the complexity of the
changing political environment in Indonesia. This complexity has created
asymmetrical alliances among different political actors and, subsequently,
ambiguous behaviours and internal dynamics among political actors
seeking to compromise their ideological objectives and political realities.
The pks is distinctly Indonesian in its structures and behaviours.²²
1.3 A Theoretical Note: A Failing or a Post-Islamism?
Any attempt to explain the developments of a political organisation will
face at least two dilemmas. The first is a dilemma between the rational
and natural perspectives of an organisation. The rational perspective
conceives an organisation primarily as a tool for a group of people to
achieve certain – previously set – objectives. Perhaps this is the most
widely used definition of an organisation, i.e. that any development
and dynamics within the organisation can only be explained in light of
the organisation’s objectives, because any member of the organisation
should act according to the specific tasks and division of labour of that
organisation. This implies that the yardstick for measuring or valuing
behaviours of the members and dynamics of the organisation are the
organisational objectives that are seta priori.
The natural perspective of an organisation, however, maintains that
in any organisation, as long as there are multiple people there will be
multiple objectives being pursued. Consequently, the real objectives of
the organisation are never seta priori, but rathera posteriorifollowing
successive problems faced by the organisation. Of course it does have
previously set, long-term, objectives, but they are often subordinated or
compromised by more immediate and more urgent short-term objectives.
And, because there is a plurality of objectives being pursued simultane-
ously by different members, the real objectives of the organisation are
none other than the lowest common denominator, the objective that all
members agreed upon, namely the survival of the organisation. Hence, in
contrast with the rational perspective, which takes thea prioriobjectives
as the yardstick for all members’ behaviours and organisational dynamics,
the natural perspective puts the highest value on any behaviour and
dynamic that guarantees the survival of the organisation.
C. van Dijk, ‘Different Settings, Different Definitions, and Different Agendas:
Islamic and Secular Political Parties in Indonesia and Malaysia’, inInterpreting
Islamic Political Parties, ed. M.A. Mohamed Salih (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2009), 51–81.