68 islam, politics and change
nominated its chairman, Nur Mahmudi Ismaʾil, for the position. In a
meeting held following the offer, pks leaders discussed which department
was most preferable, and they agreed on several criteria: firstly, it must
be a populist ministerial post, i.e. it must deal directly with the public;
secondly, it should be in accordance with the party’s human resources
in order to maximise its performance; thirdly, it should not depend on
foreign funds; fourthly, the pks also preferred a department with the
least number of problems. Based on these criteria, the pks proposed the
Ministry of Agriculture. Abdurrahman Wahid seemed to agree with
the pks’s proposal and Ismail was on the cabinet list as the Minister
of Agriculture. However, when the new Indonesian United Cabinet
was made public, Ismaʾil was shifted to the Ministry of Forestry and
Horticulture.⁸⁷
When President Abdurrahman Wahid was impeached by Parliament,
the pks fully supported the impeachment and Megawati’s rise to the
presidency. Interestingly, the pks did not join the cabinet, although
Megawati reportedly offered one ministerial position. At least four
factors might have motivated the pks to take this decision. Firstly, the
Megawati presidency was controversial among conservative Muslims
because of her gender. pks conservative ideology perceives political
leadership to be the privilege of male politicians, and thus Megawati
was not a proper choice when there were many capable male politicians.
Secondly, joining the government under the Megawati presidency was
not preferable from a policy point of view, because she and her party
were perceived as the reincarnation of the secular-nationalist pni from
the previous era, and thus the arch-rivals of Islamic politics. Thirdly,
another anti-Megawati sentiment was that many Muslims perceived
the pdi-p to be the vehicle for Christian politicians, notably Maj. Gen.
(ret.) Theo Syafeʾi, one of Megawati’s closest aides, who was believed
to have strong anti-Islam feeling. Fourthly, pks leaders felt that they
needed to improve their party organisation as it had failed to pass the
electoral threshold and was unable to participate in the next election
as a result.⁸⁸
The party’s perception and attitude towards political cooperation
changed drastically when the party was renamed the pks. The first
moment this became clear was on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.
In line with the change of party leadership, its perceptions and attitudes
towards political coalition were also moving from idealistic, policy
oriented to pragmatic, power oriented. Again, this change exacerbated
pk Bayanat, 29 October 1999.
Permata, ‘Islamist Party and Democratic Participation’, 245.