internal dynamics of the prosperous justice party and jamaah tarbiyah 61
Inside the jt, among those who are not involved in party structures,
there are divisions between loyalists who unswervingly support decisions
by the party leadership, and critical activists who criticise what they
perceive as defiant behaviour and decisions by party elites. Among the
loyalists, there are activists who are loyal to certain party leaders but
critical towards others (mostly younger activists, still unstable in their
financial life, who enjoy cliental relationships with certain party leaders),
and those who are loyal to the party and eager to defend the pks from
outside critics. Meanwhile, among critics there are activists who remain
in the jt (Didin Hafiduddin, Daud Rasyid Sitorus) and those who have
left the organisation and launch their criticism from outside (Tizar Zein,
Ihsan Tanjung, Mashadi).
There are three different answers commonly put forward by the pks
with regard to the frictions inside the jt and pks: the first is a cliché, that
friction and factionalism are common phenomena in any organisation,
especially among political parties. Proponents of this argument typically
add that the pks is the most solid of all parties in Indonesia, the only
party that does not suffer from an organisational split. The second answer
was put forward by Yusuf Supendi, who argues that the frictions are
caused by the asymmetrical structures of the jt and pks, and deems party
structures as being foreign to Muslim Brotherhood tradition. In order
to resolve the frictions, he proposes that the supreme leader take the
position of party president, so that there will be a single authority and
single line of command.⁷⁰ The third answer was provided by Abu Ridho,
who sees the frictions as a result of blending two incompatible structures
into a single organisation: the jt’s social structures and the pks’s political
structures. To overcome the factionalism he suggests separating into two
different organisations: the jt, with a different leadership, should follow
the logic of a social organisation; and the pks, with another leadership,
should follow the logic of political competitions.⁷¹
4 Democratic Participation
This section discusses the pks’s experience in terms of democratic
political participation, i.e. how the party has been caught between
maximising political interests and promoting Islamic values. It explores
pks behaviour in three political arenas: political mobilisation, coalition
and government formation, and policy formulation and implementation.
Interview with Yusuf Supendi, Jakarta.
Interview with Abu Ridho, Jakarta.