Try To Talk About Indonesia Prosperous Justice Party Policy Evolution In Democratic Participation

The research queries into why moderation transition has occurred to the ProsperousJustice Party (PKS) since2003.In the three national elections during the Democratic Reform of Indonesia between1999and2010, among all the Islamic parties, PKS is the only one which has reacheda growing percentage of votes and congressional seats, and became the Congress’sfourth-largest party. The study on PKS’s strategy may contribute to a betterunderstanding of political Islam in Indonesia. From the perspective of global politicalIslam, the Islamic parties in Egypt and Turkey which adopt a similar strategy achievedsuccess in recent elections. The empirical evidences of Indonesia and other countriesdemonstrate that the research question is both unique and general from the theoreticalaspect.The main research methods are literature review, basic statistical methods and casestudy. An analytical framework containing two steps and four angles is proposed. Inthe first step, the definition of moderation is discussed and operationalized. Then, theactivities of PKS since2003are testified according to the definition above in order toconfirm that PKS has adopted a moderation strategy. In the second step, the studyanalyses the characteristics of PKS’s moderation transition, then tries to explain thecauses of moderation from the aspects of purpose, leadership structure and ideology.The study reaches four conclusions:(1) the moderation of PKS is both substantiveand pragmatic. The case of PKS confirms the two-track strategy of Islamic parties.(2)The incentive of moderation may be to accelerate the process of including itself intodemocratic institutions and to obtain more political resources in the democratic setting.PKS’s Islamic goals benefit from moderation indirectly.(3) The dominant position ofthe pragmatic faction in PKS may pose a positive factor in the adoption of moderationstrategy.(4) The ideas of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the domestic JemaahTarbiyah activity are ideological sources of moderation, but the goal of social Islamization may raise a question whether PKS will maintain the moderate route inthe future. In the end, the thesis proposes that pragmatism and Islamization isparadoxically related: interdependent as well as exclusive. How to address theparadox is an issue essential to PKS’s future development.