With the lack of a strong Islamic figure in Indonesia’s current political scene and the rise of other political icons such as Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, Islamic-based parties may have to settle for nominating a vice presidential candidate in next year’s election, a new survey shows.
“It is very difficult for Islamic parties if they want to support their own presidential candidates,” Umar S. Bakry, the executive director of the National Survey Institute (LSN), said on Monday. “The most realistic move for them is to nominate a vice presidential candidate.”
In the LSN’s latest survey, former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud M.D. emerged as the leading Islamic candidate, with 16.4 percent of the 1,240 respondents polled saying they would vote for him.
Dangdut singer Rhoma Irama and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali were next with 9.6 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively.
However, Umar noted that Mahfud’s popularity remained a far cry from that of Joko Widodo.
“He will need a spectacular running mate to be able to compete against Joko,” Umar said, adding that it might be necessary for Mahfud, affiliated with the National Awakening Party (PKB), to form a coalition with other parties to support his run.
In doing so, he said, Mahfud would initially have to prove himself capable of bringing together existing Islamic-based parties before eventually approaching a nationalist party to round out the coalition.
“As long as Joko and Prabowo are still highly favored, they will be tough to beat,” Umar said, referring to Prabowo Subianto, the co-founder and chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).
“Mahfud can at least run as a vice president,” he added.
In the same survey, 45.6 percent of respondents supported the merging of Islamic parties into a single coalition, a move expected to be useful in strengthening ties between Muslims across the nation and strengthening the conservative voter base.
Despite the evident public support, however, Syamsuddin Haris, a political analyst for the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), remained pessimistic that much good could come out of such a coalition, citing the lack of a unifying figure.
“Islamic parties have the right to form a coalition, but the problem is they don’t have that one figure who could tie them all together,” he said, noting that the nationalist parties also enjoyed strong support from Muslim voters.
“Mahfud can be the answer because as a famous figure he is relatively clean, but the question is will other Islamic party leaders support him willingly?” Syamsuddin said.
“And don’t forget the number of votes for Islamic parties is small. It accounts for less than 30 percent of all votes.”
Mahfud, who had initially planned to join the Democratic Party’s convention, has expressed interest in running in the 2014 presidential race should he earn sufficient support.
“It is something to be appreciated that Muslims want to come together and be represented. I am ready to compete and to follow the process,” he said.
However, Mahfud emphasized that should a coalition be deemed necessary, he was willing to be nominated only as a representative of the PKB and not of any of the other Islamic-based parties.
“Until today, discussions on the many alternative [strategies] are still ongoing,” he said.
Mahfud said no serious efforts had been made by other Islamic-based parties in plans to merge and form a coalition.
Author/Autor: Anastasia Winanti Riesardhy
Source/Fuente:http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/observers-absence-of-strong-politica...
