By Dandy Koswaraputra IOL Correspondent
"Our chance is getting bigger to be part of the next coalition," Rosyad affirmed.
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s Islamic parties are edging closer towards a coalition with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party, the biggest winner of the parliamentary race.
"Our chance is getting bigger to be part of the next coalition," Hilman Rosyad, an MP from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Indonesia’s most prominent Islamic-rooted party, told IslamOnline.net.
The pre-election ruling coalition has disintegrated after Golkar announced last week that its leader, incumbent Vice President Yusuf Kalla, would contest the presidential vote against popular Yudhoyono.
The split opens the possibility of the Democratic Party, which semi-final results show is winning 20.48 percent of the vote and replacing Golkar as the biggest party in parliament, teaming up with Islamic parties.
Already a member of Yudhoyono’s coalition and seen sharing a pro-reform platform with the DA, the PKS has the best chances to enter a new ruling alliance.
According to Rosyad, a PKS’s negotiating team has already been intensively communicating with the DA to discuss details of a possible coalition, including the allocation of portfolios.
"Our head of Shura assembly has been in touch with the president."
The United Development Party (PPP), the oldest Islamic party in Indonesia, has already names for potential cabinet seats.
"We are ready to join the coalition and support President Yudhoyono," said its secretary general Irgan Chairul Mahfiz.
Another Islamic party, the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), currently the third-largest political party in Indonesia, also eyes a possible coalition with the DA.
"For sure we would make coalition with Democratic Party," said Hilmy Faisal, its deputy secretary-general.
"Since the beginning we’ve seen President Yudhoyono an eligible figure to lead the country."
Yudhoyono announced on Sunday, April 26, seeking a second term in the July presidential polls.
He has not yet named a running mate but said he was receiving a "flood" of nominees from political and non-political parties.
Chance
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| "It’s not a matter of sharing a cake of power but also upholding values of nationalism on Islam," says Faisal. |
Analysts believe a coalition between the DA and Islamic parties is more likely than ever.
"He could ask Islamic parties for coalition in order to have majority in parliament," Usep Saeful Ahyar, a senior researcher from the Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES), told IOL.
If Yudhoyono's DA forms a coalition with various Islamic parties, they would have 39-45 percent of the parliamentary votes.
After fielding its own candidate in the presidential poll, Golkar is mulling a new alliance with the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Such an alliance would get about 30 percent of the vote.
Being part of the ruling coalition would be a big chance for Islamic parties to improve its popularity.
"I agree this time is the best for the Islamic parties to make more significant roles by allying with the Democratic Party," says Usep, the LP3ES analyst.
Seven Islamic parties have contested the parliamentary elections.
The biggest winner among them, PKB, fell well short of the 15-percent of the vote it was aiming for and was barely ahead of the 7.2 percent it picked up in 2004.
Faisal, its deputy leader, believes Islamic parties should seize this opportunity to join the ruling coalition.
"It’s not a matter of sharing a cake of power but also upholding values of nationalism on Islam."