President-elect and Gerindra Party chair Prabowo Subianto (left) shakes hands with National Awakening Party (PKB) chair Muhaimin Iskandar after a meeting between the two parties at the PKB headquarters in Jakarta on April 24, 2024. Muhaimin, who ran with Prabowo's rival Anies Baswedan in the Feb. 14 election, expressed the party's wish to work with Gerindra for Prabowo's incoming administration. - Photo: Antara
JAKARTA: President-elect Prabowo Subianto has taken steps to resolve an escalating conflict between the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the country’s largest Islamic group, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), as he plans to meet with leaders of both organisations.
The Gerindra Party chairman met with PKB chairman Muhaimin Iskandar on Thursday (Aug 8) evening at his official residence, the Widya Chandra ministerial housing complex in South Jakarta, where the two leaders held a one-and-a-half-hour closed-door discussion.
Gerindra Party executive chairman Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said Prabowo intended to meet with the leadership of NU’s executive board in the coming days.
“[The meeting may happen] in a day or two," said Sufmi, who declined to reveal the subject of Prabowo’s upcoming discussion with NU executive board leaders.
The PKB is a political party that was established by NU leaders.
But under the leadership of Muhaimin, it became estranged from NU as a result of his conflict with the late Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, a renowned NU leader and a former president of Indonesia.
The conflict resurfaced recently when Muhaimin, in his capacity as a House of Representatives deputy speaker, initiated a legislative inquiry into the government’s organisation of this year’s haj, which was marred by allegations of poor service and misuse of the country’s haj quota.
The country’s haj management is the responsibility of the Religious Affairs Ministry, an institution that has been led by NU figures.
Muhaimin’s move sparked anger among NU executive board elites and chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf, who accused the PKB leader of targeting Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, the younger brother of Yahya.
NU leaders then established a special committee to “revisit history” and “return the PKB to its roots”, claiming the current PKB leadership had strayed from its NU foundation and that party elites had systematically steered the PKB away from NU.
Muhaimin, who ran for the vice presidency alongside presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, led his party against Prabowo and his alliance of supporters, including NU, in the February general election.
While unsuccessful in his vice-presidential bid, Muhaimin was considered successful in leading the PKB to a strong showing in the legislative election.
The PKB finished with the fourth-highest number of seats in the legislature and the most of any Islamic party, a distinction previously held by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
The electoral success gives the PKB a strong bargaining position should it join Prabowo in his incoming administration.
"The atmosphere of the meeting was very friendly and warm.
"Pak Muhaimin conveyed the results of the party’s national working meeting, in which the PKB is committed to work with Gerindra in making the next government a success," PKB Jazilul Fawaid said on Friday (Aug 9) when asked about the subject of Prabowo and Muhaimin’s Thursday meeting.
Analysts say an ongoing tussle for cabinet positions in the incoming government may intensify the conflict between the NU executive board and the PKB, given that both institutions may be eyeing the same strategic posts in Prabowo’s administration, such as the office of religious affairs minister.
“Both NU and the PKB want to play a bigger role in the incoming government.
"They certainly want a piece of the pie in the government,” Ujang Komarudin, a political analyst at Al-Azhar University, told The Jakarta Post.
Ujang said Prabowo could play a key role in mediating between NU and the PKB, especially given that so far, there had been no sign of the two wanting to reconcile in their years-long conflict.
Wasisto Raharjo, a researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), said Prabowo could have a lot to gain by helping diffuse the conflict between NU and the PKB, given that the ongoing feud between the two would bring instability to his government.
“Leaving the conflict between the NU executive board and the PKB to continue to drag on will create instability among the grassroots, who are mostly traditionalist masses – the largest representation of Indonesian Muslims,” Wasisto told the Post.
Regardless of how Prabowo awards spoils to the PKB and NU, “mediation to find common ground between the two entities is considered more urgent” for the sake of the stability of his incoming government, Wasisto said.
Tensions between the two institutions have recently reached new heights after the Islamic party reported its former secretary general, Lukman Edy, to the police on Monday after he alleged during a meeting with the committee that Muhaimin had not been transparent in managing the party's funds.
A demonstration erupted on Sunday outside NU’s headquarters in Jakarta, where dozens of protesters belonging to the Aliansi Santri Gus Dur (Alliance of Gus Dur Students) urged Yahya and NU secretary general Saifullah Yusuf to resign from their posts and accused them of being involved in practical politics, which NU expressly seeks to avoid.
The feud between the PKB and NU dates back to 2008, when Muhaimin was fired from his position as PKB chair by Gus Dur, who at the time was the head of the party’s advisory board.
Muhaimin was dismissed after he was accused of getting too close to the government of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Muhaimin, with the support of senior members of the PKB and NU, later fought back and initiated an extraordinary congress, during which he managed to regain his position as PKB chair and remove Gus Dur and his daughter Yenny Wahid from the party’s structure. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
