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Indonesian Islamists winning support in Aceh through relief work
Like more than 300,000 others in Indonesia's Aceh province, Cut Juhariyani and her three children have been spending the past nine days in a refugee camp, left with nothing after the Boxing Day tsunamis swept away homes and families.So in the hot midday sun outside a shop in the Banda Aceh suburb of Lambaro yesterday she was foraging through a pile of used clothes with three dozen other people, eager to find something for her children to wear and begin the process of building a new life. And with banners and uniformed, wispy-bearded men all around to remind her, Mrs Juhariyani knew whom to thank. "I give my thanks to the PKS," she said, using the Indonesian acronym for the Prosperous Justice party, a conservative Islamic party. "This is very helpful for Aceh." Hundreds of often ad-hoc aid stations and refugee camps offering food, medicine, and even the possibility of news of lost relatives have sprung up across Aceh's capital. But of all the independent aid operations now on the ground in Aceh none is as impressive - or well-organised - as that of the PKS, whose earnest cadres have become fixtures at natural disasters in Indonesia in recent years. Backed by donations from members, it has chartered airliners to ferry more than 1,300 volunteers from around Indonesia to Aceh, helicopters to reach remote areas, and a fleet of trucks to distribute aid. Its telegenic leader, Hidayat Nurwahid picked up a decomposing body with his bare hands as part of the clean-up effort, members boast. And by its own count it has shipped more than 1,000 tonnes of aid into Aceh in the past nine days. The PKS is far from being the only independent group on the ground in Aceh. One refugee camp is sponsored jointly by the Indonesian Buddhist Association and the country's air force. PKS, which advocates the introduction of Islamic law in largely secular Indonesia, is also not the only fundamentalist Muslim group delivering aid in what has long been considered Indonesia's most Islamically conservative province. The Indonesian Mujahideen Council, or MMI, a group founded by Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical cleric on trial for allegedly leading the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and others in Indonesia, has sent two teams to Aceh. Some were bristling at the US presence the international relief effort has brought. "The problem is America came here and helped us just to show its power," said Abdullah, a 26-year-old from central Java who stood among a group of fellow MMI members outside Banda Aceh's airport yesterday as US helicopters took off nearby. And, he added, "America uses the country they help as a toy." The difference with the PKS is that it has emerged as a new force in Indonesian politics in the past year. And it is doing so at a time when some analysts are concerned over the direction of Islam in a country that is both home to the world's largest Muslim populations and renowned for its lax practice of the religion. A survey by the US-funded Freedom Institute think-tank taken late last year, for example, found strong support for key tenets of Islamic law with 40 per cent of Indonesians backing cutting off the hands of thieves and 55 per cent saying stoning adulterers to death was legitimate. Having grabbed 48 seats in the country's 500-seat parliament in elections last year, many see the PKS as a natural vehicle for those who have unsuccessfully tried to introduce Koranic law into Indonesia in the half-century since its independence. Mr Nurwahid now sits atop Indonesia's Constitutional Assembly. The party is a key ally for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. And many analysts expect its influence - and constituency - to grow ahead of the 2009 elections. The popularity of the PKS is largely the result of a strong anti-corruption stand. But its support is being bolstered by its disaster relief work in Indonesia. The party is keen, however, to play down the political impact of its activities. Such work, said Sapto Waluyo, a party spokesman, "is our job. It's our responsibility. It's not a political agenda". And in some cases the PKS has met a tough reception. Ahmad Fadli, a 30-year-old labourer who lost his mother and two brothers in the disaster, wished the clothes PKS provided were new. As for his vote, the PKS version of Islam was "too hard," he said. "Especially for young people like us." Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-01-05 |
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