History
The party was established as the Justice Party on July 20, 1998, with Nurmahmudi Ismail as its first president. The Justice Party was reconstituted as the Prosperous Justice Party in April 2002 after the Justice Party failed to meet the required two percent of electoral threshold in the 1999 election that it needed to contest the 2004 election. During the 2004 legislative elections, the PKS won 7.3% of the popular vote and 45 out of 550 seats, making it the seventh-largest party in parliament. This was a gain from the 1.4% received in 1999. In addition, its leader Hidayat Nur Wahid was elected speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly. PKS's strongest support is in major urban centers, particularly Jakarta, where it won the largest share of seats in 2004. In the 2009 elections, the party's came fourth, its share of the vote rose to 7.88% and it gained 12 extra legislative seats. It now have 57 seats in the People's Representative Council.
The PKS is known for its public opposition to political corruption; this stance was widely reported as a major factor in the party's increased success in 2004. However, this image has been under attack in recent times, as several alleged cases of grafts are suspected to be connected to several prominent party politicians. The party is closely associated with Islamic teachings, but according to its leadership does not promote the mandatory implementation of sharia, requiring Indonesia's Muslims to follow Islamic law. Many of its campaigns are based on conservative religious teachings, such as opposition to the selling of pornography, and for strict punishments for violations of narcotics laws.
The party has been associated with the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood; several of its founders attended Brotherhood-related schools. The organization stages rallies supporting the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, and against the influence of the United States both in the Middle East and in Indonesia.
After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, PKS sent volunteer relief workers to Aceh, and has been involved in several other relief and reconstruction projects.
Over the years, the party has experienced prolonged internal rivalry, particularly between camps that can be identified as pragmatist on the one hand, and idealist on the other. The pragmatist camp has generally been made up of younger, secular-educated functionaries while older functionaries who often are graduates from institutes in the Middle East make up the idealist camp.
The October 5 2011 edition of Indonesian TV news program "Liputan 6 Petang" reported PKS Deputy Secretary-General and member of Indonesia's House of Representatives Fahri Hamzah had recently floated the idea of disbanding Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi or KPK). According to Kompas daily, Deputy Chairman of House of Representatives Commission III responsible for legal affairs, human rights and security Fahri Hamzah first made the suggestion to disband the Corruption Eradication Commission in a consultation meeting at the House on Monday October 3 2011.
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