PKS refuses PPP offer to form Islamic coalition Editor’s note: This was translated from the original text from Kompas. Read the original article here. Kompas, 11/13/13 Indonesia’s Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said that it is not interested in an offer from the United Development Party (PPP) to form an Islamic-party coalition. Hidayat Nur Wahid, Chairman of the PKS, said that, at the moment, his party is more focused on the April 2014 legislative elections. Efforts to form an Islamic coalition, he suggested, are more for the 2014 July presidential elections. “Now, many people are shouting about possible presidential candidates and vice-presidential candidates. But if a party does not meet the threshold for nominating a president, its presidential and vice-presidential candidates will go nowhere,” Hidayat said. Also, Indonesians are not thinking about political coalitions, Hidayat noted. They only want better political parties, more deserving of their trust and support. “If a political party is busy deciding on who it will select for its presidential and vice-presidential candidates, while the party’s quality is not improving, the electorate will become even more apathetic. Eventually, as more and more Indonesians become disillusioned with the country’s politics, they will increasingly turn to anarchy and terrorism,” according to Hidayat, who also is the former Chairman of the MPR. The PPP previously said that it would invite other Islamic parties, such as the PKB, PKS, PAN, and PBB, to form a strong Islamic coalition. Indeed, a united Islamic coalition, according to PPP, could challenge the larger, stronger parties—mainly PDI-P, Golkar, and PD. Even though it already has said that it wants to create an Islamic coalition, the PPP is not in a rush to choose its presidential and vice-presidential candidates. And no other Islamic-political parties are either. PKB, for instance, has refused to join an Islamic coalition because of the party’s bad experience in the past. When the PKB’s Abdurrahman Wahid, otherwise known as Gus Dur, was president, an Islamic coalition—known as the Central Coalition—toppled him, and he lost the presidency. Meanwhile PAN has qualms about an Islamic coalition as well. Most Indonesians, PAN officials believe, view Islamic coalitions as irrelevant. .