The National Mandate Party ( ) is a moderate Islamist political party in Indonesia. It was founded by reformists, including Amien Rais, chairman of the Muhammadiyah organization, during the Indonesian reformation. The party contested the 2009 elections under the chairmanship of Sutrisno Bachir.

Background

On 14 May 1998, around 50 political figures, including Goenawan Mohammad, Faisal Basri and Amien Rais establish an organization called the Peoples Mandate Council ( ) open to anybody who wanted to listen and express opinions. At the time, Amien Rais said that MARA would assess the performance of the president Suharto's cabinet over the next six months. He also said that the people needed a strong forum that was respected by those in power and that the power structure under Suharto was not good at listening to people's opinions as it had become arrogant. At the time of the downfall of the Suharto regime. may new parties were being established and some of them wanted Amien Rais and other members of MARA to join them. One of these was the Crescent Star Party, whose eventual leader Yusril Ihza Mahendra tried to persuade AMien Rais to establish a party. When he refused the offer the party went its own way. On July 27 1998 (the day after the deceleration of the Crescent Star Party), Amien Rais announced the establishment of a new party to be called the People's Mandate Party ( ). This was changed to the current name after a lengthy voting process. The new party had its roots in the principles of religious morality, humanity and prosperity

PAN in the legislature

Indonesian legislative election, 1999

In the 1999 elections, PAN won 7.4 percent of the vote and 34 seats in the legislature. The party then played a key role in putting together a central axis of Islamic political parties in the People's Consultative Assembly which helped ensure that Abdurrahman Wahid defeated Megawati Sukarnoputri when that chamber elected the president.

However, PAN's support for Abdurrahman Wahid did not last long. Less than a year after officially confirming its support for him at its first congress in Yogyakarta in February 2000, the party withdrew this support, saying it was concerned about the condition of the nation and state of Indonesia. Not long after that, Abdurrahman Wahid was voted out of office and replaced by Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Indonesian legislative election, 2004

For the 2004 elections, the party set a target of 15 percent of the vote. In order to promote his presidential candidacy, Amien Rais made a series of visits around the country. He also said that he was convinced that a retired military officer should be his vice-president. However, in the legislative election, the party won 6.4% of the popular vote and 52 out of 550 legislative seats. For the presidential election, Amien Rais stood with Siswono Yudo Husodo as his running mate, but only won 15% of the vote

Indonesian legislative election, 2009

The party came fifth in the 2009 legislative election with 6.0 percent of the votes. It will have 43 seats in the People's Representative Council.

Regional strength

In the legislative election held on 9 April 2009, support for the PAN was higher than the party's national average in the following provinces:

West Sumatra 9.9%

Bengkulu 9.8%

Riau 6.6%

Jambi 18.8%

Lampung 8.1%

Central Java 7.0%

Yogyakarta 13.9%

West Sulawesi 13.8%

South Sulawesi 8.0%

South East Sulawesi 9.0%

Gorontalo 6.9%

Maluku 6.8%

Papua 8.4%

References

• Daniel Dhakidae (Ed), (2004) Partai-Partai Politik Indonesia: Ideologi dan Program 2004-2009 (Indonesian Political Parties: Ideologies and Programs 2004-2009) Kompas (1999) ISBN 979-709-121-X Indonesian
• Evans, Kevin Raymond, (2003) The History of Political Parties & General Elections in Indonesia, Arise Consultancies, Jakarta, ISBN 979-97445-0-4
• Musa Kazhim & Alfian Hamzah (1999) 5 Partai Dalam timbangan (5 Parties in Consideration), Putaka Hidaya, Bandung ISBN 979-9109-17-5 Indonesian

Notes

1. Evans (2003) pp. 30-31
2. Profil Partai Politik (Profile of Political Parties), Kompas newspaper 14 July 2008 pp. 38-39
3. Dhakidae pp. 228
4. Kazhaim & Hamzah (1999) pp. 34-37
5. Dhakidae pp. 228-229
6. Dhakidae pp. 229-2
7. PAN website (in Indonesian)
8. Indonesian General Election Commission website Official Election Results
9. Indonesian General Election Commission website KPU Ubah Perolehan Kursi Parpol di DPR (KPU Changes Allocations of Parties' seats in the DPR (15 May 2009)) Access date 2009-05-24 (indonesian)