Indonesian Voters Increasingly Turn Away from Islamic Parties
According to research conducted by Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI), a leading Indonesian public opinion research institute, Indonesia's population increasingly prefers nationalist-oriented political parties (these parties stress the importance of a religious pluralist and harmonious society) over Islamic parties, which aim for a more dominant role of Islam in society. In 2014, Indonesia will organize its next legislative and presidential elections.
Respondents to the survey (numbering 1,200) assume that Islamic parties experience declining rates of support due to a lack of public expose in Indonesian media and a lack of party funds as the Islamic parties generally do not have a rich business tycoon as chairman or sponsor. Moreover, it is assumed that nationalist figures already accommodate the interests of Muslims.
Indonesia is a secular country in the sense that its political policies are not necessarily derived from religious teachings and that it does not have a single state religion. However, religion does play a very important role in Indonesian society, particularly Islam as almost 90 percent of the population is Muslim. Most of these Muslims can be labelled moderate and highly supportive of a religious pluralist society.