PKS to facilitate nonMuslims

Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Fri, June 18 2010, 11:27 AM

In attempt to become more pluralist, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an Islamic-based party, plans to facilitate non-Muslims in its new leadership structure, whether at the central or regional level. "Our motto has always been clean, caring and professional. People with these kind of qualities are also available in other religions. As long as an individual possesses those quality, then he or she deserves to chair one of the PKS' leadership posts," PKS President Lutfi Hassan Ishaq told reporters on the sidelines of the party's national congress at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Sudirman, South Jakarta, on Friday. Lutfi added that facilitating non-Muslims was not something new for the party. "Since 1999, we have had many non-muslim officials," he said. Separately, PKS deputy secretary general Fahri Hamzah told The Jakarta Post that some changes were going to be made within the party's internal regulation to make it easier for non-Muslims to enter the party as an official. Fahri said that one of the changes was on the obligation to pronounce the Islamic syahadat or creed for anyone who was about to be appointed as a PKS official.