JAKARTA - MORE than 100,000 people turned out in Jakarta on Monday at an election rally by the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) ahead of Indonesia's April 9 legislative polls.
Party supporters filled the national stadium waving yellow, black and white party flags as the world's third biggest democracy after India and the United States counted down to election day.
Police said there were around 100,000 in the stadium, which was packed to the rafters, and many thousands more outside, even though opinion polls show the PKS is likely to struggle to win five percent of the vote.
Party president Tifatul Sembiring warmed up the crowd by joining with PKS lawmakers to sing a party song to a rock-pop tune backed by a young all-male band.
But his message of pluralism and tolerance clashed with party T-shirts on sale outside the stadium bearing slogans such as 'Islam is the highest, there's no higher than Islam.' Party officials encouraged the crowd to shout 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Greater) at significant moments throughout the rally.
'I want to tell the Indonesian people that if you choose us we will give you change, if you choose us we will give you power,' Sembiring said, promising free education and 'social welfare' for all.
'We will fight for you, we will fight for your children, we will fight for your wives. For all religions, we do not differentiate, we will protect you.' He reminded supporters that the PKS has not been tainted by an ongoing anti-corruption drive which has seen the arrest of several lawmakers and senior officials.
'Some people are named after prophets but they have been arrested by the KPK (anti-corruption commission) for corruption, but no one from the PKS has ever been arrested by the KPK,' he said.
Observers have been closely watching the PKS, which espouses a moderate form of Islam, despite its historic links to Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Founded after the 1998 fall of the Suharto dictatorship, it has scored stunning successes in recent regional elections on the back of its clean and pious image in the mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people. -- AFP
