Indonesia’s Nation Awakening Party

Indonesia’s Nation Awakening Party or Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) was founded in July 1998 in Jakarta at the residence of KH. Abdurrahman Wahid (“Gus Dur”). He became Indonesia’s first democratically elected president in 1999. Gus Dur was also Head of the Council of Scholars, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest, moderate Muslim organization. NU-members are the base of PKB. The visions of the party are: (i) to realize the desired ideals of independence of the Republic of Indonesia as stated in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution; (ii) to realize a just and prosperous society; and (iii) to establish democratic, clean, and honorable national politics.

The mission of PKB includes:

1. To increase people’s faith in the Almighty God in society, nation, and state.
2. Political affairs: to maintain the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia; To uphold the sovereignty of the people; To realize a clean, reliable, democratic government; To implement national development for the prosperity of the people; To carry out an independent and active foreign policy of the Indonesian state and develop foreign cooperation to create a world of lasting peace, which is equitable and prosperous;
3. Economic Sector: To uphold and develop the economic life of people fairly and democratically;
4. Legal Affairs; To seek to establish and develop a civilized state law, which is able to protect all its citizens; To affirm human rights and social justice;
5. Social and Cultural Affairs: To build advanced culture and modernity while maintaining the nation’s identity for the sake of elevating the dignity of the nation;
6. Educational Sector: To improve the quality of human resources of noble character, independent, skilled, professional, and critical towards the surrounding social environment; to seek the establishment of a national education system that is welfare-oriented, affordable, and sustainable;
7. Affairs of Defense: to build awareness of the obligation of every citizen to participate in the national defense effort; to encourage the establishment of community of self defense against treatment which creates a feeling of insecurity, both of which came from individuals or certain institutions in society.

The PKB is part of the Coalition Indonesia Superb (KIH), a group of political parties that supported the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla election campaign in 2014 and the Jokowi Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin in 2019. Aside from PKB, the other members the coalition were the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-P), Nation Democratic Party (Nasdem), while others including the United Development Party (PPP) and Party of the Fuctional Groups (Golkar).

The coalition has 388 seats in Parliament, with 128 seats from PDI P, 85 seats from Golkar, 58 seats from PKB, 39 seats from PPP, 59 seats from Nasdem and 19 seats from PPP.

Three PKB leaders have been appointed ministers in the Jokowi government. Ida Fauziyah is serving in the Ministry of Manpower, Agus Suparmanto in the Ministry of Trade, and Abdul Halim Iskandar in the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged regions and Transmigration.