A Fall From Grace? "Beef-gate" and the Case of Indonesia's Prosperous Justice Party

This article explores the impact of a widely publicized corruption scandal upon Indonesia's most prominent Islamic Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in 2013, involving the exchange of money in return for beef-import licenses ("Beef-gate"). In the 2004 and 200(elections PKS ran a populist campaign, drawing heavily upon anti-corruption rather than Islamic issues, and became renowned for its hard-line stance against graft. However, while PKS's reputation certainly deteriorated due to Beef-gate, it still performed better than anticipated in the nation's legislative election held in April 2014. This article proposes two possible reasons for this: the party's grassroots membership structure provided a solid basis from which to rebuild, and the senior leadership adeptly managed its image while the scandal was in the public eye. With this effective image management, the party was able to retain the support of many of its voters, while minimizing damage to its image more broadly.