Editing United Development Party (section)

== History ==
[[File:United Development Party HQ.jpg|thumb|Party head office on Jalan Diponegoro, Menteng, Jakarta]]

=== Origins ===
Ten political parties participated in the [[1971 Indonesian legislative election|1971 legislative election]], a number that President [[Suharto]] considered to be too many. Suharto wished that political parties be reduced to just two or three and that the parties should be grouped based on their programs.

The basis for the merger that would result in the birth of the PPP was a coalition of the four Islamic Parties in the [[People's Representative Council]] (DPR) called the United Development Faction. This faction consisted of [[Nahdatul Ulama]] (NU), the [[Parmusi|Muslim Party of Indonesia]] (Parmusi), the [[Islamic Association Party of Indonesia]] (PSII) and the [[Islamic Education Movement]] (Perti).

With encouragement by the Government, officials from all four parties had meetings with each other and after finding some common ground, merged the four Islamic parties in Indonesia into the United Development Party on 5 January 1973. Despite this formal merging of the parties however, internal PPP politics under the Suharto government were dominated by the differing priorities of the original groups that formed the party.

=== Opposition to the New Order ===
[[File:Logo PPP (1973-1982).svg|thumb|right|The party's logo from 1973 to 1985]]
[[File:Logo PPP (1982-1998).svg|thumb|The party's logo from 1982 to 1998]]
[[File:Partai Persatuan Pembangunan Logo.svg|thumb|right|The party's logo from 1998 to 2021 and 2023 to present]]

In the mid-1970s, popular support for Suharto's regime was rapidly waning. When Suharto had seized power with a [[30 September Movement|bloody military coup in 1965]] and ousted President [[Sukarno]], the Islamic groups had supported Suharto and aided in persecuting his political opponents. But as the regime had become corrupt and even more [[authoritarian]], this alliance began to crumble. As the [[1977 Indonesian legislative election|1977 legislative election]] approached, many began to seek other options to vote for aside from the government-backed [[Golkar]].

Worried that the PPP might win the elections, Suharto played on the fears of the people by having the [[Indonesian National Armed Forces|military]] arrest a group of people who claimed to be associated with the Jihad Commando (''Komando Jihad''). With this some people became worried that to vote for the PPP and its Islamic leaning would mean expressing support the Jihad Commando and in a government growing increasingly authoritarian, many simply refused to be associated with the wrong side. Golkar would go on to win the legislative elections with 62% with the PPP coming second with 27% of the votes.

The PPP however, would not sit back and accept defeat. At the 1978 MPR General Session, PPP member [[Chalid Mawardi]] launched a scathing criticism of Suharto's regime. Mawardi accused the Government of being anti-Muslim, complained about the government's violent crackdown of dissent, and alleged that the 1977 legislative election was won because of [[electoral fraud]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Elson |first=Robert |title=Suharto: A Political Biography |year=2001 |publisher=The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge |location=UK |isbn=0-521-77326-1 |pages=225}}</ref> PPP members also conducted a mass walkout when Suharto referred to religions as "streams of beliefs".

The PPP seemed to have cemented itself a status as the strongest opposition party. It would not last long however. In 1984, NU, under its Chairman, [[Abdurrahman Wahid]] withdrew from the PPP,  severely weakening it. The PPP vote share fell from almost 28% in the 1982 legislative election to 16% in the [[1987 Indonesian legislative election|1987 legislative election]], the PPP was also forced by the government to replace its ideology of Islam with the national ideology of [[Pancasila (politics)|Pancasila]] and to stop using Islamic symbols. As a result, the party replaced its logo showing the [[Kaaba|Kabah]] shrine in [[Mecca]] with a star.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schwarz |first=Adam|title=A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia in the 1990s |year=1994 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=0-521-77326-1 |pages=172}}</ref> The symbol was identical to the first principle of Pancasila, ''Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa'' (Belief in the One Supreme God).

=== 1988 MPR general session ===
At the 1988 MPR General Session, [[Jailani Naro]], the PPP Chairman, was nominated as vice president. Suharto, who had been elected to the presidency for a fifth term at the aforementioned General Session, intervened. He cited a decision that the MPR made in 1973 that one of the criteria for a vice president was that he should be able to work with the president. Suharto also conducted discussions with Naro and convinced him to withdraw the nomination.

What Naro did was unprecedented as both Suharto and his vice presidents had always been elected unopposed. The problem this time was Suharto's choice for vice president, [[Sudharmono]]. Suharto's choice had caused a rift between him and his most loyal ally, [[Indonesian National Armed Forces|ABRI]]. Many within ABRI did not like Sudharmono because he spent more time behind a desk (Sudharmono was a military attorney) than as a field officer. Seeing a gap to exploit, Naro nominated himself, possibly with the private support of ABRI who, in public, had shown support for Sudharmono.

===The PPP in the Reform era ===
[[File:United Development Party rally 1997.jpg|thumb|200px|United Development Party rally in Jakarta, 24 April 1997]]
[[File:United Development Party (Indonesia) 2021 logo.png|thumb|200px|right|Party logo used briefly from 2021 to 2023]]

The PPP continued as the second biggest party out of the three allowed in the New Order. In May 1998, after Suharto's fall, the PPP returned to its Islamic ideology and prepared itself for the [[1999 Indonesian legislative election|1999 legislative election]], where it won 11% of the vote.

In the 1999 MPR General Session, the PPP was part of the Central Axis, a political coalition of Muslim parties which was formed by MPR Chairman, Amien Rais to counter the dominance of [[Megawati Sukarnoputri]]'s [[Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle]] (PDI-P). The PDI-P had won the legislative election and Megawati was expected to win the presidency. However, the MPR was still at this stage responsible for electing the president and vice president, and the Muslim parties in the Central Axis did not want a female president. Instead, they nominated and successfully secured the election of Abdurrahman Wahid as president. In the vice-presidential election, PPP Chairman [[Hamzah Haz]] ran against Megawati and was defeated.

The PPP was the first of Wahid's political allies to become disillusioned with him. The PPP's main problem with Wahid was his visit to [[Israel]] and the suggestion that he was willing to establish diplomatic relations with that nation. Hamzah who served in Wahid's cabinet as Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, immediately resigned from his position just a month after Wahid had appointed him to it. Many other Wahid allies would follow and in July 2001, the PPP would join in removing Wahid from the presidency and naming Megawati as the president. Hamzah was then elected as vice president after defeating [[Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono]] and [[Akbar Tanjung]] in the vice-presidential election.

=== 2004 legislative election ===
The PPP won 8.1% of the vote in the [[2004 Indonesian legislative election|2004 legislative election]], a decrease from its 10.7% share of the vote in 1999, but enough to retain its place as the third-best represented party in the legislature, behind the PDI-P and Golkar.

=== 2004 presidential election ===
The PPP originally did not have a presidential candidate in mind for the [[2004 Indonesian presidential election|2004 presidential election]]. They had expected that Hamzah would be picked as Megawati's running mate and continue the Megawati/Hamzah President/Vice President partnership. Megawati however, chose NU Chairman [[Hasyim Muzadi]] as her running mate.

The PPP then continued to wait, still expecting that Hamzah Haz would be picked as a vice-presidential candidate. Finally, a day before the registration of presidential/vice-presidential candidates was closed, Hamzah moved forward and became the PPP's presidential candidate.<ref>{{cite web |title=Semangat Agum, Keraguan Hamzah (Agum's Enthusiasm, Hamzah's Doubts) |newspaper=Tempo |url=http://www.tempo.co.id/majalah/free/pilpres/hmz-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305060939/http://tempo.co.id/majalah/free/pilpres/hmz-1.html |archive-date=5 March 2016 |language=id |url-status=dead }}</ref> His running mate was Agum Gumelar, who served as Minister of Transportation in Megawati's Cabinet. Hamzah's presidential run was unsuccessful as he received only 3.1% of the vote and came fifth.

In August 2004, the PPP announced that it was forming a national coalition with the PDI-P, Golkar, the [[Reform Star Party]] (PBR) and the [[Prosperous Peace Party]] to back Megawati to win the presidential run-off against Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono however would emerge victorious and the PPP would defect from the national coalition to Yudhoyono's camp. They were rewarded by being given cabinet places.

=== 2007 party congress ===
The PPP held its 6th National Congress in Jakarta from 30 January to 3 February 2007. On the last day of the Congress, Suryadharma Ali emerged as the new PPP Chairman to replace Hamzah. Suryadharma served as Minister of Cooperatives and State and Medium Enterprises in President Yudhoyono's Cabinet. He announced that he would continue as minister while concurrently holding the position of PPP Chairman.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

=== 2009 legislative election ===
The party came sixth in the [[2009 Indonesian legislative election|2009 legislative election]] with 5.3 percent of the vote, winning 38 seats in the [[People's Representative Council]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mediacenter.kpu.go.id/berita/472-kpu-rubah-perolehan-kursi-parpol-di-dpr.html |website=Indonesian General Election Commission |title=KPU Ubah Perolehan Kursi Parpol di DPR (''KPU Changes Allocations of Parties' seats in the DPR'') |date=14 May 2009 |language=id |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006080451/http://mediacenter.kpu.go.id/berita/472-kpu-rubah-perolehan-kursi-parpol-di-dpr.html |archive-date=6 October 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Throughout the election, the party obtained votes from the elderly Muslim men throughout rural and urban area, inside and outside of [[Java]].<ref>Hwang, Julie Chernov. (2014). “Patterns of normalization: Islamist parties in Indonesia”, in Quinn Mecham and Julie Chernov Hwang (Eds.), ''Islamist parties and political normalization in the Muslim world''. Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press. p.68. {{ISBN|9780812246056}}</ref>

===The party in the 2010s===
In the [[2014 Indonesian legislative election]], the PPP improved on its performance in the previous election winning 6.53% of the vote, and 39 seats in the legislature.<ref>{{cite web| editor1 = Robby Leo Agust| editor2 = Kadar Setyawan | editor3 = Sahruni Hasna Ramadhan| editor4 = Amir A. Gofur | editor5 = Nurul Agustina | url = https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wx04HuCWiWmo1R0dtSShyiWjxMb98d2i/view | title = Buku Data & Infografik Pemilu Anggota DPR RI & DPD RI 2014 | lang =id | trans-title = 2014 DPR & DPD Membership Elections Data & Infographic Book | publisher = [[General Elections Commission]]| pp = 31-32}}</ref> Five years later, in the [[2019 Indonesian legislative election]], the PPP share of the vote fell to 4.52%, and the number of seats it held in the legislature halved to 19.<ref>{{cite web|author1 = BeritaSatu Team | author2 = Telly Nathalia| url = https://jakartaglobe.id/context/jokowi-wins-reelection-pdip-wins-most-seats/ |title = Jokowi Wins Re-Election, PDI-P Wins Most Seats| publisher = [[Jakarta Globe]]| date = 21 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author = Nur Azizah| url = https://www.medcom.id/english/national/4KZ6J7WK-575-dpr-members-inaugurated | title = 575 DPR Members Inaugurated | publisher = medcom.id | date = 1 October 2019}}</ref>