At its founding in 1998, PAN aimed to uphold and enforce the sovereignty of the people, justice, material progress, and spirituality. The party's ideals are rooted in religious morality, humanity, and pluralism. Furthermore, PAN adheres to non-sectarian and non-discriminatory principles. In pursuit of a New Indonesia, PAN once proposed the idea of a dialog on the federalist state as a response to the threat of disintegration. The central point of the dialog is justice in managing resources so that all people in Indonesia can truly feel like citizens of the nation.[1] During that time, the party proclaimed Pancasila as the foundation of its ideology.[2]

However, as noted by external researchers, due to the party's close cooperation with the organization Muhammadiyah, the support of a predominantly Muslim electorate, and other reasons, the party's ideology became more religious[6] and more Islamic democratic, but far from Islamism.[3][4] Now, PAN is a moderate and the most progressive among other religious parties in Indonesia.[5]