PKB sets dual standards on double jobbing<\/p>\n
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Semarang<\/p>\n
The National Awakening Party's (PKB) controversial decision to
\nprohibit its executives from holding government posts may be
\narbitrary in its enforcement as it is not regulated in its new
\nstatutes agreed upon on Monday.<\/p>\n
The ban on dual positions became controversial after the PKB
\ncentral board suspended Alwi Shihab and Saifullah Yusuf as party
\nchairman and secretary-general respectively, after the two joined
\nPresident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Cabinet last October.<\/p>\n
The suspension was based on a policy enacted through a plenary
\nmeeting of the central board, despite the fact that it was not
\nstipulated in the party's old statutes.<\/p>\n
Claiming his suspension was \"baseless\" and \"arbitrary\", chief
\nwelfare minister Alwi filed a lawsuit with the South Jakarta
\nDistrict Court last week against the party's central board.
\nSaifullah plans to follow suit.<\/p>\n
The PKB national leadership congress decided here on Monday
\nnot to adopt the controversial stipulation in its new statutes.<\/p>\n
The decision defied a growing demand by some congress
\nparticipants for the congress, which is the party's highest
\ndecision making forum, to formally ban the dual positions by
\nregulating it in the party statutes.<\/p>\n
\"We don't need to adopt the policy because otherwise, it will
\nbe a silly decision,\" senior PKB executive A.S. Hikam told The
\nJakarta Post after attending a meeting of Commission A, which
\ndeliberated the party's statutes.<\/p>\n
He indicated that in some cases there could be an exception to
\nthe prohibition on the dual position when political developments
\nrequire the party to serve executive posts.<\/p>\n
\"For example, if the PKB becomes the ruling party, should we
\nthen not take control of the government?\" Hikam queried, just
\nhours before he announced his unexpected withdrawal from the race
\nfor the party's top executive post.<\/p>\n
He said that instead of such an ongoing congress, a plenary
\nmeeting of the PKB central board would be a \"sufficient and
\nproper forum\" to decide whether a ban should be imposed on
\ncertain party executives.<\/p>\n
\"If we stipulate the matter in the statutes through the
\ncongress, it will cost us Rp 7 billion just to scrap it when we
\ndeem it no longer relevant,\" Hikam said, referring to the fund
\nallocated for the current congress in Semarang.<\/p>\n
Saifullah was quoted on Monday by local media as criticizing
\nhis suspension which he said was \"discriminatory and
\ninconsistent\".<\/p>\n
The dual position policy should also be consistently applied
\nto party executives in the regions, serving or vying for
\ngovernment posts as governors, regents or mayors, he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in an apparent attempt to block the nomination of
\nSaifullah as the PKB executive chairman, the congress, controlled
\nby his contender Muhaimin Iskandar, decided not to allow
\ncandidates holding government posts to contest the election.<\/p>\n
Eligible candidates would also be required to be non-active in
\nsocial organizations, including the 40 million-strong Nahdlatul
\nUlama (NU) that founded the PKB in 1999, according to the party's
\nnew statutes.<\/p>\n
Apart from serving as the state minister for the development
\nof disadvantaged regions, Saifullah also chairs Anshor, NU's
\nyouth wing.<\/p>\n
His bid is also hampered by another stipulation in the new
\nstatutes, which states that a candidate must never have been
\ninvolved in \"organizational conflict\" with the NU chief patron,
\nthe powerful post held by PKB founder and former president
\nAbdurrahman \"Gus Dur\" Wahid.<\/p>\n
Gus Dur had expressed his disappointment with Saifullah's
\ninclusion in the Cabinet.<\/p>",
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