Rembang will become `important' town soon<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Rembang is a poor and virtually neglected town
\non the northern coast of Central Java, a stopover point for buses
\nbetween Semarang and Surabaya.<\/p>\n
This Sunday, however, the town which houses the grave of
\nhumanist and national heroine Raden Adjeng Kartini, will put
\nitself back on the map.<\/p>\n
Rembang is hosting a meeting of a group of leaders from
\nNahdlatul Ulama (NU) which could have wider implications for the
\nnation's political future.<\/p>\n
The meeting will bring together some 75 NU ulemas and
\npoliticians. The agenda is to discuss strategy for the upcoming
\ncongress of the United Development Party (PPP), one of the three
\npolitical organizations in the country.<\/p>\n
Talks are now rife that the meeting will not only discuss how
\nto make PPP bigger as the organizers are suggesting, but also how
\nNU should wrest the chairmanship of the PPP at the party's
\ncongress in Jakarta in late August.<\/p>\n
The Rembang meeting could mark the return of NU, at least
\nunofficially, to party politics, after it abandoned the PPP in a
\nmeeting in Situbondo, East Java, in 1984.<\/p>\n
The meeting will be held at the Roudlotut pesantren (Moslem
\nboarding school) which is owned by 52-year-old Kholil Bisri, a NU
\nfigure and a PPP member of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Students of the school have been deployed in full force to
\ntidy up the school's accommodations for the 75 participants and
\ntheir delegates, as well as prepare the meeting halls for the
\nSunday meeting.<\/p>\n
Journalists cannot stay here, Kholil said. \"They can stay at
\nthe local hotels,\" he was quoted by Kompas daily as saying.<\/p>\n
Hotels booked<\/p>\n
An indication of the importance of this meeting is the hordes
\nof journalists and observers who are turning up to follow the
\nevent live. The few hotels and inns available in Rembang are
\nalready booked solid for the entire weekend.<\/p>\n
Rembang proper is the seat of the regency of the same name.<\/p>\n
Although geographically in Central Java, the region's
\ntraditions and culture more closely resemble an East Java
\nregency.<\/p>\n
The area was one of the main entry points for Islam when the
\nreligion was brought by Arab traders to this part of the world.<\/p>\n
But what strikes visitors most on a first visit to the area is
\nthe abject poverty that exists in comparison to nearby towns like
\nJuwana, Pati and Blora, according to a Kompas reporter.<\/p>\n
The region's mainly produces salt, which people farm along the
\ncoast. For most people though, life is a hard struggle.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the only thing that the people of this area can take
\npride in is that they host the grave of national heroine Kartini
\n(1879-1904), who wrote articles expressing her concern about
\neducation and poverty.<\/p>\n
Ironically, her grave is still surrounded by the poverty that
\nshe fought against. (17)<\/p>",
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