60 NU clerics to meet in Jombang

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

About 60 Muslim clerics, including former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, from across Java are to hold talks on Wednesday at the Tebuireng Islamic boarding school in Jombang, East Java.

"Yes, I was invited to the meeting but I don't know what the agenda is. All I know is that we will be paying visits to the graves of Nahdlatul Ulama founders Kyai Hasyim Ashari in Tebuireng, Kyai Wahab Hasbullah in Tambakberas and Kyai Bisri Syamsuri in Denanyar," the East Java chairman of the NU's law- making body, Masduqi Mahfudh, was quoted as saying by Antara on Tuesday.

The NU is the country's largest Muslim organization with about 58 million members.

However, a reliable source said the meeting was being held to discuss the possible nomination of Gus Dur as the presidential candidate of the National Awakening Party (PKB), and the Supreme Court's recent decision to reinstate the political rights of former members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and their relatives. The NU is the backbone of the PKB.

There have been numerous reports that NU clerics are split between those supporting and those opposing the nearly blind Gus Dur's bid for the presidency.

Separately, the leader of the NU in East Java, Ali Maschan Moesa, said it was not unusual for the clerics to hold a meeting so close to the general election, because they were concerned with the problems of the nation.

"There is the possibility that there will be talks about the PKB's presidential candidate. But I hear the clerics are also concerned about the Supreme's Court decision over the PKI. For me, there needs to be a distinction between violence and the interests of reconciliation," he said.

In February, the Supreme Court annulled an article in Law No. 12/2003, which had barred former members of the now banned Indonesian Communist Party, and those directly or indirectly involved in the attempted PKI coup of Sept. 30, 1965, from running in elections.

Ali, who is also a lecturer at the National Islam Institute Sunan Ampel in Surabaya, said that violence, whether in the form of communism, terrorism or separatism, had to be fought.

"But of course we welcome the idea if it is for the purpose of reconciliation with the current generation, because Islam teaches brotherhood with the innocent," he said.

The head of the Tebuireng boarding school, Yusuf Hasyim, confirmed the meeting was scheduled, but said he was only the host and had not issued the invitations.