Abdurrahman says dissenters can present defense
Abdurrahman says dissenters can present defense
SEMARANG (JP): Members of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) who were expelled from their positions in the organization's central and regional boards for opposing the legitimate leadership will be given a chance to defend themselves, chairman Abdurrahman Wahid has said.
"They have an opportunity to defend themselves, but they will have to wait until the next congress (in 1999)," Abdurrahman told reporters in Kudus on Saturday.
He stressed that the 17 NU figures who were removed from their executive positions last week had not been expelled from the organization as some media reports had suggested.
The NU Executive Board headed by Abdurrahman last week moved to impose sanctions on 17 central and regional NU leaders for challenging the legality of the board which was formed at the last NU congress in Cipasung, West Java, in December 1994.
Abdurrahman's opponents organized their own congress in January which saw the establishment of a rival central board. Abu Hasan, who failed in his bid in the 1994 election in Cipasung to unseat Abdurrahman, was appointed head of the dissenting executive board and Hamid Baidlowi as head of the new lawmaking board.
The government has declined to recognize Abu Hasan's board and still regards Abdurrahman as the rightful leader of NU, in spite of his strong criticism of the government.
The removal of some of the NU leaders has left a number of NU regional boards, particularly those in Sumatra where Abu Hasan has found strong support, leaderless.
The central board has appointed caretaker boards to look after the NU followers in areas where there is a leadership vacuum and is now organizing regional congresses to elect leaders to fill the vacant positions.
Abdurrahman said the central board will merge the NU's branch office in Lasem, which is headed by Hamid Baidlowi, with the one in Rembang, saying that the organization's statutes only recognize one branch office in each regency.
Abdurrahman was in Kudus on Saturday for a halal bihalal (post-Idul Fitri get-together) with local NU members.
In his lecture, Abdurrahman said NU members should not be distracted by the presence of the rival board because there are other, bigger, problems that they have to contend with.
He said with Islam in Indonesia now truly "depoliticized", Moslems in the country are faced with one of three alternatives in dealing with the current situation.
One camp strives to make the most of the present situation. Abdurrahman said intellectuals who have joined the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI) fall into this category.
Another camp strives to develop Islamic political culture, a path taken by many middle class Moslems. He put intellectual Nurcholish Madjid and his Paramadina Foundation in this category.
The third camp aims to change the situation in the face of efforts to de-politicize Moslems, Abdurrahman said, adding that he himself belongs to this group.
Abdurrahman, in his capacity as an intellectual, has been one of the most vocal critics of the government. Yet, he has resisted pressures, both from within and without the NU, to mobilize the more than 30 million members for political ends.
NU, once a powerful political party, was merged with other Moslem parties in 1971 into the United Development Party. In 1984, NU abandoned party politics altogether and declared that its chief missions are religious propagation and education.
Abdurrahman warned that those Moslems trying to make the most of the present political situation would come to a dead end.
He said ICMI chairman B.J. Habibie is likely to bid for the vice president post in 1998. "If he loses, ICMI too would be clipped," he said.
"I have often time and again warned friends in ICMI that they should not put all their eggs in one basket," he said. (har/emb)