Alwi camp to go ahead with breakaway PKB congress

Alwi camp to go ahead with breakaway PKB congress

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Fears that the National Awakening Party (PKB) will split into two
rival camps are likely to come true in the future, as chief
welfare minister Alwi Shihab is determined to stage a breakaway
congress aimed at reinstating his leadership.

Alwi was suspended as PKB chairman and Saifullah Yusuf as
secretary-general by the party's central board last year after
the two accepted ministerial posts in the Cabinet of President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

A planned national meeting of the PKB will take place in
Yogyakarta, Alwi said without specifying a date. His move
received strong backing from influential clerics who helped
establish the party in 1999.

"It will not be a breakaway conference but the legal one,"
Alwi was quoted as saying on Thursday by Antara. He added that
representatives of all 33 provincial branches of the party would
attend.

He insisted that the recent conference in Semarang, Central
Java -- which elected his bitter rival Muhaimin Iskandar, a House
of Representatives deputy speaker, as the new PKB executive chief
-- was illegitimate as he, as the legitimate party leader, was
not present.

The three-day congress, which ended on Tuesday morning, also
retained former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid as the
party's chief patron.

Also on Thursday, Alwi submitted a letter to the Ministry of
Justice and Human Rights, requesting the government reject a new
central board led by Muhaimin.

The letter was presented by Alwi's team of lawyers comprising
Dodi S. Abdulkadir, Ariano Sitorus, M. Toni Suhartono and Ahmad
Firdaus, and was received by administrative secretary at the
ministry Said Imran.

The lawyers said the letter stated that the election of
Muhaimin, a nephew of Gus Dur, was legally flawed because the
congress did not involve Alwi and Saifullah as the party's
legitimate leaders.

Earlier, a senior PKB politician who declined to be named said
the justice ministry had decided to recognize only the PKB
central board under the Alwi-Saifullah leadership.

"I reported this matter to Gus Dur but he did not respond to
it positively," the politician said in a phone text message sent
to allies of Saifullah, the current state minister for the
development of disadvantaged regions.

A lack of government recognition means that a political party
is not allowed to carry out or continue its activities, including
participating in elections of executive chiefs.

The PKB was almost barred from taking part in last year's
general election due to its unsettled leadership dispute between
the Alwi camp and the rival faction led by then defense minister
Matori Abdul Djalil.

A court eventually ruled in favor of the Alwi faction to allow
the PKB to contest the elections, in which it came the fourth
biggest party in terms of votes and the seventh in terms of seats
in the House of Representatives.

In another attempt to challenge his suspension, Alwi filed a
lawsuit with the South Jakarta District Court on April 11 against
the PKB central board. Similarly, Saifullah has also taken legal
steps against the party, according to his aide Yahya C. Staquf.

Gus Dur has repeatedly said the suspension of Alwi and
Saifullah was decided in a plenary meeting of the PKB central
board, which prohibited party executives from taking up
government posts.

However, the party's statutes do not regulate whether its
executives may hold dual positions or not.

The Alwi-Saifullah faction won crucial support from a group of
senior clerics who similarly called the Semarang congress and its
outcome illegitimate.

Influential cleric Abdullah Faqih, from the Langitan Islamic
boarding school in Tuban regency, East Java, who leads the anti-
Muhaimin group, issued a statement saying he would consistently
stand behind the PKB central board under Alwi's leadership.

Copies of the statement were sent to all PKB clerics and
leaders in East Java and Central Java, the party's two main
strongholds.

In defiance of Gus Dur, the clerics support the Alwi-Saifullah
faction's plan to stage a splinter PKB congress.