Alwi denies exodus from PKB

JAKARTA: Alwi Shihab, chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), rejected a media report that several influential Muslim clerics in Banyuwangi, East Java, had threatened to quit the party.

"So far, they have not officially left the party. The threats were made after a misunderstanding, where they thought that their dissatisfaction had been ignored by the central board of the party," Alwi said, as quoted by Antara on Monday.

Alwi's statement was made following the political threat by 24 Muslim clerics in Banyuwangi, East Java, who were demanding that the party's central board annul its approval for the newly installed PKB's Banyuwangi branch executives.

The Muslim clerics considered the approval mechanism to be unfair and one-sided, and that the central board should have withheld its approval.

Alwi said the executives of the party's central board were now investigating the case, including by visiting the Muslim clerics to listen to their perspective over the case.

The move was taken to get accurate information on the case, claimed Alwi. -- Antara