Calls mount for NU to break from PKB

Calls mount for NU to break from PKB

JAKARTA (JP): A fresh demand was aired on Saturday for
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) to cut its traditional affiliation with the
National Awakening Party (PKB) when the country's largest Muslim
organization holds its congress later this month.

PKB executive Yahya Cholil, who represents the party at the
General Elections Commission, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday
that NU's complete break with political practices would help it
focus on its original role as a moral force.

"NU should let go of PKB, the party it established, if it
wishes to work optimally. Keeping a distance from politics will
benefit a mass organization like NU a lot more than the converse
option," Cholil said.

PKB was founded by Abdurrahman Wahid, who chairs NU, following
the fall of the New Order regime last year. Abdurrahman, also
known as Gus Dur, introduced PKB as the only party for NU
followers to channel their political aspirations.

NU renewed its pledge to stay away from politics when
Abdurrahman took the helm of the organization in 1984. When it
was born in 1926, NU declared itself a politics-free
organization.

The call for strict adherence to NU's statute is mounting
largely because of Abdurrahman's election as President and the
fact that the Muslim organization played a major role in
political processes during the reform era.

But the chairman of PKB's Central Java chapter, Noer Iskandar
Al-Barsany, said on Thursday that during its upcoming congress NU
could modify its interpretation of its statute to give PKB "a
constitutional basis" within the 35 million-strong Muslim
organization.

Executives of NU's provincial chapters and regency level
branches will convene in East Java's cigarette-producing town of
Kediri from Nov. 21 to Nov. 27 to elect a new chairman in place
of Abdurrahman and a chief for the Syuriah law-making body.

The secretary of NU's Central Java chapter, Muzamil, claimed
on Saturday that President Abdurrahman approved the chapter's
nomination of Sahal Mahfud for the Syuriah top post.

Sahal is one of Abdurrahman's uncles.

For the organization's top executive job, Central Java remains
divided, Muzamil said.

Mustofa Bisri, Hasyim Muzadi, Said Aqiel Siradj and Fadrul
Falaakh have been touted as the strongest contenders to replace
Abdurrahman. (har)