Clerics, politicians meet to confront Gus Dur
Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post/Surabaya
The National Awakening Party (PKB) camp led by Alwi Shihab geared up here on Friday for a two-day national meeting, shortly after its rival ended a similar forum in a showdown that is ravaging the party's internal consolidation.
Alwi's group kicked off the meeting, starting on Saturday, by holding a national forum of senior Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) clerics on Friday, despite the absence of party chief patron Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who endorses a camp led by deputy House of Representatives speaker Muhaimin Iskandar.
Organizers of the Surabaya meeting claimed to have invited both Gus Dur and Muhaimin.
"Even though the meeting is aimed at contesting the leadership of Muhaimin, we will not discount the importance of Gus Dur as PKB's chief patron," leader of PKB's East Java branch Choirul Anam told The Jakarta Post.
The Surabaya gathering, which came after Muhaimin's camp concluded a similar meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday, will see 1,000 ulemas from across the country participating.
Organizers also invited Sahal Mahfudz and Hasyim Muzadi, respectively the chief patron and leader of 40 million-strong NU, the country's largest Muslim organization.
Also in attendance at the two-day meeting will be representatives from 31 PKB regional branches plus the party's women's and youth wings.
Gus Dur, who is said to have received an invitation, told reporters on Thursday that he would skip the meeting, which he labeled illegitimate.
He said he only acknowledged Muhaimin's leadership, and was sure that the Surabaya meeting would bring about no influential results despite the presence of hundreds of senior clerics.
Meeting organizer Idris Marzuki, himself a senior cleric, said he expected the meeting would help mend the internal rift within the party, which has been going on since the PKB national congress in Semarang in April elected Muhaimin as leader and Gus Dur as chief patron.
Idris' expectation contradicts the outcome of the meeting held by Muhaimin's camp.
The Jakarta meeting, which Muhaimin claimed was attended by leaders of all PKB branches and clerics from across the country, decided to take stern action against those challenging his leadership and to bring Alwi and Saifullah Yusuf to court for allegedly "forging" party symbols.
PKB dismissed Alwi and Saifullah as chairman and secretary- general respectively following their appointment to the Cabinet of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last October. The two are suing the party's central board over their suspension, which they say violated the party's statutes.
Alwi is the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, while Saifullah the State Minister for Development of Disadvantaged Regions.
Alwi deemed the Semarang congress illegitimate, because it failed to invite him or Saifullah.
Both camps are running into dead-ends in their efforts to reconcile, failing to agree on whether or not the congress should be held again.