Eight NU groups endorse general election boycott
Eight NU groups endorse general election boycott
JAKARTA (JP): Eight groups within Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),
Indonesia's largest Moslem organization, yesterday endorsed
boycotting the election as a form of political participation.
Almost immediately afterward NU chairman Abdurrahman Wahid
lashed out at the groups, saying they had overstepped their
boundary and used the organization's name arbitrarily.
"This is impudent of them. They are overstepping the boundary.
The executive board of NU knew nothing of their message," said
Abdurrahman, who is better known as Gus Dur.
"Besides, the board will never issue any 'moral message' about
the general election," he told reporters.
Abdurrahman spoke to the press at his office on the first
floor of the NU building, only minutes after a group of NU
activists claiming to represent the eight wings of NU issued
their statement about the general election on the second floor.
The groups -- including the youth and women wings of the
organization, said in their statement that voting is a right, not
an obligation, for all citizens.
"Therefore, any citizen has the freedom to exercise or not to
use the right," the statement said. "We're not turning a blind
eye to the fact that for one reason or another there are members
of the community who feel they don't need to use the right."
"There's a growing discontent ...over the current system,
while improvements are not guaranteed by the general election,"
it said. "There's a feeling the election has become a 'tool' to
maintain the existing power status quo, rather than guarantee an
open rotation of power."
The groups also said they detected a growing feeling among
members of society that the election was merely a trick to tell
the community "that the current power is legitimate".
"There's a feeling that the dominant political group is
wishing to win at all costs, even by neglecting manners and
political norms," it said. "There's a feeling that the right to
supervise the election is the monopoly of certain institutions,
so that the public's independent control over it is blocked.
"There's a feeling that certain political parties are being
'crippled' so that their constituents lose their shelter and
became desolate," he said.
The statement said if people choose to abstain from voting,
the group can "understand their feelings and stance, and consider
(abstaining) as a legitimate form of political participation".
The statement was signed by, among others, NU youth
intellectual Ulil Abshar Abdalla.
Ulil said the statement was the result of a deliberation of
the organization's mission, known as the Khittah 1926, which says
that NU is a religious and educational organization. It is
usually also seen as a declaration of the organization's stance
on non-political involvement.
Ulil said the groups had consulted some NU leaders prior to
drawing up the statement. (11/swe)
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