Election boycott by NU groups won't work: Observers

Election boycott by NU groups won't work: Observers

JAKARTA (JP): Observers dismissed yesterday the recent
endorsement of poll boycotting by a group of Nahdlatul Ulama
activists, saying it had not even scratched the surface.

Hartono Mardjono, a former leader of the United Development
Party (PPP) from the dominant Muslimin Indonesia faction, and
Mustofa Bisri, an ulema of Nahdlatul Ulama, told The Jakarta Post
separately that the activists' statement had not affected the
majority of the organization's 30 million members.

"The members wouldn't be influenced," Hartono said. "The
followers of Nahdlatul Ulama are very traditional people. They
are not easily influenced by whatever their leaders say in the
papers."

He said Nahdlatul Ulama rural members were eagerly preparing
for the election.

Eight groups within Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest
Moslem organization, endorsed boycotting the election as a form
of political participation last week. The groups -- including
youth and women wings of the organization, said if citizens chose
not to vote they were only exercising their right.

NU chairman Abdurrahman Wahid lashed out at the groups,
calling them impudent and overstepping their boundary. He also
accused them of using the organization's name arbitrarily.

Yesterday, Hartono speculated that the groups were actually
protesting Abdurrahman, whose political maneuvers with Golkar had
recently surprised many people.

"But even if the group was targeting NU members, I'm convinced
the NU community would not be swayed (into boycotting the poll),"
Hartono said.

Hartono said Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, was often
too confident of his ability to influence NU members into
following his wishes. "The fact is, not everybody will follow
him. The group's statement on the poll boycott was an example
(that not everybody agreed with him)," Hartono said.

NU has a long history of competition with the Muslimin
Indonesia (MI) faction within the PPP.

Mustofa Bisri agreed the group's statement would not affect NU
in general, but said the organization has a strong tradition of
plurality of opinion.

"To differ with one another is a tradition of NU," he said.
"Gus Dur always teaches us to be brave and accommodate
differences.

"This is democracy. We are not surprised at all if the young
people of NU said they had different opinions," he said.

He dismissed speculation that the eight groups within NU were
undermining the leadership of Abdurrahman. "Those young people
are still the biggest supporters of Gus Dur. Even those who made
the statements, such as Ulil Abshar, were people closest to Gus
Dur."

Ulil Abshar Abdalla is among the organization's young
intellectuals. He said the groups had consulted NU seniors before
releasing the statement which also said that if people chose to
abstain from voting, the group would "understand their feelings
and stance, and consider (abstaining) as a legitimate form of
political participation".

"The statement was not a big issue within NU, because we are
used to differences of opinion," said Mustofa. He added that
Abdurrahman, despite his harsh criticism, was not at all upset by
the youths.

"It would have been better had the groups consulted Gus Dur
first before releasing the statement," Mustofa said. "He was just
worried people would think these groups represented the executive
board of NU. They didn't. They represented themselves.

"There is nothing to worry about. Gus Dur's leadership is not
at all at threat," he said. (26/swe)