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)