Election supervisory body supports Gus Dur's move
M. Taufiqurrahman and Dewi Santoso, Jakarta
The General Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) threatened on Tuesday to bring the dispute between Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid and the General Elections Commission (KPU) to the courts if the commission failed to take action to resolve the problem.
Committee chairman Komaruddin Hidayat said KPU Ruling No. 36/2004 on the eligibility of presidential and vice presidential candidates -- which had stymied Gus Dur's presidential bid -- could still be made the subject of a review by the judiciary.
"We are still reviewing the dispute between Gus Dur and the KPU and there is a possibility that we could file for a review with the Supreme Court or the Administrative Court ourselves," Komaruddin told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.
He also said that the committee regretted the fact that KPU representatives failed to turn up at a tripartite meeting between the committee, Gus Dur's lawyers and the KPU. "It shows that the KPU has no intention of resolving the legal dispute," he said.
Komaruddin said some KPU members could at least have turned up for the meeting and started talks with Gus Dur's defense team as a token of their bona fides.
The meeting had to be postponed on Tuesday as no KPU members put in an appearance at the committee's offices.
Gus Dur's defense team denounced the KPU's absence, saying that its refusal to attend the meeting indicated what he described as its members' lack of respect for democracy.
Over the weekend, the KPU issued a ruling disqualifying Gus Dur after he had been found physically unfit to stand. The ruling also gave the go-ahead to five other pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates.
On Monday, defense lawyers for the cleric filed a civil lawsuit with the Central Jakarta District Court against the three institutions he considered responsible for thwarting his presidential bid -- the KPU, the Indonesian Doctors Association and the Ministry of Health, claiming a whopping Rp 1 trillion (US$110 million) in damages.
In a related development, IDI chairman Farid Anfasa Moeloek said that the association he chaired would do nothing to defend the lawsuit.
"Everyone in this country has the right to sue anybody as long as the procedures are in line with the country's law. If in the end the IDI is declared by the court to be the winner in this case, we will do nothing, not even countersue him," said Farid, who was also the leader of the team of doctors from the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital that conducted the medical examinations on the presidential and vice presidential candidates.
When asked whether or not the association's recommendation had played a determining role in disqualifying Gus Dur, he only said: "We're not talking about inability here. We're talking about disability."
Asked whether he meant that it was Gus Dur's visual problems that had resulted in his being barred from contesting the next presidential election, Farid replied: "It's up to you how you want to interpret it."