Emha rejects comfy seat in the House, vows to help PPP

SEMARANG (JP): Well-known intellectual Emha Ainun Nadjib said yesterday he has turned down the United Development Party's (PPP) offer of a cozy seat in the House of Representatives.

He said his main reason is that he feels politics is not his arena and he is afraid it would kill his independence as an intellectual if he participated in it.

"But I will help develop the PPP in my own way, for instance by campaigning for it," he told The Jakarta Post.

The Yogyakarta-based playwright, poet and columnist was also approached by the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) under Megawati Soekarnoputri. She was deposed in June by rebel leader Soerjadi, who has government backing.

Emha's critical stand on various sociopolitical issues have in the past prompted security authorities to ban him from performing his plays or reciting his poems in several cities.

He said one reason behind his rejection of PPP's offer is that he did not want the Moslem-oriented PPP get in trouble with the government just because of his presence.

"Let me bear the consequences of my deed, which I believe is correct," he said.

The three political organizations, PPP, PDI and Golkar, will compete for 425 seats in the House of Representatives in next year's election. They submitted their list of legislative candidates to the National Election Institute on Monday.

Emha argued that entering politics is not one of his priorities because Indonesia has yet to change its political format into one which is more democratic.

"PPP, Golkar and PDI are part of a whole scenario that I don't like," he said. He added that helping PPP is part of his "moral obligation".

"It's like when I help an ill-fated child, I should not consider whether his father has bad or good conduct because helping is a moral obligation," he said.

Meanwhile, Mustofa Bisri, a popular Moslem preacher from the Central Java town of Rembang, also refused PPP's offer for a seat in the House because he does not want to be screened by the military for any possible past involvement with the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party.

"Why should I undergo screening? I am an instructor in Pancasila propagation and a member of the House of Representatives," the preacher said.

He said he wants to quit politics and focus on his religious duties and have more time to write poems and paint. (har/pan)