Gus Dur blasts MUI directive

JAKARTA (JP): More flak has greeted the election guidelines issued by the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), with leading Muslim politician Abdurrahman Wahid proposing on Thursday that the council be disbanded.

Speaking on the sidelines of a National Awakening Party (PKB) campaign in Ambon, Maluku, Abdurrahman criticized MUI for exceeding its role as a religious institution by advising Muslims to vote for Muslim-based parties in the June 7 polls.

Another Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, issued the same election guidelines on Wednesday.

Political analysts Mochtar Mas'oed and Muhammad A.S. Hikam also panned MUI's move, but believed it would not negatively affect voter support for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Many, including Abdurrahman and Hikam, believe the call is intending to undermine PDI Perjuangan, the nationalist-secular party led by Megawati Soekarnoputri which is considered the strongest contender in next week's polls.

Of 48 parties contesting the elections, at least 12 claim to represent Muslim interests. PKB, which was founded by Abdurrahman, does not adopt Islam as its basis although it relies heavily on support from Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim group. Abdurrahman, who is better known as Gus Dur, is NU chairman.

Long a critic of MUI, Abdurrahman accused it of meddling in political affairs.

"MUI will move to the brink of disaster if it involves itself in political affairs. There are already a lot of political parties, so why should MUI act as a political institution? My suggestion is we should rather disband it."

He said PKB would not withdraw its support of Megawati's presidential bid although he realized many Muslim groups could not recognize a female head of government. PKB formally named Abdurrahman its presidential candidate.

"If PKB wins the elections, we will form a Cabinet comprising 17 experts and we will pick PDI Perjuangan figure Kwik Kian Gie," Abdurrahman said.

Hikam acknowledged that MUI's statement discouraged democracy, but he believed the public was well aware of the organization's past backing of those in power.

"The appeal will only backfire, with many suspecting that MUI is merely serving as a political vehicle of status quo forces," said Hikam, who is from the National Institute of Sciences.

Mochtar of Gadjah Mada University said in Yogyakarta the guidelines would not sway Muslims as they prepared to vote.

"It's only a moral call which will not receive a positive response from most Muslims in the country. The statement is apparently aimed at drawing Muslims' sympathy, but for me it is overblown."

Both Hikam and Mochtar said PDI Perjuangan would suffer few losses from the statement because much of its support was from loyalists.

"Perhaps the call could decrease, albeit a little, the share of the vote of parties which do not adopt Islam as principles but depend largely on Muslims, like PKB and the National Mandate Party (PAN)," Mochtar said.

His Gadjah Mada University colleague, Cornelis Lay, concurred, saying the MUI's statement was too late to change voter patterns.

"The call could have influenced Muslim voters, who mostly are considered the 'floating mass', had it been issued three or four months ago. Now people don't care about what others say about their own parties," Cornelis said.

Valina Singka Subekti, head of the political science laboratory at the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences, believed the call would most probably affect votes for PDI Perjuangan. She said the extent, however, was difficult to gauge.

"PDI Perjuangan came out as the most popular in our poll, like in the other polls, although the poll was only in cities."

She said the action would most likely influence urban intellectuals with higher political awareness, compared to most of PDI Perjuangan supporters at the grassroots level.

PDI Perjuangan deputy chairman Kwik was unfazed even though 90 percent of the party's prospective voters are Muslims.

"I'm pretty sure they will not change their minds," Kwik said after attending campaigning in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

He said MUI was an organization entitled to converse with the Muslim community, but Muslims were free to make their own ballot choices. (44/48/anr/amd)