Gus Dur for president: PKB

Gus Dur for president: PKB

PURWOKERTO: The National Awakening Party (PKB) will nominate
former president Abdurrahman Wahid, or Gus Dur as he is
popularly known, its candidate in the 2004 general election,
party chairman Alwi Shihab said Monday.

According to Alwi, all party leaders had agreed to appoint Gus
Dur as their standard bearer in 2004, when the country will hold
its first ever direct presidential election.

Gus Dur, one of the party's founders in 1999, was impeached by
members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in 2001 for
incompetence.

"We have no other alternative at this moment. The only
presidential candidate from PKB is Gus Dur," Alwi said at the
Islamic boarding school al-Hidayah Karangsuci, Purwokerto,
Central Java.

Gus Dur, according to Alwi, had given positive response to the
plan. "He leaves the decision to the party," he said.

He also said that he would soon recall legislators who were no
longer loyal to the party's platform.

"We fully agree with the law and we will call our members who
are considered no longer loyal to the party," he said, referring
to the newly endorsed bill on the composition of MPR, the House
of Representatives (DPR), and the Regional Representatives
Council (DPD), which allows parties to recall legislators from
the House. --JP