Gus Dur gets green light from spiritual guru

JAKARTA (JP): Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid said on Monday he had received the green light from his spiritual mentor to make an all-out bid in the presidential election on Wednesday.

"I will not take myself out of the nomination process and I will remain in the race until the election is held," Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, said.

The chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim social organization, previously said he would only run with the consent of senior Muslim scholars from Central Java and East Java.

"Sometime ago I met with Kyai Langitan (to seek his approval). This morning, he sent a courier with the message that if I run, Muslim scholars will provide me with prayers," he said.

Kiyai Langitan is the term he uses for Abdullah Faqih, head of the Langitan Islamic boarding school in Jombang, East Java. Gus Dur reveres him as his guru.

Jombang was the birthplace of NU, which has about 35 million followers nationwide.

Gus Dur, who is partially blind, did not discuss his health, which was reportedly a major concern in launching a presidential bid. He has made several foreign trips, including most recently to Belgium, for medical treatment.

Gus Dur was nominated as a presidential candidate by the Assembly's reform faction which groups the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Justice Party (PK). Together, the two parties have 40 members in the 700-seat People's Consultative Assembly.

He is the third person to have been formally nominated for the presidential election on Wednesday. The others are Megawati Soekarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and incumbent B.J. Habibie, who has been nominated by the Golkar Party.

Gus Dur is expected to receive massive support from the National Awakening Party (PKB), a party closely affiliated to NU and which he helped found.

His late nomination has virtually split the party.

PKB chairman Matori Abdul Djalil earlier promised to support Megawati's presidential bid while his deputy Alwi Shihab said the party would back Gus Dur.

Gus Dur said one of the tasks entrusted to him by his mentor was to prevent PKB from disintegrating.

Asked if his nomination would deepen the polarization within PKB, Gus Dur said the differences were natural and people should not blow them out of proportion.

He said polarization was also found in Golkar and PDI Perjuangan.

"I have 31 votes from PDI Perjuangan. Don't ask me how many votes I will get from Golkar, but it's more than that," he said.

"It's good that everybody is now confused with three presidential candidates. So we will build a new democracy based on the confusion of the MPR members."

Gus Dur also disclosed his intention to sue Tempo, accusing the newsweekly of a "subtle attempt" to pit him against Habibie.

He did not disclose the offending article.

The magazine recently ran a lengthy interview with Gus Dur in which he was asked his opinion about Habibie and allegations of Habibie's camp trying to bribe PKB officials to vote for him.

Gus Dur said he would demand Rp 100 billion in damages and that the edition be immediately removed from public circulation.

Tempo executive editor Toriq Hada said the article, if anything, reflected PKB's stand against practices in money politics.

Toriq said the magazine would look into Gus Dur's complaint and also hoped to discuss the matter with him. (emf)