Gus Dur named father of Tionghoa

SEMARANG: The (Tionghoa) (Indonesians of Chinese descent) community in Semarang named former president Abdurrahman Wahid, the father of the Chinese-Indonesian community in Indonesia on Wednesday. The title was bestowed upon Abdurrahman during a meeting with some 400 people from the Chinese community in Tay Kak Sie temple in the city.

Initially, the title was proposed by Nelwan, a lecturer at Diponegoro University in Semarang, who said that Abdurrahman deserved the title because he was persistent in his fight against discrimination toward Chinese-Indonesians in the country.

Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, responded that he had no objection to being named as the father of the Chinese-Indonesian community. Upon hearing Gus Dur's response, all participants of the meeting clapped and some even approached Gus Dur and shook his hand.

Gus Dur denied that his visit was aimed at drumming up support from the community ahead of the elections.

Gus Dur is the presidential candidate of the National Awakening Party (PKB). -- JP