Gus Dur named father of Tionghoa

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