Gus Dur says it is time for a female president

Gus Dur says it is time for a female president

BAGU, West Nusa Tenggara (JP): Moslem scholar Abdurrahman
Wahid has said the nation should discuss the possibility of
Indonesia having a female president.

The chairman of Indonesia's largest Moslem organization,
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said here yesterday that Islam does not bar
women from state leadership.

"Some groups in society may want to nominate Tutut, while
others want Megawati Soekarnoputri as candidates for state leader
in the future," he said, "And in my opinion, it's not against
Islamic teachings."

Tutut, the nickname of Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, is President
Soeharto's eldest daughter, who is also an influential Golkar
leader and business tycoon. Megawati is the toppled leader of the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and the eldest daughter of
first president Sukarno.

Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, also cited Pakistan's
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as an example of a female
leader.

Abdurrahman was speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing NU
conference here. The East Java chapter of the organization raised
the issue of the possibility of electing a woman president in its
regional conference last month.

Abdurrahman said both Megawati and Hardiyanti "met the
criteria".

However, Ilyas Rukhiat, the Rais Aam (chairman) of the
syuriyah (lawmaking body) of the organization, was more cautious.

"Our ulemas could not yet accept... a woman leading this
country," he said, adding the organization, however, would let
the conference decide on what stance to take on the issue.

He recalled how in the past women were not allowed to sit in
the House.

"But, only after an NU assembly issued a statement that House
leadership was collective in nature, as opposed to individual
leadership, women were then represented in the House," he said.

Vice presidency

Abdurrahman reiterated his position yesterday to allow
individual members to declare support for any vice presidential
candidate.

He said it was "their right", when asked about the West Java
chapter leaders who openly declared support for Minister of
Defense and Security Edi Sudradjat.

"Conference participants may express their opinion on the vice
presidency, while the decision of whether to include their input
into the conference recommendation will rest on a team (entrusted
with the task of formulating the document)," he said.

Ilyas separately denied the West Java chapter's claim that it
had consulted him before announcing its support of Edi.

"The chairman of West Java chapter, Habib Syarief Muhammad,
never told me about Pak Edi's nomination," he said.

He said he frequently met Edi but had never talked politics
with him. "We only talk about family matters," he said.

Ilyas, however, did not rule out the possibility of the
organization eventually declaring support or mentioning names of
people it wished to see as presidential and vice presidential
candidates.

NU has often said it would not dabble in politics, but in
practice individual, politicking members have often been able to
coax leaders into eventually taking a political stance.

Abdurrahman, however, insisted there would be no political
statement at the end of the conference.

"Our support for Soeharto was not for his reelection but for
his responsibility to lead the state leadership process next
year," he said. "If he is later reelected, (the election) has
nothing to do with NU."

The 1,000 members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)
will reconvene next March to elect a president and vice president
and to endorse the 1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines.

Abdurrahman challenged the MPR to have the courage to
"interpret" President Soeharto's recent statement that he would
be willing to step down if he was not reelected in next year's
presidential election.

"I believe Pak Harto (Soeharto's nickname) would be willing to
step down if the majority of MPR members choose another person,"
he said. (imn/43)