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)