Gus Dur urged to cut short overseas trip

JAKARTA (JP): Calls mounted on Wednesday for President Abdurrahman Wahid to cut short his overseas trip and immediately return home to settle the communal clashes in Central Kalimantan.

Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) Akbar Tandjung said the President should quit his trip due to security problems at home.

"House legislators have increasing voiced the opinion that Gus Dur should immediately return home," Akbar said, while referring to the President by his nickname.

"I heard that Gus Dur himself has asked his ministers whether he should return home. But after listening to their inputs, Gus Dur decided to go on with his trip," Akbar told the press after chairing a closed-door meeting between the House leadership and the state security authorities.

The President is on a two-week overseas trip to Middle-East and African countries, including a haj pilgrimage to Mecca. He is scheduled to return home on March 7.

Azyumardi Azra, rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Institute for Islamic Studies criticized Gus Dur for not cutting short his overseas trip and going ahead with his planned haj pilgrimage.

"You should not perform the pilgrimage if your household is in trouble. In the case of Gus Dur, his household is the country... If he insists on performing the pilgrimage, this is haram (forbidden by Islamic law)," he said in an interview with The Jakarta Post.

Similarly, young political observer and former chief of the Indonesian Muslim Student Association (HMI) Anas Urbaningrum said the President should quit his foreign visit.

"Gus Dur will have a more valid 'haj' title if he goes home soon and settles the unrest. It would be better than performing the haj pilgrimage while thousands are suffering in Central Kalimantan," Anas said before addressing a seminar marking the 54th anniversary of HMI in Semarang as quoted by Antara on Wednesday.

"Ethically, it's a more politically prudent step for Gus Dur to go home although he has entrusted the presidential duties to Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri. He has to be more sensitive to this issue," Anas added.

In response to the question as to who will be the country's next president if Abdurrahman resigns, Azyumardi said more and more people, including Muslims, could accept Megawati as the state leader.

"Symbolic actions, like joining the haj pilgrimage (last year) greatly affected the people's acceptance of her," he said.

He said it was questionable whether Gus Dur could continue his leadership until 2004.

Similarly, noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid said Megawati is constitutionally the right person to become the country's president should Abdurrahman resign.

"But that can only happen if Gus Dur hands over the power voluntarily without coercion or violent means," he said, adding that he objected to the idea of a snap election in the middle of a presidential term.

"A snap election would be a bad precedence for democracy as people can easily resort to such means whenever they feel dissatisfied with the incumbent president," he told media after addressing the Perhumas nationwide public relations association here on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the country's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, urged Megawati to take the necessary steps to prevent the situation in the country from worsening.

"Muhammadiyah asks the Vice President to take concrete steps and will always support constitutional actions," Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii Ma'arif said after meeting Megawati at her office.

He said the current national leader has lost both social and moral legitimacy, which are fundamental to maintaining an effective government.

He contended that the meeting was not meant to demonstrate political support for Megawati to take the lead of the country, but merely because of the great concern of Muhammadiyah over the current situation.

Muhammadiyah's deputy chairman Din Syamsuddin said the Vice President, who is also chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) clearly stated that she is ready to lead the country.

"Megawati clearly said that she has never supported Gus Dur because, the PDI Perjuangan congress (in 1998) recommended her to run for presidency," Din said.

"All this time I worked as Vice President when actually I was ready to become president," Din quoted Megawati as saying.

Separately, constitutional law expert Sri Soemantri doubted that the memorandum could bring Abdurrahman down.

"A memorandum does not always lead to a special session because if the President can fulfill the demands of the memorandum, then the House would not issue a second one," Soemantri said.

Another expert Satya Arinanto, however said that it would be very difficult for the President to fulfill the demands as there were no clear standards to judge whether the President has fulfilled the memorandum's demands. (02/dja/edt/sim)