Gus Dur urged to cut short overseas trip

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)