Gus Dur's daughter, actress join PKB board
Gus Dur's daughter, actress join PKB board
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Awakening Party (PKB) announced a new central
executive board here on Sunday, with party chief patron
Abdurrahman Wahid's daughter Zanuba Arifah Chafsoh Rahman and
actress and women's activist Rieke "Oneng" Dyah Pitaloka among
those appointed.
Zanuba, better known as Yenni, and Rieke, who is a popular
actress in the television series Bajaj Bajuri, were named
deputies by PKB secretary-general Muhammad Lukman Edy.
The new lineup also included senior women's activists
Nursjahbani Katjasungkana and Maria Pakpahan as deputy PKB
chairpersons along with nine others, including legislator Effendy
Choirie and Maria Ulfa Anshori, a deputy chairwoman of Nahdlatul
Ulama's (NU) woman's wing, Fatayat.
Embracing pluralism, the PKB, founded in 1999 by NU, the
country's largest Muslim organization, accommodated several non-
Muslim figures on the new board, including Christians Hermawi
Fransiscus Taslim and Jhon Wuwu, Catholic Alexius Gregoris Plate,
as well as Anak Agung Ngurah Agung and Krisna Bagus Oka, both
from the predominantly Hindu province of Bali.
The board, comprising 55 members, was announced by newly
elected PKB tanfidziyah (executive) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar
and his uncle, former president Abdurrahman Wahid, better known
as Gus Dur, who retained his top post as the party's powerful
syuro (consultative) board chief during last week's congress in
Semarang, Central Java.
Muhaimin, however, failed to include on the new board four
senior PKB politicians including former defense minister Mahfud
M.D., former state minister for women's empowerment Khofifah
Indar Parawansa, former state minister for research and
technology Muhammad A.S. Hikam, and chairman of the PKB faction
in the House of Representatives Ali Masykur Moesa.
Mahfud, Ali and Hikam ran as candidates for the position of
secretary-general of the party, however all withdrew just hours
before elections started. Khofifah had backed Mahfud's
nomination. Muhaimin won the election.
Muhaimin, also a deputy House speaker, said he would intensify
his approaches to Mahfud, Ali and Khofifah and appeal to them to
back his leadership.
"But these three are free to choose whether they want to be
part of the board or not," added Muhaimin. The post of deputy
secretary-general is still vacant.
As for Hikam, who is a former confidante of Gus Dur, he has
already vowed not to join Muhaimin's board, claiming that the
Semarang congress and its outcome were illegitimate.
He instead sided with a rival camp emerging in the PKB led by
welfare minister Alwi Shihab and State Minister for the
Development of Disadvantaged Regions Saifullah Yusuf, who is Gus
Dur's nephew.
Alwi and Saifullah were suspended as PKB chairman and
secretary-general respectively after joining the Cabinet of
President Bambang Yudhoyono last October.
The two, backed a group of influential clerics that co-founded
the PKB, were planning to stage a breakaway congress in
Yogyakarta apparently to reinstate themselves as leaders.
They are also suing the PKB over being suspended from their
party positions that was decided at a plenary meeting of the
party's central board, which they claim violated the party's
statutes.
In response to the moves by his rivals, Muhaimin said the PKB
would punish Alwi, Saifullah and their associates who opposed the
outcome of the recent congress.