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.