Habibie brushes off meeting with Gus Dur

Habibie brushes off meeting with Gus Dur

JAKARTA (JP): B.J. Habibie, chairman of the politically well-
connected Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI),
brushed aside suggestions yesterday that he meet with Abdurrahman
Wahid of the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest rural-based
Moslem organization.

Habibie told reporters covering the ICMI congress yesterday
that he had never thought of holding talks, which some people
would consider a much needed reconciliation, with Abdurrahman,
better known as Gus Dur.

"There is no reason for me to hold such a meeting," Habibie
said. "Personally, I've never had any problems with Gus Dur."

The suggested meeting, he said, was irrelevant to his various
positions, whether as the state minister of research and
technology, an activist of social organizations or his other
work.

"This is not a question of whether I am willing or not. It's
just there's no reason for me to do it. So, it's not important,"
he said.

The call that Habibie meet with Abdurrahman, who is known to
be very critical of ICMI, came on the heels of the latter's
recent meetings with, consecutively, President Soeharto, Army
Chief of Staff Gen. R. Hartono, and finally with Amien Rais, the
chairman of the 28-million strong Muhammadiyah Moslem
organization.

Observers have welcomed the meetings, calling them a sign of
even better ties between the government and NU, and between
Islamic organizations long thought to be on less than friendly
terms.

NU claims to have a nationwide membership of over 30 million.

In Semarang, Abdurrahman rejected the need for a
"reconciliation" meeting. "We're never distant, so why
reconcile?" he queried.

He admitted, however, that he has never had any contact with
Habibie. "You can't gauge people's proximity or distance by
whether there is contact," he said. "Besides, if I've never had
any contact with Habibie it's because I'm just a commoner while
he's a cabinet minister."

He also denied suggestions that his meeting with Amien Rais,
who is known to have a close relationship with Habibie, was
contrived to solicit his support for the nomination of Habibie as
vice president in 1998.

"During our meeting (Sunday), Amien did not once mention
anything about ICMI. We didn't say anything about the vice
presidency or Habibie," Abdurrahman said. (swe/har)