Hasyim refuses PKB offer

SURABAYA: The chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, Hasyim Muzadi, rejected on Friday a National Awakening Party (PKB) claim that he would campaign for the party in the upcoming general election.

"If the NU chairman becomes a campaigner, the NU offices will end up deserted," Hasyim told Antara.

He was responding to a PKB decision to include him on its list of campaigners.

Besides Hasyim, the NU's East Java chapter chairman Ali Maschan Moesa, several noted NU ulemas, including Idris Marzuki from the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school in Kediri, Gus Ali Mashuri from Sidoarjo, and former president Abdurrahman Wahid, are also on the list.

The secretary of the PKB's East Java chapter, Arif Junaidi, admitted his staff had mistakenly listed Hasyim as a party campaigner.

"It's an administrative mistake. Hasyim will remain neutral," Junaidi said.

However, he claimed the NU would support the PKB as this was mandated by the NU congress held in Lirboyo, Kediri, in 1999. The PKB was founded by NU clerics in 1998. -- Antara