Ismail plays down threat from ulemas

Ismail plays down threat from ulemas

JAKARTA (JP): The chairman of the United Development Party
(PPP) is playing down a threat by ulemas to remove their support
from his political organization in rejection of his re-election.

Appearing calm as usual, Ismail Hasan said yesterday that he
did not see the opposition by some ulemas to his leadership as a
serious threat to PPP's performance in the 1997 general election.

Numerous ulemas in Central and West Java have openly expressed
their dismay with the new PPP leadership after failing to wrest
away the party's chairmanship at a congress this month.

The incumbent chairman said he was optimistic that PPP's
bitter 1987 experience of losing 34 seats in the House of
Representatives (DPR) would not recur despite the widespread
opposition to his leadership among ulemas from the Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU), the largest faction in the party.

Ismail argued that the sharp drop in the party's 1987 vote
tally resulted from the maneuver of the then party chairman H.J.
Naro to "clean up" PPP from NU leaders, a move which he is not
even considering. "Naro made the biggest blunder," he said of the
party boss he ousted in 1989.

Naro, who now chairs the Muslimin Indonesia faction, was
opposed to Ismail Hasan's re-election.

While acknowledging their great influence in the Moslem
community, Ismail Hasan said he did not believe all the scholars
under Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Moslem
organization, would go so far as to lead a boycott of the PPP in
the poll.

Ismail, who is affiliated with Muslimin Indonesia, said he was
still trying to approach disgruntled ulemas like Alawy Muhammad
to get them to reconsider their plan to quit the Moslem-oriented
PPP simply because they did not like him. "The ulemas are
important vote getters in the elections," he said.

Ismail Hasan defended his appointment of Anwar Nurris as one
of the secretary general's deputies even though Anwar was one of
the party rebels who campaigned for boycotting the PPP prior to
the 1987 election. "He has repented and he is welcome back into
the fold," he said.

Sooth

In the meantime, Ismail Hasan's attempt to sooth the ulemas'
hard feelings has not yet brought about concrete results.

Alawy, an influential ulema from Madura who has threatened to
quit PPP and join the minority Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI),
reportedly refused to meet with Ismail Hasan's messengers --
secretary general Tosari Widjaya and deputy chief Zarkasih Noer
-- because he was "busy" yesterday.

Ulema Yusuf Hasyim, who heads NU's lawmaking body, remained
cynical about his appointment as a member of the new PPP advisory
board.

"I haven't recovered from the political shock I got from being
named a board member without being consulted beforehand," he told
the Antara news agency.

He said he would need "probably a week, a month or even a
year" before he could decide whether to accept the post.

Ismail Hasan yesterday also launched a scathing attack on
outspoken legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas, his ardent critic and
competitor in the recent party chairmanship race.

He singled out Bintang as a "self-righteous person who
criticized people like he does not understand oriental customs."

"He sounds as if the party is nothing without him around," he
said. "He is too much."

Bintang, a new breed of PPP activist who often embarrassed the
party's leadership with his criticism of the government, had
aggressively campaigned to topple Ismail Hasan.

Bintang has warned time and again that PPP might shrink into
the smallest of the three political organizations because Ismail
Hasan has failed to develop the party's potential.(pan)