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)