Matori poses major challenge to alwi: Analysts

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Political analysts on Tuesday advised former president Abdurrahman Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB) not to belittle the strength of a rival faction led by Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil.

They said Matori could pose a significant challenge to former minister of foreign affairs Alwi Shihab, who currently leads Abdurrahman's PKB camp.

Syamsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and Tommi A. Legowo of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that neither faction should ignore the political strength of its rival.

"Support for the PKB under Matori is not as wide as that for the PKB under Alwi Shihab. But Matori has potential political strengths which could pose a significant challenge to Alwi's camp," Syamsuddin told The Jakarta Post.

The PKB has been embroiled in a bitter internal feud since July when the party's board of patrons, led by Abdurrahman, or Gus Dur as he is familiarly known, sacked Matori as its chairman and appointed Alwi to replace him.

Matori's dismissal was due to his support for the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) that stripped Abdurrahman of power in July. However, Matori claims his sacking was unlawful.

The political conflict has been intensifying since Matori's faction held a two-day national party meeting on Monday in Jakarta. It claimed the forum was attended by at least 100 representatives from 21 of the 32 PKB regional chapters.

On Monday, Alwi's camp threatened to sue Matori for organizing an illegal meeting. It said the rival faction had no right to use PKB's attributes, such as letterheads, official stamps and flags, because Matori was no longer the PKB leader.

Syamsuddin pointed to three political possibilities that Matori could exploit so as to increase his strength.

First, he said Matori could garner support from members of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the nation's largest Muslim organization, outside Java, the main stronghold of Alwi's PKB faction.

"NU members from outside Java are more rational than those from Java. Their loyalty to Gus Dur is not so fanatical as those from Java. Therefore, Matori can expect support from them," Syamsuddin said.

Second, he said Matori could make use of his position as defense minister to consolidate his support as many people would take into account such a ministerial post when deciding whom to back.

And third, Syamsuddin said the leadership style of the PKB under Alwi, which relied on the charisma of Abdurrahman, would not be successful in the future should the country's democratization process continue smoothly.

Tommi, who is the CSIS socio-political department head, concurred, urging Alwi's camp to take into account the fact that Matori was able to invite over 100 representatives from 21 PKB provincial chapters for the national meeting that ended on Tuesday.

Although it was not clear whether the participants were really representatives from PKB branches in the regions, their presence could constitute a first step by Matori in consolidating his political support, Tommi said.

However, he said the success of Matori's political maneuvers depended very much on whether his faction would be able to convince his political allies that he would abandon the traditional leadership style of the PKB as now exemplified by Alwi.

"Matori is now trying to reduce the charismatic role of Abdurrahman through demythologization. But such a process will take time to succeed," Tommi told the Post on Tuesday.

The PKB is the fourth largest faction in the 500-member House of Representatives, where it has 51 seats.