Matori poses major challenge to alwi: Analysts

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.