Matori's PKB to hold national meeting

JAKARTA: After winning a legal case against Alwi Shihab's camp of the National Awakening Party (PKB), its rival camp chaired by Matori Abdul Djalil is set to hold a national meeting in June.

The meeting, to be held in Central Java, aims at internally consolidating the party in order to contend the 2004 general elections and the first-ever direct presidential election.

Matori's camp has reportedly expressed their political commitment to support former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's candidacy in the presidential election, but Gus Dur rejected their support.

The South Jakarta District Court decided last week that the dismissal of Matori as PKB chairman was not legally valid.

Matori was fired from the party's top position and his membership revoked following his show of support in the 2001 special session of the People's Consultative Assembly that impeached then-president Gus Dur and appointed then-vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri as president until 2004. Her appointed presidency landed him in his current job as defense minister.

Matori formed his own camp of the PKB after his membership was stripped.

The major camp of the PKB led by Alwi held its national meeting here last week, naming Gus Dur as their presidential candidate. -- JP