Meeting may not end PKB rift

Meeting may not end PKB rift

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

The Central Java chapter of the National Awakening Party (PKB)
began a two-day extraordinary meeting in Kudus regency on Sunday,
but may fail to reconcile the two factions embroiled in the
party's leadership rift.

The rift broke out after the PKB central board led by House of
Representatives deputy speaker Muhaimin Iskandar dismissed the
Central Java's party chairman Hanif Muslich for refusing to
recognize his leadership.

Hanif instead insisted on recognizing the current social
welfare minister Alwi Shihab as PKB's legitimate leader, despite
the party electing Muhaimin as new chairman at a national
congress in April 2005 held in Semarang, Central Java.

The Muhaimin camp appointed Irman Suparno as caretaker of the
Central Java PKB branch.

However, Hanif rejected the outcomes of the extraordinary
meeting, saying his camp did not send delegates to the forum.

"An extraordinary meeting of Central Java's PKB will be held
after a national congress of the party (the faction led by Alwi)
in Surabaya in October," he said.

However, participants wanted the meeting used for
reconciliation between the warring factions in the party
politically controlled by clerics of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the
nation's largest Muslim organization.

"I hope the meeting will be a reconcilatory forum because
those (from both the Muhaimin and Alwi camps) are all in
attendance," cleric Syaiful Bahri, a delegate from Pekalongan,
was quoted by Antara as saying.

The ongoing extraordinary meeting in Kudus is expected to
appoint a new PKB provincial chairman on its final day on Monday.

Muhammad Yusuf Chodlori, younger brother of Abdurrahman
Chudlori who chairs the advisory board of PKB's Alwi faction in
Central Java, appeared to be the strongest candidate in the
election.

The forum being held at Gryptha Hotel in Kudus is being
attended by representatives from 35 regency branches in Central
Java.

Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who is the PKB's chief
patron with the Muhaimin faction, could not attend on the advice
of his doctors, Muhaimin said in Kudus.