`New NU' apologizes to `Old NU', promises to change its name
`New NU' apologizes to `Old NU', promises to change its name
JAKARTA (JP): The founders of Nahdlatul Ummah, a forum in the
United Development Party (PPP) dubbed by the press as the New NU,
apologized yesterday to the Nahdlatul Ulama faction, or the "old"
NU, and agreed to change its name.
Emron Pangkapi, who said he was speaking on behalf of the
founders of the New NU, told reporters that the new organization
will be called the Communication Forum for Nahdlatul Ummah
Nusantara, or Konun Forum for short.
"We apologize deeply to members of NU who may have been
offended by the use of the term the New NU," Emron said.
The New NU was formally conceived during a seminar in Jakarta
last week organized by a number of senior PPP members.
While its stated goal is to help the party woo first time
voters in the 1997 election, the choice of name and the
abbreviation used upset a number of NU leaders who are embroiled
in a battle for the PPP leadership with the other factions.
The party is scheduled to elect its leaders at a congress in
Jakarta beginning on Aug. 28. PPP is a fusion of four former
Islamic parties, including NU, Muslimin Indonesia (MI), Sarekat
Islam (SI) and Perti.
Other critics of the New NU said that the forum would
complicate the power struggle between the party's four factions,
particularly between NU and MI, in the run up to the congress.
NU leaders said they are fully convinced that MI is behind the
New NU although its founders claim that they are neutral in the
factional battle.
In an apparent tit-for-tat retaliation, a senior NU leader on
Tuesday announced the formation of the "New MI" which stands for
Mukminin Indonesia.
Yusuf Hasyim, a senior NU politician aspiring toward the PPP
chairmanship, said a number of NU scholars had come to him with
the proposal.
Mukminin denotes a more religious and devout person compared
to Muslimin which is usually used to refer to Moslems in general,
Yusuf said to explain the choice of the name.
The term the New MI is used so as not to confuse it with the
real MI, he added.
In a prepared statement, Emron said it was never the intention
of the Nahdlatul Ummah founders to denigrate the NU, especially
since the NU is now preparing for its own congress in November.
He also appealed to the press not to use the term the New NU
but refer to the organization as the Forum Konun instead.
Not serious
Meanwhile NU Chairman Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday deplored the
founders of both the New NU and the New MI, and predicted that
their forum would not last long because they could not have been
serious in forming the groups.
"I'd give them two months at the most," Abdurrahman was quoted
by the Antara news agency as saying.
The New NU must have been founded by "frustrated" people who
were at a lost as to how to further their position within the
party, he said.
Abdurrahman said the founders were politicians who began their
political career at MI but then became frustrated with the
faction's leadership and therefore decided to form a new group.
They do not however have a mass of followers, certainly not as
large as NU, and hence the choice of name, he said.
He said however that he was not offended at all by the New NU.
"We take it as a joke."
He viewed the New MI with equal mockery, saying that whoever
was behind the group must have formed it by impulse.
He pointed out that Mukminin is often used to denote the
followers of the Shia group while Muslimin is for mainstream
Moslems.
Both forums are simply trends, like bad songs that make the
charts momentarily only to disappear quickly, he said. "They're
nothing." (emb)