New PPP leadership board already beset by dissension

New PPP leadership board already beset by dissension

JAKARTA (JP): Barely three days since his re-election, United
Development Party (PPP) chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum is already
being forced to move to contain dissension within his newly
formed executive board.

A prominent leader from Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest
faction in the PPP, has declined his appointment in the advisory
board, while another has signaled he is not happy because he was
never consulted in the first place.

Ismail Hasan, who hails from the Muslimin Indonesia (MI),
while lamenting their decision, said on Saturday that he will not
be deterred by their resignation threats.

"We asked Syansuri Badawi to sit in the advisory board. But if
he wants to withdraw, that is up to him. I wouldn't want to
comment further," he was quoted by the Antara news agency as
saying.

Syansuri Badawi, a senior NU ulema, was a member of the seven-
man electoral council led by Ismail Hasan to name the new line-up
of PPP's central executive board.

However, he and another NU leader, Matori Abdul Djalil, walked
out of the council in protest and disagreement over the line-up
of the board. They did not endorse it, although the congress
later did when the names were presented.

The 21-strong executive board still consists of seven NU
leaders, including Tosari Widjaja, who was named secretary
general, considered to be the second most important job in the
party leadership. Syansuri was named into the advisory board, as
was Jusuf Hasjim, a respected NU ulema.

Jusuf has also said that he might decline the offer to sit on
the largely ceremonial board, stressing that he was never
consulted or formally offered the position.

Ismail Hasan said he would not plead with those who threaten
to resign, but is appealing to their sense of responsibility
toward the party. "This is a question of fighting for the party."

He pointed out that Syansuri was already a member of the board
and that the appointment last Thursday was simply a continuation.
For that reason, he said he did not feel obliged to ask.

Exaggerated

He also said that he strongly believed that the division in
the party, especially between NU and MI, has been exaggerated by
the press and political observers.

NU, MI and the other two factions, Syarikat Indonesia and
Perti, founded the party, he said. Organization-wise, there is no
problem, although there might be problems with some individual
figures.

The most scathing attack against Ismail Hasan came from NU
chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, who said that the new board is filled
with a bunch of "elitists lacking grassroots support".

Abdurrahman warned that young PPP supporters might abandon the
party in the 1997 election and cast their votes instead for the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

Responding to Abdurrahman's accusation that the board's line-
up comprises a bunch of elitists lacking grassroots support,
Ismail Hasan said he believes he has the grassroots supports,
"for otherwise, the NU delegates wouldn't have voted me in".

Before the congress began, many party insiders and outsiders
warned that PPP could be relegated to third and last position in
the 1997 election unless it chose a more popular figure to match
Megawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of former president Sukarno,
who now leads the PDI.

PPP has come a distant second after the military-backed Golkar
in the last four elections. In 1992, it had 17 percent of the
votes, compared to Golkar's 68 percent and PDI's 15 percent.
(emb)