Noted ulemas have chosen their candidate for PPP
Noted ulemas have chosen their candidate for PPP
JAKARTA (JP): Influential ulemas have chosen their candidate
for the Moslem-oriented United Development Party (PPP) amid
bitter factional rivalry for the organization's top spot.
The 10 senior ulemas from Java and Sumatra who met in the West
Java town of Garut on Wednesday declined to reveal their nominee.
However, the Antara press agency quoted an insider as saying they
have chosen Matori Abdul Djalil, the party's current secretary-
general.
They ulemas are all respected figures from the nation's
largest Islamic organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which
merged with three other Moslem parties, Perti, PSII and MI, to
form PPP in 1973.
Earlier, senior NU officials said they would announce their
candidate ahead of PPP's four-day congress, which is to be opened
in Jakarta by President Soeharto on Aug. 28.
NU, formerly a strong political party, retired from practical
politics in 1984 to focus on socio-educational matters. It is now
striving to end MI's domination in the PPP's top leadership.
The incumbent party chairman, Ismail Hasan Metareum, hails
from MI. Still enjoying the government's favor, he is widely
tipped to retain his post.
The latest speculation goes that Chalid Mawardi, another MI
figure who is a member of the Supreme Advisory Council, and has
never been mentioned as an aspirant, has obtained the
government's green light to enter the race.
Jockeying
On a separate occasion on Thursday, ulema Yusuf Hasyim said
that various leaders within the PPP are busy jockeying for
position, thus everything concerning the chairmanship race is
still obscure.
"Things will unfold only after the congress is opened," said
Yusuf, who heads NU's law making body. He has hinted he might run
for election.
Meanwhile, Ismail Hasan has denied long-time allies' charges
that he has betrayed their commitment to developing the party
together.
Ismail Hasan said that his partners, known as the Group of
Eight, have misunderstood the principles of the commitment.
Husni Thamrin, a leading student activist in 1966, was the
first of the group members to openly denounce Ismail Hasan's
leadership.
In a letter to Ismail Hasan, Thamrin criticized the chairman
of harboring suspicions against fellow party members.
The Group of Eight played a vital role in Ismail Hasan's rise
to power in 1989. Six of them have now reportedly decided to
withdraw their support, saying that he has no political will to
develop PPP.
"I will not bid Husni Thamrin goodbye because I believe that
his move (to go separate ways) was prompted by misunderstanding,"
Ismail Hasan told reporters. (pan)