NU behind Habibie for legal reasons

JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the 30-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Moslem organization Abdurrahman Wahid said here yesterday the organization's support for President Habibie was "restricted simply to his constitutional rights, nothing more".

He asserted that the current Habibie government should be transitional in nature and that the country's largest Moslem organization backed calls for the People's Consultative Assembly to hold an extraordinary session.

"In holding on to the Constitution, NU holds on to interests of the whole nation... not on the interest of siding with one certain religious group or ethnicity," Abdurrahman, who is also known as Gus Dur, told The Jakarta Post.

The interests of the whole nation stand for the interests of every religion and ethnicity, Gus Dur reiterated.

On Habibie being sworn in as president, Abdurrahman said: "It's his constitutional right to be the president, not more than that," he said.

He expressed his opinion that Habibie's presidency should not extend until 2003, when Soeharto's term would have expired, underlining again that his government should be transitional.

"So, NU supports Habibie not because of his religion or his ethnicity, and here we see that the precise purpose of our Constitution is to protect every citizen in the country," he said.

"If the Constitution is used to clobber other people, it must not be," he said.

President Habibie succeeded Soeharto, who passed on the country's No. 1 position to him Thursday after two months of nationwide protests spearheaded by students. (aan)