NU chief says no candidate for PPP chairmanship

NU chief says no candidate for PPP chairmanship

JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Abdurrahman
Wahid cold-shouldered the recent bustle over the organization's
candidacy for the coming election of the United Development Party
(PPP).

"The executive board (of NU) won't bother itself with naming
candidates for the PPP chairmanship," the prominent scholar told
the press in Semarang yesterday. "However, if individual members
ask for permission to run, then they'll get the organization's
blessing."

"Even if our members ask permission to become heads of village
or regents, we'll give them our blessing," he was quoted by
Antara news agency as saying. "We'll bless them even more if they
want to run for the chairmanship of PPP, Golkar or the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI)."

"We'll bless them even if they eventually lose," he added.

Some 80 ulemas, usually called kyai, from NU held a meeting in
Rembang, Central Java, on Sunday to discuss strategies to seize
PPP leadership from the dominant Muslimin Indonesia (MI) faction.
They concluded that PPP needs leaders from NU, who have some 34
million members, in order to grow bigger and more appealing to
voters.

They had originally planned to name their candidates for the
PPP election in August, but later decided to withhold the names
for the next several weeks.

Claiming that the Rembang meeting was not any concern of the
executive board, Abdurrahman nevertheless supported the ulemas'
decision to refrain from publicly endorsing their candidates.

"They did not have any authority to pick names," he said. "The
most that they could do is to suggest certain names to be brought
to the PPP congress."

The ulemas and the initiator of the meeting, Hamzah Haz, have
rejected criticism about the Moslem leaders' engaging in
politics, saying that the meeting was only an informal gathering
of kyais who already have been active in PPP.

Hamzah said the meeting was not intended as a politicking
venue.

However, through their speeches, the kyais themselves showed
clearly that they meant to be more involved in practical
politics.

"Life itself is politics," said Cholil Bisri, host of the
Rembang meeting. "We need strategies in this life, and isn't that
what politics is all about?"

The majority

The meeting of the ulemas ended with the establishment of a
council who will be responsible for picking one out of the three
strongest candidates.

The candidates are Hamzah, who is chairman of PPP faction in
the House of Representatives; Matori Abdul Djalil, the incumbent
secretary general of PPP; and Karmani, chairman of PPP branch in
East Java.

Despite the ulemas' decision against formally naming
candidates, several newspapers ran reports suggesting that the
majority of the kyais favored Matori Abdul Djalil.

The news reports also said that Alawy Muhammad, a highly
influential ulema in Madura Island, had specifically singled out
Matori.

Hamzah, however, was quick to point out that he had checked
the news with Alawy and that the latter denied making the
statement.

Nadhir Muhammad, a council member, was reported to have asked
the NU leaders to treat the news reports as non-existent because
they were not true.

Hamzah also acknowledged the possibility that the news about
the Matori's endorsement was generated by people with evil
intentions.

"All that we did during the meeting was establish a set of
criteria for suitable leaders for PPP," Syansuri Badlawi, the
most senior ulema in NU, said.

"We still have two months to go before election time, so
there's no need to rush with the candidates' names," Hamzah said.

"Anyone who claims that he has won the kyais' endorsement will
be reprimanded," Syansuri added.

Syansuri said the draft report on the meeting needs to be
studied further as it contains the word "grab" (the PPP
chairmanship). "Can you imagine ulemas grabbing for positions?"
he said.

Hamzah said certain parties have circulated the draft report,
which is yet to be edited, in order to discredit the Rembang
meeting. (swe/pan)