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)