NU irked by minister for deploying militia

SIDOARJO, East Java: The Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) central board has announced plans to officially reprimand Saifullah Yusuf, who chairs the organization's youth wing Ansor, after he deployed a paramilitary group during a meeting of the NU-founded National Awakening Party (PKB).

Hundreds of Banser members, a private paramilitary militia that is a unit of Ansor, were seen guarding the two-day national working meeting of a splinter PKB camp led by chief welfare minister Alwi Shihab, which ends on Sunday.

"The move to mobilize Banser at the meeting was a dangerous one, because it could potentially drag NU into the internal conflict of PKB ... Therefore, the NU central board will discuss the issue and reprimand him," NU deputy leader Achmad Bagdja said on Saturday.

Alwi and Saifullah, also the current state minister for the development of disadvantaged regions, were both suspended as PKB leader and secretary-general, respectively, last year for joining the Cabinet of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The rift culminated last April when the PKB elected Muhaimin Iskandar as its new leader and retained Abdurrahman Wahid as chief patron. --Antara