NU leader urged to drop charges
NU leader urged to drop charges
JAKARTA (JP): A political observer in East Java has urged a senior Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) leader to drop his libel charge against chairman Abdurrahman Wahid.
Ali Haidar of the Surabaya Teachers' Training Institute said Abu Hasan's plan to have Abdurrahman prosecuted would break with the Moslem organization's tradition of resolving conflicts internally.
Ali, who is currently studying for his doctorate at the State Institute for Islamic Studies in Jakarta, said Abu Hasan is risking his own position and popularity within NU by breaking that tradition.
Police, who have been working on the case since January, handed the dossier against Abdurrahman to the Attorney General's Office last week, saying that the case was now ready to be tried.
National Police chief spokesman Brig. Gen. I Ketut Ratta said that they had enough witnesses to support the libel prosecution.
Abu Hasan lost out to Abdurrahman in a bitter election for the NU chairmanship at the organization's congress in Cipasung, West Java, last December.
Abdurrahman, who has been at the helm since 1984, was reelected for a third five-year term, later excluded Abu Hasan when he named the line up of the executive board.
Abu Hasan, a businessman, subsequently filed a complaint with the National Police alleging Abdurrahman made slanderous remarks against him during the NU election race.
He said that Abdurrahman had falsely accused him of accepting Rp 18 billion commission from a project at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port. This accusation, he said, cost him the election as well as a seat in the new NU executive board.
Abu Hasan also accused Abdurrahman of manipulating the votes at the NU election.
Ali Haidar warned that if Abu Hasan pressed on with the libel suit, then he and his supporters would earn the wrath of NU's kyai (elder leaders) as well as other NU members.
"NU follows the Javanese culture where problems are resolved amicably through consensus," he said.
Ali Haidar pointed out that Abdurrahman could in fact counter- sue Abu Hasan for accusing him of rigging the votes at the congress.
Abdurrahman was not involved in voting and the ballot counting, he said, adding that Abu Hasan, as chairman of the congress' organizing committee, was more involved with the election process.
Regarding the allegation that Abu Hasan accepted a commission for arranging a business deal, Ali Haidar said that the rumor did not originate with Abdurrahman.
In fact, some of the senior NU leaders at the December congress had previously heard the allegation.
He added that it was the job of the election committee to check on the background of any aspiring chairman candidate, including rumors of past misconduct. (emb)