NU official warns of drive to discredit Abdurrahman

NU official warns of drive to discredit Abdurrahman

SURABAYA (JP): Attempts to discredit controversial Moslem
leader Abdurrahman Wahid are mounting, a Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)
executive said over the weekend.

Fuad Anwar, the East Java secretary of Indonesia's largest
Moslem organization, said that his office had recently received a
lot of anonymous letters and leaflets blasting Abdurrahman for
his recent actions.

Fuad said some of the leaflets said Abdurrahman, better known
as Gus Dur, should be held responsible for the series of riots
that rocked the province lately.

"They (the unknown senders) are attempting to split Gus Dur
from his masses and the country's Moslems in general," Fuad said,
adding that the leaflets had affected some NU members in the
province.

"Many are afraid of NU's improving image in the eyes of the
government," said Fuad.

Fuad's statement was a slight variation of one issued by
Abdurrahman himself. In late June Abdurrahman named four mosques
as the places where leaflets seeking to tarnish his name, had
been circulating.

According to Ummat magazine, Abdurrahman named Arif Rahman
Hakim Mosque at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Syuhada
Mosque in Yogyakarta, Al-Falah Mosque in East Java capital of
Surabaya, and Khadijah Mosque in Malang, East Java.

Representatives of the mosques have denied the accusation.

Among the leaflets that were circulated was one that accused
Abdurrahman of using Christian and nationalist allies to rise to
the top post in NU in 1984 and then maintain his firm grip on the
organization.

It also accuses Abdurrahman of masterminding riots in several
towns in East Java to develop a strong bargaining position with
the country's political elite. It thirdly spoke of Abdurrahman's
relatively recent entente with Golkar leader Siti Hardiyanti
Rukmana, President Soeharto's eldest daughter, as a maneuver to
strengthen his bargaining position.

Surprise

In April Abdurrahman sprang a surprise when he agreed to join
a Jerusalem-based non-governmental organization, the Simon Peres
Institute, in April.

The 57-year-old national Moslem figure is currently recovering
from nose bleeding caused by hypertension.

Fuad said he had asked the local security authorities to probe
the case.

The East Java military command destroyed 5,432 anonymous
leaflets and letters, including those found by the NU office
here, late last month.

Political analyst Amir Santoso said in Jakarta yesterday that
Abdurrahman should learn from the controversies surrounding him.

"His masses are confused by his moves which can turn support
into challenges to him. This situation is not beneficial for his
supporters or Moslems in general."

Amir said criticism of Abdurrahman had grown within the
country's Moslem community because of people's improved political
knowledge.

He criticized both anti- and pro-Abdurrahman groups for using
rumors to attack each other. "They should use the appropriate
mechanisms, for example the House of Representatives, to settle
their rivalry," he said.

Another political analyst, Arbi Sanit, alleged a third party
close to the elite was responsible for arranging the ploy to
discredit Abdurrahman.

Arbi said the final aim of the maneuver was to prevent Moslems
from forming a unified force, because Moslems are the country's
strongest civilian group.

Indonesia is predominantly Moslem and the world's largest
Moslem country.

Arbi predicted that the moves to discredit Abdurrahman and
divide Moslems would escalate in the run-up to the General
Assembly of the People's Consultative Assembly next March.

The assembly will convene to draw up the broad guidelines of
state policies for the next five years and appoint the President
and Vice President for the 1998-2003 term. (nur/amd)