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)