NU plans to harmonize its position on PPP
NU plans to harmonize its position on PPP
JAKARTA (JP): Leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), licking
their wounds at the way United Development Party (PPP) treated
them at a congress last week, plan to take a common stand on
their ties with the party which they helped found 21 years ago.
Hasyim Muzadi, head of NU's executive board in East Java, said
he plans to organize a meeting with other NU leaders in Java to
forge a united stand in view of the PPP treatment, the Antara
news agency reported.
Hasyim said NU was deeply disappointed at the treatment. "It
is not our intention to meddle in the affairs of other people,
but cannot accept to see our ulemas being battered by
politicians," he said.
His statement is the latest sign of dissension from NU in the
aftermath of the PPP congress. NU chairman Abdurrahman Wahid has
even warned that many young PPP supporters would abandon the
party in the next general election in 1997 and vote for the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) instead.
The congress saw the re-election of incumbent chairman Ismail
Hasan Metareum for another five year term in spite of a vigorous
NU campaign to oust him.
NU leaders, while not disputing his re-election, expressed
their grave disappointment over the fact that Ismail Hasan
ignored their demand to have a say in the appointment of seven NU
figures in the party's new central executive board.
Ismail Hasan and the electoral council selected seven NU
politicians of their own choice to the 21-strong executive board.
One of them, Tosari Widjaja, was named secretary general, which
is considered the second most important post on the board.
Abdurrahman says the new board consists of a bunch of
"elitists lacking grass root support."
Hasyim said the NU leaders in Java hope to come to a consensus
on its political posture ahead of the 1997 election. "It's time
that we forge a common stand and avoid being ordered about from
left and right."
He promised however that the NU leaders will look at the
issues objectively.
The dissension being shown by NU revives the prospect of a
repeat of the 1987 election when many NU ulemas urged their
supporters to "deflate" the PPP and vote for the ruling political
organization Golkar or the PDI.
Abdurrahman served as a member of the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) in the 1987-92 period representing Golkar but has
since fallen out of favor with the ruling political group.
NU, which boasts 35 million followers, mostly in rural Java,
formally severed its ties with the PPP in 1984 but many of its
leaders have remained loyal to the party which their organization
helped found in 1973. But its has failed successive attempts to
wrest the PPP chairmanship away from the Muslimin Indonesia to
which Ismail Hasan belongs.
Apolitical
Hasyim said while NU remains essentially apolitical, it could
not accept seeing NU politicians being insulted and harmed by the
PPP leadership.
Responding to suggestions that NU give its support to PDI in
the 1997 election, Hasyim said such an alliance could create an
explosive political environment in Indonesia.
He likened such an alliance to the PDI being a fuse while the
ulemas an oil. "The meeting of the two elements is something
totally new to Indonesian politics," he said.
PPP leaders meanwhile have begun a quite campaign to mend
fences with NU.
The Chief of the PPP executive board in East Java, Soeleiman
Fadeli, for example, has been contacting influential NU leaders
in the province to urge them to accept the congress results,
Antara news agency reported.
PPP chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum has also sent envoys to a
number of senior NU ulemas named to the party's advisory board,
in particular Jusuf Hasjim, amidst suggestions that they were
turning down the offer.
"He is considering the offer," Ismail Hasan said.
He also warned Abdurrahman not to instigate party cadres to
abandon the party ahead of the 1997 election. (emb)