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)