NU scolds KPU for Gus Dur rebuff

PURWEKERTO, Central Java (JP): A senior member of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim organization on Friday blasted the General Elections Commission (KPU) Team 15, saying there was a conspiracy to reject Abdurrahman Wahid as a candidate for the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Noer Iskandar al-Barsany, a senior member of the organization's law-making body, condemned the commission and in particular Team 15 member Agus Miftach.

"KPU has been shanghaied, especially that mad Agus Miftah," Noer Iskandar charged, referring to the chairman of the committee's Team 15 responsible for the endorsement of all 65 interest group representatives in the Assembly.

"It is quite likely that he is an accomplice of certain groups who do not want Abdurrahman as a member of the MPR," he said.

Abdurrahman, also known as Gus Dur, was nominated by NU to represent the organization as an interest group in the Assembly.

However, the commission rejected the nomination, claiming that as a founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Abdurrahman, who has chaired the NU since 1984, was partial towards a certain political party.

Noer Iskandar said the organization would fight for Abdurrahman's membership in the Assembly to represent NU.

"The membership is our right. We will not beg for it, we demand it," he stated.

"Abdurrahman indeed founded the party, but he is not a party executive," Noer Iskandar replied when asked to respond on the commission's reasoning.

He pledged an all-out effort by the organization to ensure Abdurrahman would be accepted.

"However, we will not use violence as it is not our way," he said. He said that certain elements of the organization could get very angry if the commission did not revoke its decision.

"Don't blame us then," he said.

Separately in Jakarta, Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said he would leave the matter of Abdurrahman's candidacy up to the commission.

Syarwan pledged not to intervene and said he would respect the commission's considerations although he personally thought Abdurrahman deserved a seat in the Assembly.

"The problem is in which faction. We will leave it up to the existing mechanisms," Syarwan said.

The 700-member Assembly comprises 65 representatives of interest groups, 135 regional representatives and 500 members from the House of Representatives (DPR). (05)