NU will suffer, whatever: Observers
A. Junaidi, Jakarta
The involvement of leading figures of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in the presidential election would only hurt the organization, observers said.
"NU, as part of civil society, will suffer a loss (of support) no matter whether its candidates win or lose in the election," Syafiq Hasyim, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Committee for Islam and Pluralism, told The Jakarta Post.
Presidential candidate and United Development Party (PPP) leader Vice President Hamzah Haz, is a former NU activist, while three vice presidential candidates: Hasyim Muzadi for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Solahuddin Wahid for the Golkar Party and Jusuf Kalla for the Democratic Party, are the NU chairman, deputy chairman and advisor respectively.
The Amien Rais-Siswono Yudohusodo ticket is the only one with no links to NU.
Syafiq said if any of the NU candidates won the election, the organization would continue to be used as quasi-political party by political candidates to further their own ends.
"But if they fail, the NU will weaken even more as nobody will consider it a driving force in civil society," he said.
The NU, which was founded in 1926, became a political party and joined the general election in 1955, where it finished second behind the Indonesian Nationalist Party and secured a significant number of seats in the House of Representatives.
It left politics following a congress in Situbondo, East Java in 1984, returning to its earlier role as a mass organization.
From that time, the NU was considered an independent voice in the political landscape, with its leadership often standing up against corruption and in favor of human rights.
Syafiq blamed NU's former chairman Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid for leading the NU back into party politics when he was elected the country's president in 1999.
"Gus Dur's move was followed by Hasyim Muzadi's now. It's regretful," he said.
Syafiq predicted that while many NU executives had joined the presidential race, none of them would secure complete support from the organization's 40 million followers.
He said NU chapters, known as NU's structural camp, would likely vote for Hasyim, while NU's informal leaders -- often called the NU cultural camp, would support Solahuddin.
"But many NU followers will also choose Kalla because of his image and as his presidential running mate is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," he said.
Last week, hundreds of NU's boarding schools in West Java and East Java expressed their support for Hasyim and incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Earlier, Solahuddin who is the running mate of Gen. (ret) Wiranto, also secured the votes of dozens of prominent NU clerics.
Political observer Ikrar Nusa Bhakti agreed none of the four presidential and vice presidential candidates would secure the complete support of NU members.
"Hasyim and Solahuddin won't receive more than 10 million NU votes each. The remaining votes will go to other candidates," Ikrar of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences told the Post.
Besides the NU, Ikrar said millions of voters from the country's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, would be courted by candidates, especially if Amien and Siswono crashed out in the first round.
He said many Muhammadiyah followers preferred civilian to military candidates.