Nurcholish meets Sultan

YOGYAKARTA: Muslim scholar and presidential hopeful Nurcholish Madjid held a closed-door meeting with Sultan Hamengkubuwono X late on Tuesday night.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting that lasted for almost five hours until early Wednesday, Nurcholish, or Cak Nur, as he is popularly known, said that there were a lot of ideas discussed during the meeting.

"I learned a lot from the Sultan, especially regarding the current governance crisis," said Cak Nur, adding that as one of the Ciganjur Declaration leaders, the Sultan felt morally responsible in guarding the course of the reform.

Cak Nur also said that the Sultan seemed to indicate during the meeting that a new president was needed in the next government, arguing that the current government had failed to implement the reform movement's mandate. One of the indicators, he said, was the weakness of the current government in handling corruption, nepotism and collusion cases.

Cak Nur also said that he and the Sultan agreed that it was not necessary to stop President Megawati Soekarnoputri from competing in the upcoming presidential election.

"It entirely depends on the people's (voter's) judgment," he said.

Both also agreed that whoever won the presidential election should be treated as the one who had the right to govern the country.

"We have to accept whoever wins the election, good or bad," he said.

Indonesia will hold its first-ever direct presidential election on July 5, 2004. Megawati, chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), plans to run for reelection. --JP