Nurcholish meets Sultan

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