Opposing PKB camps trade accusations

Opposing PKB camps trade accusations

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A bitter internal feud in the National Awakening Party (PKB),
the fourth largest party in the country, erupted into the public
domain on Monday.

The open battle for leadership pits Matori Abdul Djalil in one
camp and Alwi Sihab in the other, with each claiming to be the
legitimate party leader.

Matori held a national working meeting attended by over 100
representatives from 21 of the 32 provincial chapters to show
that he has strong grassroots support.

Another 200 Matori supporters were present at a party
conference in the Ciputra Hotel in West Jakarta. In the eyes of
the Alwi camp, the convention was illegal because Matori had been
dismissed from the party for disloyalty.

British ambassador Richard Gozny was among VIPs at the
gathering.

The convention enraged the Alwi camp, who threatened to sue
Matori and his supporters for establishing a rival PKB executive
board and organizing the national meeting.

"We are preparing legal action against Pak Matori and his
camp. I don't see any other way to resolve this problem. He has
violated the party's constitution," Alwi told The Jakarta Post on
Monday.

Effendy Choirie from the Alwi camp said Matori had violated
the law by appropriating PKB attributes, such as letterheads,
official stamps, flags, and other party symbols.

But Matori, who was the party's first chairman, remained
undeterred. "I am glad they (the Alwi camp) are to use legal
means," he said on a separate occasion.

The party's board of patrons fired Matori in July for
disloyalty when he supported the impeachment of then president
Abdurrahman Wahid, the PKB's chief patron.

Matori was then replaced by Alwi Sihab, but continued to
insist his removal was illegal and has since stuck to his claim
that he remains the legitimate PKB chief.

Matori is also sticking to his claim that he is the only
person who has the right to appoint PKB representatives to the
Assembly's leadership.

In a piece of political acrobatics, he dismissed chief patron
Abdurrahman Wahid, who was one of the party's founding fathers.
Matori then appointed the unknown Ibrahim Lakoni from South
Sumatra as Abdurrahman's successor.

Matori, who is the minister of defense, played down his
rivals' threat of legal action, saying that Abdurrahman should
have done the same when firing him.

"I don't take it so seriously, but I am glad that they are
going to use the legal way. It is quite an improvement," Matori
told reporters at Merdeka Palace on Monday.

For Alwi, a former foreign minister, what Matori was doing was
a bad joke.

"Everybody knows that the PKB was founded by Nahdlatul Ulama
(the country's largest Muslim organization). How many ulemas
support Matori? How can he ignore this fact" Alwi asked.

The Alwi camp insisted that those attending the meeting were
nobodies from the provinces, probably activists from other minor
parties which failed to get seats in the House in the 1999
election.

Effendy charged that Matori was using the regional military
commands to help get his supporters to Jakarta.

For their part, Matori's supporters claimed that they were
intimidated by the Alwi supporters when departing for Jakarta.

Harris Boenyamin of Probolinggo, East Java, said, "I received
phone calls several times from my friends in the PKB who asked me
to cancel my trip. They said something would happen to me if I
went," Harris said.

He claimed that his friends who departed from Juanda airport
in Surabaya were also intimidated by Alwi supporters.