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.