Palace flag to be replaced to remove 'Soeharto voodoo'

Palace flag to be replaced to remove 'Soeharto voodoo'

JAKARTA (JP): A senior member of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)
Muslim organization said on Tuesday that the red-and-white flag
at the State Palace is going to be replaced to remove the "black
spirit" of former president Soeharto.

Ali Maschan Moesa, leader of the organization's East Java
chapter, was quoted in the provincial capital of Surabaya by
Antara as saying that, based on "the premonition from the Wali
Songo", the flag is believed to have been the source of all the
troubles surrounding President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Wali Songo were the nine charismatic religious teachers who
together were largely responsible for the dissemination of Islam
throughout Java.

"The flag must be thrown away and replaced with the new one,"
Ali said referring to the duplicate of the original red and white
flag that was used during the declaration of the country's
independence in August 1945.

"At the moment, the new flag is still being introduced to
several senior clerics and in August we are not going to use Pak
Harto's flag anymore," Ali was quoted as saying.

He also said that "according to the Wali Songo", speaker of
the People's Consultative Assembly Amien Rais, who is known to be
one of Abdurrahman's harshest critics, was not "much of a threat"
and that he was not "as dangerous as" Soeharto.

The U.S. Time weekly magazine wrote in its July 3 edition that
a dukun (soothsayer) close to Abdurrahman warned that the spirit
of the "big man" (Soeharto) was standing in the doorway when the
President mounted the steps of the State Palace minutes after he
was elected.

The dukun then insisted on carrying out a prayer ritual before
the First Family could enter the building.(byg)