PKB and NU officials meet in Kediri to mend ties
Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
Top figures from the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) met in Kediri, East Java over the weekend as part of efforts to mend ties between the two groups ahead of the elections.
NU leader Hasyim Muzadi, PKB secretary general Syaifullah Yusuf, PKB advisory council member Yusuf Muhammad, PKB senior executive Yahya Staquf and PKB East Java chapter head Choirul Anam were among 1,500 people attending the commemoration of Islamic New Year hosted by NU cleric Anwar Iskandar at his Assa'idiyah Islamic boarding school, 120 kilometers southwest of Surabaya.
Notably absent from the meeting, however, was PKB leader and former NU head Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid, who was attending another gathering in Kalimantan. The meeting was the first gathering of leaders of the two groups before the elections.
Gus Dur reportedly has a strained relationship with incumbent NU leader Muzadi since he failed to defend Gus Dur from a move to unseat him from the presidency in 2001. Hasyim has also refused to issue an edict calling on NU members to vote for the PKB, which was founded by NU clerics in 1998.
Hasyim, who was present in Kediri, said the gathering proved there was no conflict between the NU and the PKB.
"Who says that the NU and PKB are fighting each other? Our relationship is fine," he said.
He admitted the NU would not issue an edict for its followers to vote for the PKB in this year's elections, but asserted it was no reason for the NU and the PKB to have a row.
"The NU and the PKB share the same strongholds, so we do not need an edict to support the PKB. If we do so, this will only create more friction between the NU and the PKB," he said.
The PKB desperately needs the edict, given that the NU says it has 40 million supporters nationwide, enough to give the PKB a strong showing in the legislative election next month and the presidential election in July.
Meanwhile, is his speech during a PKB gathering in the Central Kalimantan capital of Palangkaraya, Gus Dur said he was optimistic he could pass health requirements to become a presidential candidate.
"The doctor who has been treating me intensively says my sight will recover in late March," he said on Saturday before hundreds of followers of the PKB Central Kalimantan chapter.
Gus Dur said he was undergoing treatment by a doctor he identified only as "Harry", a Korean traditional therapist.
The General Elections Commission has formed a medical team to examine all presidential candidates. Election laws say the candidates must be physically and mentally healthy and this must be validated by the team.
Gus Dur said his goal to regain the presidency to uphold democracy and human rights.
Gus Dur said he was also scheduled to attend a meeting in a remote area of Muara Teweh, Central Kalimantan on Sunday.
At the meeting, former minister of religious affairs Tarmizi Taher formally offered the PKB his nomination as Gus Dur's running mate.
Regarding the relationship between the NU and the PKB, Gus Dur said there was no formal structural connection between the NU and the PKB. However, he stressed that the NU, as the PKB's founding organization, did channel the political aspirations of the party.
"If Pak Hasyim says the NU has no connection with PKB, it is not entirely true and must be corrected...," he said.
The PKB came fourth in the 1999 elections after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Golkar, and the United Development Party (PPP).