PKB divided over candidate choice
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta
After sparking an internal rift in the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) over the vice presidential candidacy of its leader Hasyim Muzadi, cofounder of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid made a statement on Thursday that could incite a squabble within the party he helped create.
In a press conference organized after talks with members of the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), Gus Dur lambasted PKB leader Alwi Shihab for saying the party would support the pairing of Wiranto and Solahuddin Wahid of the Golkar Party in the July 5 polls.
"If Pak Alwi says PKB will support Wiranto it is up to him, it is his business," the cleric said.
He said that giving his blessing to Solahuddin to run as Wiranto's running mate did not mean that he altogether supported the pair.
Gus Dur -- accompanied by his lawyers, Alwi and PKB central board member Mahfud MD -- met with Panwaslu to lodge a complaint over the General Elections Commission's (KPU) ruling on compulsory health examinations for presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Gus Dur also said that he was ready to leave the PKB and found a new political party should the majority of PKB members disobey his orders.
"I am ready to set up my own political party, its name would be the free democratic party," he said.
After registering his presidential bid with the KPU on Tuesday, Gus Dur said he would quit political life should the commission disqualify him for poor health. "I have been involved in politics for more than 30 years," he said.
Alwi said, on that occasion, that if the KPU disqualified Gus Dur, the PKB would throw its weight behind the Wiranto-Solahuddin pairing.
In the meeting with Panwaslu, Gus Dur boasted that millions of his supporters would choose abstention, if the commission declared him unfit for the election.
In late April, Gus Dur incited an internal split in the NU after he refused to support Hasyim as the running mate of President Megawati Soekarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Earlier, the NU had decided in a plenary session attended by influential members of its syuriah (law-making bodies) and tanfidziah (executive board) to let Hasyim enter the presidential race.
Saying that most NU clerics had given him their blessing, Gus Dur decided to join the presidential race.
The visually impaired former president was impeached by the People's Representatives Assembly (MPR) in 2001 for incompetence and erratic behavior.