PKB faces imminent split as clerics shun leadership race

The Jakarta Post, Semarang

The National Awakening Party (PKB) was facing an imminent split on Monday as senior clerics, in defiance of the party's chief patron Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, called the PKB's national congress here illegitimate and considered setting up a splinter group.

The internal bickering worsened as three candidates for the party's top post -- Saifullah Yusuf, AS Hikam and Ali Masykur Moesa -- said they would not stand in the election just hours before a vote was to take place for a new leader.

In their absence, only Muhaimin Iskandar and Mahfud MD are left in what is now a two-horse race. Muhaimin, Gus Dur's nephew and a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, is tipped as the favorite to assume leadership of the PKB following the withdrawal of the other candidates.

"If I went ahead with my nomination, I would have had to defy the advice of senior clerics," Saifullah said outside the congress venue at the Patra Jasa Hotel.

Opposition clerics have declared the congress "illegal because it violates the party's statutes".

The declaration was made following a meeting on Monday attended by at least 11 senior clerics, including Mas Subadar, Muhaiminan Gunardho, Idris Marzuki, Ubaidillah Faqih, Amin Iskandar, Abdurrahman Khudori, Munawir, Nurul Huda Jazuli and Ma'ruf Amin.

These were the same clerics who backed Gus Dur's failed bid last December to contest the powerful law-making body of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, which founded the PKB six years ago.

Subadar, acting as a spokesman for the clerics, said they switched allegiance from Gus Dur because the PKB's chief patron ignored their request to reinstate Alwi Shihab and Saifullah as the party's leader and secretary-general, respectively.

The clerics urged all PKB members to boycott the congress and asked Alwi and Saifullah to maintain their leadership of the party, based on the results of an extraordinary meeting in Yogyakarta in 2002.

Alwi, the coordinating minister for people's welfare, is suing the PKB's central board for suspending him after he joined President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Cabinet in October.

The minister said he would organize a breakaway party conference to decide whether to establish a splinter faction. "We will first hold a meeting with provincial and regency branches of the PKB across Indonesia to discuss the plan."

Gus Dur may lose another close aide, Muhammad AS Hikam, who has also questioned the legitimacy of the current national congress.

Hikam, who declined to take part in the election for a new party leader, said he had yet to decide if he would formally join the opposition faction.

"I refused the nomination because this congress has been tainted with personal interests and dirty politicking," he said on the sidelines of the congress.

Among the reasons he cited for dropping out of the election was the unanimous declaration of Gus Dur as the PKB's chief patron for 2005-2010 during a plenary session on Saturday, when participants heard responses from the party's 33 provincial branches to the accountability report of the central board.

The decision violated procedures for the election of the party's powerful consultative board, Hikam said.

Hikam said the congress had caused an "extraordinary rift" among clerics because it failed to heed their aspirations.

"What is happening now at the conference goes against my conscience," he said.

He said he would not join the new central board of the party, which will be formed after the congress.

Later in the day, another candidate for the PKB's top post, Ali Masykur Moesa, announced he was dropping out of the race.

While he did not give a reason for his decision, Ali said he would remain loyal to the party.

"I still respect the ongoing process of the congress. I leave my nomination to the participants," he said.

Under the party's new standing orders, to be eligible for the top post a candidate must secure support from at least 12 provincial and 150 regency branches, and have been active in the party for at least five years.