PKB faces imminent split as clerics shun leadership race

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.