PKB leadership battle hots up
PKB leadership battle hots up
Bambang Nurbianto and Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta/Yogyakarta
The impasse in the leadership tug of war which has split the
National Awakening Party (PKB) has failed to dampen its
politicians' ambitions to get to the top.
While the upcoming congress of one camp will only formally
install Matori Abdul Djalil, competition for the top job in the
camp loyal to Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid is heating up.
Matori's congress in Jakarta on Jan. 14 will basically be a
one-man show because he is unchallenged.
The Gus Dur camp is obviously more luring for ambitious
politicians. One more name made the list of candidates on
Thursday, taking the total number to six.
The latest figure to secure his name on the list was Marzuki
Usman, a former chief of the Investment Coordinating Board under
the Soeharto regime and forestry minister under president
Abdurrahman Wahid.
The others are Saifullah Yusuf, a nephew of Gus Dur; ex-
foreign minister and current acting PKB chairman Alwi Shihab;
former defense minister Muhammad Mahfud MD; former research and
technology minister A.S. Hikam; and chairperson of the PKB
faction in the House of Representatives, Ali Masykur Musa.
Alwi and Saifullah are widely seen as the strongest candidates
to lead the party founded by leaders of the 40 million-strong
Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).
Mahfud is expected to get the support of NU strongholds in
East Java, particularly Madura Island, where he hails from.
Saifullah, leader of Ansor, NU's youth wing, has had his
loyalty to PKB questioned by critics because he officially joined
PKB only last Tuesday after he served as a legislator for
President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).
A reliable source said Saifullah was asked by Gus Dur, a
founder of the PKB, to resign from PDI Perjuangan on the grounds
that his uncle wanted him to lead the PKB. Gus Dur denied the
report.
Saifullah's candidacy has also provoked suspicion that he is
being used by PDI Perjuangan to spy on the PKB.
Some pro-Abdurrahman PKB activists have suspected that PDI
Perjuangan has contributed to the worsening conflict plaguing the
PKB, the fourth largest party.
They claim that PDI Perjuangan provides financial assistance
to Matori and Saifullah to keep the internal bickering aflame to
tarnish the PKB's image.
Chairman of PDI Perjuangan's faction in the House Roy B.B.
Janis flatly rejected the charges, saying Saifullah had expressed
his wish to shift his loyalty to the PKB long before Gus Dur was
fired as president last July.
Megawati and Gus Dur were close allies until the impeachment
process which resulted in his ouster and to Megawati becoming
president.
Roy claimed that Megawati broke down to tears when Saifullah
insisted on his plan to quit PDI Perjuangan.
"We have tried in vain to maintain his membership in PDI
Perjuangan. So, it is strange if our party is accused of
engineering Saifullah's retirement," Roy told the Post.
The pro-Abdurrahman PKB faction will hold its extra-ordinary
congress in the court city of Yogyakarta from Jan. 17 to Jan. 19.
Yogyakarta Sultan Hemengku Buwono X met with the party's
official on Thursday to discuss the plan.
"Pak Sultan wished us luck and promised to address the
congress," said Arifin Junaedi, the party's advisory board
secretary.