PKB secretary-general dismissed

JAKARTA: The National Awakening Party (PKB) has decided to dismiss its Secretary-General, Saifullah Yusuf, for alleged failure to support party patron Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid as a candidate for the presidency.

Gus Dur, who is Saifullah's uncle, said on Wednesday that the PKB took the decision in a meeting of party executive board members.

"We have a clear reason to dismiss him; I don't need to explain it. The decision is final," Gus Dur was quoted by Antara as saying in Jombang, East Java, on Wednesday.

Saifullah is chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) youth wing GP Anshor, which has explicitly rejected the candidacy of Gus Dur.

Gus Dur, former chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization, NU, has made known his desire to run for the presidency on July 5, when the country will hold its first-ever direct presidential election since independence in 1945.

The nearly blind Gus Dur was dismissed as president for alleged incompetence in July 2001, 18 months after the People's Consultative Assembly had made him president in October 1999. --Antara