PKB sets dual standards on double jobbing

PKB sets dual standards on double jobbing

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

The National Awakening Party's (PKB) controversial decision to
prohibit its executives from holding government posts may be
arbitrary in its enforcement as it is not regulated in its new
statutes agreed upon on Monday.

The ban on dual positions became controversial after the PKB
central board suspended Alwi Shihab and Saifullah Yusuf as party
chairman and secretary-general respectively, after the two joined
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Cabinet last October.

The suspension was based on a policy enacted through a plenary
meeting of the central board, despite the fact that it was not
stipulated in the party's old statutes.

Claiming his suspension was "baseless" and "arbitrary", chief
welfare minister Alwi filed a lawsuit with the South Jakarta
District Court last week against the party's central board.
Saifullah plans to follow suit.

The PKB national leadership congress decided here on Monday
not to adopt the controversial stipulation in its new statutes.

The decision defied a growing demand by some congress
participants for the congress, which is the party's highest
decision making forum, to formally ban the dual positions by
regulating it in the party statutes.

"We don't need to adopt the policy because otherwise, it will
be a silly decision," senior PKB executive A.S. Hikam told The
Jakarta Post after attending a meeting of Commission A, which
deliberated the party's statutes.

He indicated that in some cases there could be an exception to
the prohibition on the dual position when political developments
require the party to serve executive posts.

"For example, if the PKB becomes the ruling party, should we
then not take control of the government?" Hikam queried, just
hours before he announced his unexpected withdrawal from the race
for the party's top executive post.

He said that instead of such an ongoing congress, a plenary
meeting of the PKB central board would be a "sufficient and
proper forum" to decide whether a ban should be imposed on
certain party executives.

"If we stipulate the matter in the statutes through the
congress, it will cost us Rp 7 billion just to scrap it when we
deem it no longer relevant," Hikam said, referring to the fund
allocated for the current congress in Semarang.

Saifullah was quoted on Monday by local media as criticizing
his suspension which he said was "discriminatory and
inconsistent".

The dual position policy should also be consistently applied
to party executives in the regions, serving or vying for
government posts as governors, regents or mayors, he said.

Meanwhile, in an apparent attempt to block the nomination of
Saifullah as the PKB executive chairman, the congress, controlled
by his contender Muhaimin Iskandar, decided not to allow
candidates holding government posts to contest the election.

Eligible candidates would also be required to be non-active in
social organizations, including the 40 million-strong Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU) that founded the PKB in 1999, according to the party's
new statutes.

Apart from serving as the state minister for the development
of disadvantaged regions, Saifullah also chairs Anshor, NU's
youth wing.

His bid is also hampered by another stipulation in the new
statutes, which states that a candidate must never have been
involved in "organizational conflict" with the NU chief patron,
the powerful post held by PKB founder and former president
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Gus Dur had expressed his disappointment with Saifullah's
inclusion in the Cabinet.