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.