PKB support for Wiranto not solid: Executive

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta

Golkar Party's presidential candidate, Wiranto, may have believed he would secure support from the National Awakening Party (PKB) when he named Solahuddin Wahid his running mate over a month ago.

Now, with election day drawing closer, the PKB apparently cannot live up to Wiranto's expectations.

PKB deputy leader Khofifah Indar Parawansa said her party's support for the Wiranto-Solahuddin ticket was not "solid" because the party's chief patron, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid -- who was disqualified from the presidential race -- has vowed not to vote on July 5.

Khofifah said a heated debate was underway between figures of the party's provincial chapters, in among other places, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua and South Sulawesi, as to why the PKB did not continue its support of Gus Dur's candidacy, but proposed that his younger brother, Solahuddin, team up with Wiranto instead.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) halted Gus Dur's attempt to regain the presidency, which he briefly held between 1999 and 2001, on the grounds that he was not medically fit.

Khofifah, who refused to join the campaign team for the Wiranto-Solahuddin ticket, said such a debate was common.

"We find a similar atmosphere within Golkar Party, in which its executives continue to question why they should support a presidential candidate who is not a party insider." she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

She was referring to Wiranto, a retired four-star Army general, who won Golkar's mandate to contest the presidential race following his upset win over party chairman Akbar Tandjung in the Golkar convention on April 20.

Golkar picked Solahuddin as Wiranto's running mate in a bid to garner additional votes from PKB constituents and followers of the 40-million-strong Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). Rights campaigner Solahuddin was the NU's deputy chairman.

"Gus Dur is the most prominent and acceptable figure in the eyes of PKB constituents at the grass roots. As Gus Dur is regarded as the driving force of PKB's political machine, his official blessing of the Wiranto-Solahuddin ticket is badly needed," said Khofifah, who will return to the House of Representatives in September.

For the first time since the KPU endorsed Wiranto-Solahuddin, and four other pairs, last month to contest the unprecedented presidential election, Gus Dur asked the NU community to vote for Wiranto, saying he was committed to democratization in the country. Gus Dur, who spoke before hundreds of NU leaders in Jombang, East Java, however insisted he would not exercise his right to vote.

"It's good that Gus Dur finally called on the PKB and NU members to vote for Wiranto and Solahuddin, but the blessing would be more valuable to the PKB campaign team if Gus Dur joined it, rather than reconfirming his abstention from the election," Khofifah said.

Gus Dur said his call would resolve confusion among NU followers.

Golkar had long been waiting for Gus Dur's public endorsement.

However, Khofifah hinted that Gus Dur's call was a bit late as discrepancy among PKB executives had already turned ugly, forcing the party's central board to hold a plenary meeting to discuss punishments for members who defied the party's political stance.

"At least five PKB members face dismissal from their executive posts after we found that they did not comply with the party's decision to support candidates approved by the party," she added.

Separately, PKB deputy secretary-general Yahya Staquf, said the party's campaign team did not face problems in garnering support for Wiranto and Solahuddin from the grass roots.

Despite NU's claim to have around 40 million supporters, only one third of them are believed to have voted for the PKB in the legislative election in April.

Wiranto's attempt to secure the support of NU members faces a tough challenge from Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is running under the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, after she named NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi her running mate.