Planned meeting on 'Green Dragon' dropped
Planned meeting on 'Green Dragon' dropped
SURAKARTA (JP): A senior leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)
ruled out yesterday convening a special meeting to discuss
allegations of a plot to discredit the Moslem organization and
its leadership.
Ilyas Ruchiyat, chairman of NU's syuriah (law-making body),
said a decision on what should be done about Green Dragon, the
codename of the purported plot, was the responsibility of
Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the executive board.
The NU's leadership felt there was no need to discuss the
issue; in a plenary meeting in Jakarta last month the issue was
not raised, he said.
Abdurrahman went public with allegations of a covert operation
Sunday, though he did not say which person or organization was
behind the plot.
The riots that rocked Situbondo, East Java in October and
Tasikmalaya, West Java in December were intended to sow
instability and make NU the scapegoat, he said, adding there
could well be other riots in the future. Both Situbondo and
Tasikmalaya are predominantly NU-towns.
He said the operation followed the Red Dragon Operation last
year that saw Megawati Soekarnoputri removed from the leadership
of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
Ilyas nevertheless called on NU members to be on the alert and
seek out more information on the alleged operation, either from
their NU branch offices or from their Jakarta headquarters.
"I agree there are certain groups that dislike NU, and they
are spreading rumors aimed at ruining NU's image and
destabilizing the community," Ilyas said.
Muladi, a professor of law from Diponegoro University in
Semarang and a member of the National Commission on Human Rights,
dismissed the purported operations as non-sense.
"I don't believe either the Green Dragon or the Red Dragon
operations exist," he said.
He cautioned NU leaders and other informal leaders against
making statements that could cause controversy and anxiety.
He did admit the vast influence NU commands makes it a major
force in Indonesian politics. NU is the largest Moslem
organization in Indonesia with an estimated 30 million followers,
mainly in rural Indonesia. (har/08)