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)