Protesters kept away from Islamic festival opening

SURABAYA (JP): President B.J. Habibie arrived here on Saturday for a traditional festival commemorating early propagators of Islam, the Wali Sanga.

Aspiring protesters, who staged demonstrations on the past three days, were deterred not only by security troops but also by the many civilians guarding the religious event with sharp weapons.

A group of some 80 activists resorted to approaching a mental health hospital in Sukolilo area. They demanded that medical staff "examine" the political behavior of several officials.

However, security personnel could not prevent the "boos" greeting Habibie's speech, in which he touched on the presidential election planned for November.

"Whoever becomes the next president... will be entirely determined by the people's representatives in the People's Consultative Assembly," Habibie said, addressing a large number of Islamic boarding school students, from whom the boos came.

The incumbent president, who expressed pride that the elections went fairly smoothly, is said to have a good chance of being reelected.

As of Sunday, East Java was the only province in which the National Awakening Party (PKB) won the polls. Its founder Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), is the party's presidential candidate.

Islamic parties and others seeking Muslim votes, including parties set up by different factions within the NU, competed to win votes among boarding school (pesantren) students in the province.

The committee chairman of the festival, noted businessman Fadel Muhammad, said the event was an international one which would last to July 25.

At least 1,000 stands displaying various crafts have been erected around the eastern parking lot of Surabaya Plaza. Participants include neighboring countries, members of the Organization of Islamic Conference and hundreds of local entrepreneurs.

However, symbols of the nine wali -- Sunan Gresik, Sunan Ampel, Sunan Bonang, Sunan Drajat, Sunan Giri, Sunan Kalijaga, Sunan Kudus, Sunan Muria and Sunan Gunung Jati -- were absent at the festival, as the festival is not supported by the guardians of the tradition. Religious leader and spokesman of the guardians, KH Nuh Yusuf, said they rejected the President's planned visit to the graves of the wali.

He said the visit had nothing to do with the festival which Habibie officiated. The visit was later canceled.

Accompanied by several ministers and First Lady Hasri Ainun Habibie, the president called on the public to take the behavior of the wali as a model for the reform movement.

In introducing Islam, the wali succeeded in a "cultural approach," the president said, without seeking to impose their teachings on communities unfamiliar to the religion.

On Friday in Jakarta, Habibie, who turned 63 on that day, opened the Bung Karno University, which was founded by one of first president's daughters, Rachmawati Soekarnoputri. Prior to this, the university, the campus of which is on Jl. Kimia, Central Jakarta, had failed to secure the required government permit for 16 years.

"Indonesia's history can not be separated from the services and concrete works of Bung Karno. I hope the values and spirit of his struggle --in pioneering the establishment of the state and the nation -- can be used as input by the Bung Karno University in managing this university," the President said in his inauguration speech at the State Palace. (nur/prb)