Saifullah to sue PKB

JAKARTA: State Minister for the Development of Disadvantaged Regions Saifullah Yusuf said on Friday he will press ahead with his plan to sue the National Awakening Party (PKB) for dismissing him as the party's secretary-general.

"I have tried to reconcile with party executives, but it has been fruitless. I think a legal move would be a lesson for all of us, that you can't kick people out just because they have different ideas," he said after opening a three-day working meeting of Ansor, the youth wing of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Jakarta.

Saifullah's move came ahead of the PKB national congress in mid-April, in which he will contest for the party's top post.

He was dismissed last October along with current chief welfare minister Alwi Shihab from the PKB central board for joining the Cabinet of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whom the party did not support.

Saifullah, also the current Ansor leader, is likely to win another five-year term as the group's head, defeating his contenders -- Arifin Hakim Thoha and Sudjono Djalil. --JP