Senior NU leader declines PPP post

JAKARTA (JP): A senior leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has turned down an offer by the United Development Party (PPP) to sit on its advisory board, saying he'd prefer to remain active in NU and stay put at his pesantren (Moslem boarding school).

Yusuf Hasyim was nominated into the largely ceremonial board at a PPP congress partly in a bid to appease him after he and other NU politicians lost in their bid to win the chairmanship race. Had he accepted the post, he would have had to give up his current seat on the NU's policy making board.

The Antara news agency yesterday reported that Yusuf had decided to remain active in NU and at the Tebu Ireng pesantren in Jombang, East Java, which he leads, rather than making a return to the political scene.

Yusuf, popularly known as Pak Ud, said he previously made up his mind at a PPP meeting in October and had communicated his decision there and then, stressing that it was "the first and last" time he would attend a PPP meeting.

The PPP executive board however continued to hope he would change his mind and has not decided on an alternative figure for the advisory board.

Yusuf was an activist at the Moslem-based PPP in the 1970s but decided to abandon the political arena when NU pulled out of the party and decided to concentrate on the welfare and education of Moslems in 1984.

A widely respected figure in NU, he leads the group of NU politicians who believe the NU should have a greater say in the running of the PPP. At the last congress, he led the campaign to unseat the incumbent chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum.

Advisory bord

The effort failed and Ismail Hasan, in an attempt to appease Pak Ud and other NU politicians, offered him and others seats on the advisory board.

Pak Ud said some NU figures are still in the PPP and this he considers sufficient. Two other senior NU leaders sitting in the advisory board are Maemun Zubeir, who chairs the board, and Syansuri Badawi.

They will represent NU's interest in the PPP, he added.

Pak Ud made the controversial suggestion in October, after NU politicians lost the PPP chairmanship race, that the organization should consider forming its own political party.

The suggestion however was quickly rejected by other senior NU leaders who said the organization is determined not to be drawn back into the political arena.

The issue will be discussed again when NU holds its congress in Tasikmalaya, West Java next week. (emb)