Top ulema ready for debate on new party
JAKARTA (JP): An influential ulema who planned to form a new political party, following his organization's defeat in the recent chairmanship election of the United Development Party (PPP), has softened his stance.
K.H. Yusuf Hasyim, chairman of the law-making body (Syuriyah) of the largest Moslem organization Nahdlatul Ulama, said he is willing to discuss his plan with other people, including Harsudiono Hartas, a member of the Supreme Advisory Board.
He told the Antara news agency from Surabaya yesterday that he could understand the appeal made by some people that he refrain from pushing with his idea to form a new political party.
Lt. Gen. (ret.) Hartas, who is also former chief of the social political affairs department of the Armed Forces (ABRI), had called on Yusuf and the other ulemas to call off their plan for fear of creating fresh problems.
Instead, ulemas could continue their role as the "moral force" of society, and be involved in the existing political parties, or other organizations, by "straightening up the morality of political actors going astray," he said.
"To establish a new party could create new problems, such as misunderstandings which, in return, could endanger national unity," Hartas had said.
Yusuf said yesterday that he welcomed Hartas' gesture and would take up the invitation next week. "I'm ready to meet him in order to discuss the question of a new political party, and his suggestion that ulemas continue to be the society's moral force," Yusuf said.
"Dialog would help unblock communication and build mutual understanding," he added.
Disgruntled ulemas from NU have been maneuvering to demonstrate their opposition to the PPP's new leadership. Yusuf and two other ulemas in East Java had gone so far as to consider the establishment of their own political party.
The move has been considered a doubtful one because the law recognizes only three political groupings: Golkar, PPP and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
Yusuf, K.H. Alawy Muhammad and K.H. Syansuri Badawi, who have become the standard bearers in the ulemas' rejection of PPP's new chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum, got their idea during a meeting in the East Java Moslem stronghold of Jombang earlier this month.
They also appointed nine ulemas to decide whether the ulemas would reject or accept Ismail Hasan's appointment of three NU leaders as members of the PPP's advisory board.
Yesterday Yusuf said he was still indecisive over whether or not he would accept the appointment.
"If the ulemas tell me to (accept the post), I will do it. If they say no, then I will not," he said. "It's up to the ulemas." (swe)