Unknown cleric for president

Unknown cleric for president

MEDAN, North Sumatra: The Moslem-based Justice Party (PK) is standing by its policy to nominate a little-known Muslim cleric for the next president of the republic.

A party executive, Daud Rasyid, said in a campaign here on Wednesday that the party is fielding Kyai Haji Didin Hafiduddin, a cleric who runs an Islamic boarding school in Bogor, West Java.

Didin is not a member of the party's board of executives.

Daud said the party was aware that the cleric was neither well-known nor experienced in political affairs, but that he was a man of integrity.

According to Daud, in the future Indonesia would no longer need a bureaucrat for the presidential role, but a religious man who shunned corruption, collusion and nepotism.

"What is the use of having a president who is not pious?" he told Antara. "This will only hurt the public interest."