Weak politicians depend too much on military, NU chief says

Edith Hartanto and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Lamongan, East Java

Weak-minded politicians have failed to lead the nation by squabbling among each other, turning to the military for support and showing apathy toward the current leadership crisis, said the chairman of the largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Hasyim Muzadi.

Hasyim said on Friday that politicians failed to consider that the country's scary political and security conditions was the consequence of leadership failure in the central government.

"The quality of our politicians in working out solutions for the nation's problems is so low and their performances are deplorable. They fight among themselves and fail to lead a country that is facing a political, social and severe moral crisis," Hasyim told The Jakarta Post over the phone from the Al- Hikam Pondok Pesantren in Malang, East Java.

Hasyim made the statements after a meeting with his friend, former president and NU chairman Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Abdurrahman reportedly visited him on Friday to discuss the upcoming NU Congress in Jakarta, and the growing influence the Indonesian Military (TNI) had over President Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration.

Hasyim did not confirm this matter, but cited an example of how the government bowed to the military by its handling of Aceh.

The province has been home to armed separatists fighting for independence since 1976.

"The Acehnese administration is, as yet, ineffective and it somehow fails to use its special autonomy status to stabilize conditions in the province," Hasyim said.

Instead, the people of Aceh may be facing a state of civil emergency that will lend the military greater authority in the conflict-torn province.

Thousands were brutally tortured, murdered and kidnapped during a 10-year military operation to rid separatists of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh.

The operation was scrapped in 1998, but recent calls for tougher military action have resurfaced within the government and the legislature. The TNI has been campaigning for this.

"Politicians continue to turn to the TNI mostly for political support. This is why the security situation in our country can never be conducive. The military is the nation's defense tool. But here, weak politicians allow themselves to be used instead (by the TNI)," Hasyim said.

At a news conference following the meeting between Hasyim and Abdurrahman, the latter refused to comment on Megawati's relationship with the military.

Abdurrahman said he had promised U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz not to be in opposition to Megawati's administration. He did not elaborate on what he meant.

"If I did not support Megawati's administration, would I really be making statements (about it) then?"

"I know the U.S. is behind Megawati's administration, and the military as well, but I am not upset about it because the military is more fractured than the civilians," he said.

On his meeting with Abdurrahman, Hasyim said that they discussed the NU leadership meeting slated for July 24 to July 28 at the Asrama Haji Pondok Gede in East Jakarta.

The meeting will discuss issues on national disintegration, the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, the handling of conflict-ridden areas, education and economic matters.

Rumors following the meeting indicated that Hasyim and Abdurrahman's discussions centered on TNI's influence over Megawati, and that this could prove increasingly dangerous to the country's political and security conditions.

"NU is not ready to become a shield to protect an autocratic ruler," a close aide of Hasyim told the Post.