The 2008 National Awakening Party (PKB) congress in Ancol, North Jakarta, was lawful and did not violate any party statues, the Supreme Court said Friday in a ruling the PKB said was a legal victory over rival “Gus Dur PKB” faction.
The ruling subsequently ended a prolonged legal dispute between the PKB, which is led by Muhaimin Iskandar, and the Gus Dur PKB led by Zannuba “Yenny” Wahid, a daughter of late former president Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahid, the founder of PKB.
Gus Dur PKB had previously filed a lawsuit against Muhaimin PKB with the Central Jakarta District Court that was dismissed in April. The party then appealed to the Supreme Court.
“We are dumbfounded by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday. It indicated the court’s inconsistency with its previous rulings in 2008 that acknowledged the legal status of the congress in Semarang,” Yenny told The Jakarta Post.
The PKB’s prolonged infighting revolves around the issue of the legality of the national congresses. Gus Dur PKB members said that the congress held in Semarang, Central Java, in 2005 was legal, and the Ancol PKB congress led by Muhaimin in 2008 was illegitimate.
“The ruling also shows that the Supreme Court somehow legitimized the dismissal of Gus Dur from his position as the party’s founder.” Yenny said.
“It was as if the Supreme Court had legalized a son’s betrayal of his own father,” she added.
Yenny demanded the Muhaimin-led PKB not exploit her charismatic father’s figure in its political activities, especially when campaigning, adding that it would be inappropriate for the opposition to use political paraphernalia depicting her late father to attract votes in the next parliamentary election.
Gus Dur PKB is somehow considering other approaches to solve the ongoing dispute, Yenny said.
“However, with the same judicial administration in office, I doubt that our Semarang congress will be legally acknowledged.”
Yenny said there was no way that she would dissolve PKB, her father’s legacy, as the party was expected to secure at least 28 million Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization.
“Such a large number of voters is a political asset, and we don’t want them to vote for other political party, or abstain from voting,” she said, adding that changing her party’s name to protect the NU vote would be a last resort.
Yenny said that the Gus Dur PKB would run in the next parliamentary election in 2014.
Commenting on the Muhaimin’s plan to form a political confederation with the National Mandate Party (PAN) and other small parties in anticipation of major political parties’ plans to increase the parliamentary threshold from 2.5 to 5 percent, Yenny said: “It demonstrates their lack of confidence in terms of passing the planned new threshold,” she said.
PKB House faction chairman, Marwan Jafar, responded to Yenny’s objection to the exploitation of Gus Dur’s image.
“Gus Dur does not solely belong to certain individuals. He belongs to Indonesia, and even to the international community,” he said.
Recently, several individuals from the disputed factions signed a reconciliation pact in a hope to increase PKB votes in 2014. Yenny, however, reportedly declined to sign the pact. (tsy)
