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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">JP/Jerry AdigunaThe past four months have been difficult for Lily Chadidjah Wahid.

After carrying out her legislative tasks at the House of Representatives for the past two years, she was dismissed from the National Awakening Party (PKB), cofounded by her oldest brother the late president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid. She was then reported by the party’s executive board to the police for defamation.

“The moves have been orchestrated to isolate me from the national political stage and the public but they will never stop me speaking frankly and upholding the truth,” Lily said in an interview with The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

“I am here, not for myself or my family, but for the people, the nation and the party I love so much,” she added.

Lily said she and her fellow legislalator Effendi Choirie were dismissed by her own nephew Muhaimin Iskandar, now chairman of the PKB and Manpower and Transmigration Minister, for their support of the proposed political investigation into the judiciary and tax mafia in February, 2011.

She claimed she did not hate Muhaimin and his colleagues and, despite her dismissal, she loved the party very much and she was fighting against rampant power abuse among party officials and cadres.

Although Muhaimin did not come to meet her and her other brothers and sisters during the recent Idul Fitri holidays, she confessed she had no hard feelings for Muhaimin but warned that the PKB was not his.

“We are a political family but politics has never separated us,” she said.

She laughed cynically when asked to comment on Muhaimin’s recent statement when he testified before the House Commission IX on health and labor affairs regarding the bribery case at the ministry. The minister claimed he knew nothing about the bribery case.

“Muhaimin is crazy if the testimony of businesswoman Dharnawati who gave the Rp 1.5 billion bribe at the request of [the minister’s close friends] Fauzi and Ali Mudhori is true,” she said.

“It was reported that the funds were intended as Idul Fitri bonuses for Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) clerics. Muhaimin could be considered to be defaming NU clerics who supported the party,” she said.

Gus Dur was also former chairman of NU, the country’s largest Muslim organization.

According to Lily, unlike other ministers from political parties, Muhaimin has been playing a vulgar game “to make money”, to enrich his cronies and to finance the party.

“Within two years, he [Muhaimin] appoints 11 special staff, most of whom have allegedly extorted companies, raised funds through the promotion of new echelon officials at the ministry and extorted migrant workers and labor exporters through the appointment of an insurance consortium. Furthermore, no field trips have been conducted with any party meetings in the regions.”

For a thorough investigation, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) should interrogate Muhaimin and examine his bank accounts, his family and the party.

Lily who was born in Jombang, East Java on March 4, 1948 has been learning about politics since her childhood.

She and her brothers and sister have always been familiar with politics and in various political parties supporting their father Wahid Hasyim, a former religious affairs minister under Indonesia’s first president Sukarno.

She and her younger brother Umar Wahid joined the PKB. Her older sister Aisyah Baidhowi is a legislator in the Golkar Party and her youngest brother Hasyim Wahid was once active in the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) while her older brother Solahuddin “Gus Solah” Wahid was non-partisan, although Golkar nominated him as a vice presidential candidate in 2004.

She admitted she came late to practical politics because she had to patiently accompany her husband Indrawanto, whom she married in 1988, develop his military career.

However she said she kept active in NU-affiliated woman and student organizations and the Servicemen’s Wives Association (Persit) and occupied the CEO position in several private companies.

“I have been free for the past five years since my husband reached mandatory retirement age, and our three children, having given me six grand children, have been busy with their own families and careers. During school holidays, my husband and I put aside some time to visit them in Cibinong (southern Jakarta), Yogyakarta and Gresik, East Java.”

Lily has managed to show strong idealism, willing to do a little for the people in her remaining years despite the political risks she will be facing in the future.

“I never dreamt of being a hero with a significant contribution to the nation but I always try to do a little patiently and honestly.”

She said however that she has never been deterred by the many problems she faced but enjoyed her life because she always tried to be consistent and honest in doing her daily duties both at home and in the House.