APSN | With fatwa, PPP's fractious in-fighting comes to an end

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With fatwa, PPP's fractious in-fighting comes to an end

Jakarta Globe - April 23, 2014

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SP/Robertus Wardhy & Vento Saudale, Bogor – Two rival factions of Indonesia's oldest Islamic party agreed on Wednesday to reconcile, following a bitter split that had threatened to bar it from backing a candidate for the presidential election.

The closed door meeting of the United Development Party, or PPP, in Bogor agreed that Suryadharma Ali would be reinstated as the party chairman, after a faction led by secretary general M. Romahurmuzy declared him fired over the weekend.

In return, the party agreed not to form a coalition with the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, whose presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, was previously unilaterally endorsed by Suryadharma, to the chagrin of Romahurmuzy and other PPP officials.

Wednesday's reconciliation meeting was facilitated by senior cleric Maimun Zubair, the head of the Islamic party's shariah assembly.

"I declare today an end to the differences of opinion that have taken place," Suryadharma said after the meeting. "We [PPP] are now returning to ground zero. I don't want to look back again. Now we look ahead."

He also apologized to PPP supporters, saying the internal party dispute was just part of the "ordinary dynamics" of party politics. "Consider what happened as a thesis prompting an antithesis, which will create a better situation," Suryadharma said as quoted by Kompas.com.

He emphasized that his earlier support for Prabowo's presidential bid had been his personal preference and was not a party decision, as he had previously declared.

Romahurmuzy, meanwhile, said Wednesday's meeting in Bogor was a follow-up to one in Jakarta on Tuesday night, also overseen by Maimun. Romahurmuzy attributed the reconciliation to Maimun's intervention in the conflict, saying his own previous calls for reconciliation had been largely ignored by Suryadharma.

"To me, because the PPP was founded by clerics and Mbah Mun [Maimun] is the party's highest cleric, there is no other choice but for me to listen and obey," Romahurmuzy told Antaranews.com.

The two meetings were held after Maimun, 87, issued an edict on Tuesday calling on the two rival factions to reconcile, while annulling a series of tit-for-tat decisions made by either side, including Suryadharma's firing of Romahurmuzy and other senior PPP officials, and the latter's subsequent decision to suspend Suryadharma as chairman.

Under the edict six officials, including Romahurmuzy and deputy chairman Suharso Monoarfa, were reinstated. The edict also annulled a coalition with Gerindra declared by Suryadharma last week.

"I'm saddened and have cried over what has transpired recently," Maimun told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday, as his son, Abdul Gofur, read out the PPP shariah assembly edict. "I wouldn't call this a rift; this is just a dispute. I want both sides to reconcile."

The spat, the worst in the party's 41-year history, had threatened to sideline the PPP from the July 9 presidential election, for which each candidate must have the signed backing of the chairperson and secretary general of each party supporting them.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/fatwa-ppps-fractious-fighting-comes-end/.