Recalling The PKB Conflict Which Made Gus Dur Inflamed SBY

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Photo: Twitter @SBYudhoyono)

JAKARTA - The old video of the chairman of the PKB Syuro Council Abdurrahman Wahid aka Gus Dur about the internal conflict of the National Awakening Party (PKB) has gone viral on social media in recent days.

In the video, Gus Dur said that the government was involved in the party's internal conflicts. Even Gus Dur stated firmly that SBY-JK was behind the party's internal chaos.

This conflict was also brought up again by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, who commented on the outstanding coup of the Democratic Party.

Mahfud said the government could not prohibit the Extraordinary Congress (KLB) from removing Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) as chairman of the Democrat Party in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra.

The same condition occurred during the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) when responding to the conflict between Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) and Muhaimin Iskandar (Cak Imin).

Mahfud revealed that the SBY government was also silent when PKB was divided into two camps between Gus Dur and Cak Imin in 2008.

"It is the same with the attitude of the government of Sir SBY when (2008) did not prohibit the Parung version of PKB (Gus Dur) and the Ancol version (Cak Imin). The reason is that it is an internal matter for political parties", Mahfud said in a video released on Saturday, 6 March.

Responding to this, Gus Dur's side opened their voices regarding Mahfud's statement. Yenny Wahid spokesman Imron Rosyadi Hamid considered the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security's statement reasonable. According to him, the Joko Widodo government just does not want to interfere with the internal conflicts of political parties.

According to him, this was the same attitude as what SBY was doing at that time. SBY is interpreted as not reprimanding the Minister of Law and Human Rights so as not to intervene internally in PKB.

"The PKB DPP Muhaimin Iskandar correspondence to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the KPU was also KH Abdurrahman Wahid's signature, which should have been there, but everything was allowed to happen", said Imron.

Gus Dur Called SBY the 'Source' of Party Conflict

If Mahfud's statement was pulled back, PKB's Syuro Council chairman Abdurrahman Wahid aka Gus Dur has indeed said that "SBY and JK" were the source of conflict in his party.

Gus Dur said that there were outsiders who had messed up his party. Meanwhile, the matter of Muhaimin's dismissal, he said, was only a tool.

"SBY and JK were the perpetrators! What can we do?", Gus Dur said in a press conference at the PBNU office, Kramat Raya, Jakarta, Tuesday, April 15, 2008.