Another new political party, the Partai Kebangkitan Nasional Ulama (PKNU), a split off from the PKB.

As if 27 new political parties were not enough, and hot on the heels of another new Muslim-based party, the Partai Matahari Bangsa, now comes the formation of the Partai Kebangkitan Nasional Ulama (PKNU), the National Clerics’ Awakening Party, or perhaps more correctly, the Clerics’ National Awakening Party.

The birth of the PKNU is the result of a long running, intractable, and litigious, dispute between two factions of the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB), that led by Muhaimin Iskandar and supported by former president Gus Dur, and that led by Choirul Anam. The latter, Choirul Anam, has formed the Partai Kebangkitan Nasional Ulama (PKNU) with the support of mainly East Java based Muslim clerics.

In Tuban, East Java, on the 21st of November, a meeting of senior clerics at an Islamic boarding school brought the new party into being, informally for the moment. Said Idham Chalid: mediaindo

The question of a new party cannot be debated any longer, the clerics here have agreed to form a new party as a replacement for the PKB.

It appears that most of the important clerics in East and Central Java have decided to throw in their lot with the new party, abandoning the PKB.

The party is expected to have completed all the legal requirements for party status by January of 2007. antara

Meanwhile in Jakarta vice president Jusuf Kalla re-iterated his earlier call for a “rationalisation” of parties, i.e. a reduction in their number. mediaindo Not yet, it appears.

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February 16th 2007.

The formal declaration of the Partai Kebangkitan Nasional Ulama (PKNU), which had been scheduled for 18th February, has been put back to March 2007. Deputy Secretary General of the party, Abdullah Mufied Mubarok, says that now is a bad time due to the recent Jakarta floods.

Nevertheless the party has already been registered with the Law & Human Rights department and it has fulfilled all the requirements to achieve formal party status.

The party is based on the split off faction from the PKB in Surabaya, grouped around the figures of Abdurrahman Chudlori and Choirul Anam. The PKNU is said to be a purely Islamic party, whereas the PKB is a nationalist religious party. Mufied explains however that dhimmis are welcome in the party: antara

The PKNU was founded as a part of the stuggle of Muslim clerics, and in order to represent the interests of Nahdatul Ulama (NU) people, nationalist Muslims, Muslim nationalists, along with non-Muslims who seek protection. By being based in Islam ideologically be affirm that PKNU is not a secular party.

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March 25th 2007.

Seventeen clerics will launch the party at Langitan, Tuban, East Java on 31st March. antara They are:

1. KH Abdullah Faqih (Langitan, Tuban, East Java),
2. KH Ma`ruf Amin (Tanara, Banten),
3. KH Abdurrohman Chudlori (Magelang, Central Java),
4. KHA Sufyan Miftahul Arifin (Situbondo, East Java),
5. KH Idris Marzuqi (Lirboyo, Kediri, East Java),
6. KHA Warson Munawwir (Krapyak, Yogyakarta),
7. KH Muhaiminan Gunardo (Temanggung, Central Java),
8. KH Abdullah Schaal (Bangkalan, East Java),
9. KH Sholeh Qosim (Sidoarjo, East Java),
10. KH Nurul Huda Djazuli (Ploso, Kediri, East Java),
11. KH Chasbullah Badawi (Cilacap, Central Java),
12. KHA Adzim Abdullah Suhaimi MA (Mampang Prapatan, Jakarta),
13. KH Mas Muhammad Subadar (Pasuruan, East Java),
14. KHA Humaidi Dahlan Lc (Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan),
15. KHM Thahir Syarkawi (Pinrang, South Sulawesi),
16. Habib Hamid bin Hud Al-Atthos (Cililitan, Jakarta),
17. KH Aniq Muhammadun (Pati, Central Java).

Langitan has been chosen because many of the founders of the party belong to the Langitan Forum. Chudry Sitompul says the party’s forming is not due to disappointment in the PKB but rather because the clerics want to struggle in the legal and political arenas.

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March 31st 2007.

On the occasion of the launching of the Partai Kebangkitan Nasional Ulama (PKNU) in Tuban Ma’ruf Amin said that although the party was Islamically based it did not seek a change to the fundamental make-up of the country, it did not seek to establish an Islamic state. He said the PKNU supported the application of Islamic law in the private sphere without burdening those of other faiths.

In the public sphere the PKNU would seek laws that had an Islamic spirit, but without the formal strictures of the sharia, so that finally secular and religious law could be in harmony. antara

There appears to be some confusion over the name of the party with one media outlet calling it the Partai Kebangkitan Nasional Umat. tempo