NU Germany praises RI's role in tourism fair, criticizes SBY on other issues

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Fri, March 01 2013, 7:00 PM

The German branch of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim mass organization, has welcomed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s plan to visit to the International Tourism exhibition in Berlin, which will be organized from March 6 to 10 and which Indonesia will be co-hosting.

In a press release sent to The Jakarta Post on Friday, It expressed the hope that Indonesia’s leading role in the exhibition could be followed by fruitful cooperation between the two countries.

However, as well as praising the President’s visit, NU Germany, which mostly consists of NU intellectuals who are pursuing degrees in Germany, also criticized some of the President latest moves. It criticized, for example, Yudhoyono’s preference for tackling internal party matters instead of addressing the entire nation’s problems.

This decision, it added, could be a political blunder for the President whose tenure will end next year.

Yudhoyono was also criticized for the rising tide of religious-based violence mostly perpetrated by religious radicals against minority groups like the Ahmadiyah, the Shiah and non-Muslims. NU
Germany also questioned Yudhoyono’s economic development success story claiming it was not supported by improvements in people’s purchasing power or public services.(dic)