Jakarta, (Antara) - A number of colleagues and family members of (the fourth) Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, have planned to propose that the title of National Hero be bestowed upon the former president.
The idea to award this title as a mark of appreciation for Gus Dur, considered to have made a lot of contribution to the country, emerged at a gathering initiated by former chief of the Constitutional Court, Prof Mahfud MD, here on Wednesday afternoon.
"We will strive to ensure that Gus Dur is awarded the title of a National Hero through an objective assessment," Mahfud MD disclosed.
Among those who attended the meeting were the second daughter of Gus Dur, Yenny Wahid, Coordinating Minister for Political, Law and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, and national artist Jaya Suprana.
Minister Luhut Pandjaitan remarked that circles close to Gus Dur have been thinking for a long time about awarding such a title to the worthy man.
According to Luhut, Gus Dur deserves the honorary title and mentioned that he was never embroiled in any problematic legal issue.
"He (Gus Dur) never had any problem in terms of any violation of the constitution, and was not ever involved in any corruption case, as proved by the court," the Coordinating Minister pointed out.
In fact, Luhut said Gus Dur had always worked for the development of Indonesia.
Therefore, he (Luhut), other friends and the Gus Dur family agreed to encourage the government to confer the title of National Hero upon him.
"We'll try to communicate this to the President (Joko Widodo), and it is only a matter of time," he added.(*)
