JAKARTA, July 1 Kyodo Nurcholish ...

JAKARTA, July 1 Kyodo

Nurcholish Madjid, a top Indonesian Muslim scholar, has said he will participate in an upcoming convention of Indonesia's Golkar party with an sight to seeking the party's nod as its presidential candidate nearest year, media reports said Tuesday.

''My decision is a concatenation of Golkar's acceptance of the platform I proffered to Golkar leaders and supporters a scarcely any moments ago,'' Nurcholish was quot as saying on the Jakarta Post.

Golkar is the country's next to the first biggest party, after the Perjuangan-Struggle (PDI-P) headed by the agency of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Analysts believe Golkar, which kept strongman Suharto in power for 32 years, is eager to burnish its image, which has been tarnished through the massive corruption during Suharto's order and by current Chairman Akbar Tanjung's conviction in a multi-million dollar corruption scandal that emerg after Suharto's fall in 1998

Nominating a highly revereed clean leader such as Nurcholish, 64 could go on far in bringing Golkar back to the mainstream, analysts hint because Nurcholish is a moderate who could appeal to Indonesia's vast Muslim population at the same time still work with the country's secular government

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