THE two press conferences were held almost simultaneously Wednesday morning last week. The National Awakening Party (PKB) of advisory board chairman Abdurrahman Wahid’s camp invited the media to the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) head office at Kramat at 11am. Four hours later, executive board chairman Muhaimin Iskandar’s PKB held a press conference at the party’s general election team office in Menteng.

A rift has long affected the party of NU—th