Calls made for revamping NU<\/p>\n
Blontank Poer\/Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post\/Cirebon<\/p>\n
Hundreds of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) members ended a three-day
\nconference in Cirebon, West Java on Sunday, with several
\nrecommendations including a changing of the guard in the nation's
\nlargest Muslim organization.<\/p>\n
NU should renew its vision in order for its central board to
\nfocus on how to help improve the economic and social life of its
\nmembers at the grassroots level, they said.<\/p>\n
\"To achieve this goal, the current NU leadership should be
\nreplaced. It's impossible to promote and implement such a vision
\nwithout changing the leadership,\" said NU scholar Ulil Absar
\nAbdalla, a senior participant at the meeting.<\/p>\n
Other recommendations included a request for the NU central
\nexecutive board to refrain from political power struggles as was
\ndisplayed throughout the recently completed election period.<\/p>\n
Ulil said the NU elite should instead shift from their
\npolitical orientation to address numerous grievances of the
\norganization's 40 million members throughout Indonesia, mostly
\nfarmers and fishermen as well as other low-income people.<\/p>\n
Many of the participants also demanded that NU executives
\nshould be required to quit their posts in the organization, if
\nthey chose to run for political office.<\/p>\n
\"It's important, so that the NU will no longer be used as a
\npolitical tool for power struggles, which have a divisive affect
\non its members as experienced in the presidential elections,\"
\ncleric Abdul A'la said separately.<\/p>\n
These recommendations, Ulil said, must be taken into account
\nduring an NU national leadership congress scheduled for Nov. 28-
\nDec. 3 in Surakarta, Central Java.<\/p>\n
\"We will not file the recommendations in a written statement
\nto the NU central board. But I believe that they will be able to
\naccommodate members' grievances into an organizational policy in
\nthe upcoming congress,\" Ulil told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He said the involvement of elite NU members in practical
\npolitics as shown in the vice presidential nomination of the
\norganization's chairman, Hasyim Muzadi, took away from efforts to
\nfocus on and help improve the social and economic life of its
\nmembers.<\/p>\n
\"Because the grievances currently arising among NU members
\nhave resulted from the NU central board's sloppiness, they should
\ntherefore be held responsible and must address this issue,\" said
\nUlil.<\/p>\n
He asserted that the NU central board should enact a policy to
\naddress the issue of poverty amongst the people with guidelines
\nto change that, so as not to leave its members a \"group of the
\nweak\".<\/p>\n
Ulil, however, regretted the fact that NU lacked the
\ninfluential figures, who would be capable of dealing with the
\ngrassroots' grievances in the November congress.<\/p>\n
Former acting NU chairman Masdar Farid Mas'udi, who
\ntemporarily replaced Hasyim while he was contesting the
\npresidential polls as the running mate of outgoing President
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri, hailed the recommendations made during
\nthe Cirebon meeting.<\/p>\n
\"Political involvement by NU leaders has caused more troubles
\nto the organization. The result has been demoralization within
\nthe NU,\" he argued.<\/p>\n
Masdar said the NU leadership should accommodate these
\nrecommendations to assist all of its 40 million members, so the
\norganization could be stronger and more respected in the future.<\/p>\n
\"Why do NU members often lose in competitions? It's because
\nthe NU's mission to enhance the quality of its human resources
\nhas been ignored by its leaders,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The three-day conference was held at the Miftahul Muta'allimin
\nIslamic boarding school in Babakan village, Ciwaringin district,
\nCirebon, and attended by 750 young activists, clerics and other
\nmembers of NU throughout the country.<\/p>\n
It was organized modestly by NU's young intellectuals and
\nclerics not affiliated structurally with the organization. It
\ncost only around Rp 30 million (US$3,300) as the participants
\npaid their own expenses to attend.<\/p>\n
Local NU members, including fishermen and students of 27
\nIslamic boarding schools in Ciwaringin, contributed rice,
\nvegetables and money to support the conference.<\/p>",
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