Hidayat gives Assembly new role<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
One day before the People's Consultative Assembly held a session
\nto swear in president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, numerous
\nnational newspapers ran pictures of Hidayat Nur Wahid, the new
\nAssembly speaker, making a bed he had installed in his newly
\noccupied office.<\/p>\n
Hidayat was pictured stretching a white sheet over the bed. On
\ntop of the bed lay a prayer rug, a symbol of piety for Muslims.<\/p>\n
The new Assembly speaker was trying to demonstrate his
\ncommitment to spurning the royal suite in a luxury hotel nearby,
\nprovided for him during the Assembly session.<\/p>\n
Although it is doubtful that Hidayat ever slept on the bed
\nduring the session (as Susilo's inauguration barely lasted for
\ntwo hours), what he intended to do was to provide an example of
\nmodesty to Assembly members, who are notorious for their lavish
\nspending of public money.<\/p>\n
\"The message is clear that we want to reduce state
\nexpenditure. We hope the example we are setting will be followed
\nby other state officials,\" Hidayat said before the Assembly
\nsession commenced.<\/p>\n
The royal suite was not the only sacrifice in his campaign for
\na modest lifestyle. Hidayat also said that Assembly leaders would
\nno longer be given Volvo sedans as their official cars.<\/p>\n
Although the effectiveness of his campaign remains to be seen,
\nit has shone like a beacon of virtue through the miasma of greed
\nthat characterizes corrupt politicians and state officials.<\/p>\n
Given the reality that after the sweeping constitutional
\nchange the Assembly is no longer the highest state institution,
\nHidayat was aware that a new role was needed and he desired that
\nthe MPR leadership would become the symbol of a new, moral
\napproach to governance.<\/p>\n
\"We need to have a new format for the Assembly leadership,
\ngiven the new institutional context,\" he said after his
\ninauguration as Assembly speaker.<\/p>\n
What Hidayat and the Assembly leaders have initiated was
\nfollowed by other state institutions, however superficially. The
\nCorruption Eradication Commission later asked President Susilo
\nBambang Yudhoyono to prohibit state officials from receiving
\ngifts.<\/p>\n
The campaign may not have had the slightest impact, had it not
\nbeen for Hidayat's own striking example.<\/p>\n
Elected, surprisingly, as Assembly speaker in early October
\nafter a neck-and-neck contest against a candidate nominated by
\nthe Nationhood Coalition, Hidayat was the leader of the
\nProsperous Justice Party (PKS), a lively political entity well-
\nknown for its anticorruption platform.<\/p>\n
The party strove for the integration of Islamic values in
\npeople's everyday lives, before embracing a more inclusive
\nplatform.<\/p>\n
Hidayat, who resigned from the party leadership two days after
\nbeing elected Assembly speaker, is also a preacher aside from his
\nday job as a lecturer at Jakarta-based Syarief Hidayatullah
\nState Islamic University.<\/p>\n
Never wanting to become a politician, Hidayat's plunge into
\npolitical life began with a brief stint at the Al Haramain
\nfoundation, the founding institution for the then Justice Party
\n(PK).<\/p>\n
Al Haramain was once declared by the U.S. government as an
\ninstitution under close watch for its alleged links to overseas
\nterrorist organizations, an allegation that was later proven
\nuntrue.<\/p>\n
The U.S. government later took Al Haramain off its list.<\/p>\n
Hidayat took over the party leadership in 2000 from then party
\nleader Nurmahmudi Ismail, who was appointed forestry minister by
\npresident Abdurrahman \"Gus Dur\" Wahid.<\/p>\n
Upon the establishment of the PK, founding members wanted
\nHidayat to assume the party leadership, but he turned down the
\noffer and chose to lead both the party advisory council and the
\nparty's highest lawmaking body, the majelis syura.<\/p>\n
Under his leadership, the PK underwent a transformation from a
\nparty known for its staunch Islamist platform to a more inclusive
\nparty that embraced religious piety in the fight against
\ncorruption.<\/p>\n
The transformation yielded a significant gain for the PKS as
\nthe former party was renamed before the election. In the April 5
\nlegislative election, it garnered 45 seats in the House of
\nRepresentatives, an astronomical rise from the seven it won in
\nthe 1999 election.<\/p>\n
Nationwide, the party now commands 1,112 council members, from
\n191 in the 1999 to 2004 term.<\/p>\n
With a constituency large enough to tilt the balance in the
\ndirect presidential elections, the PKS threw its weight behind
\nSusilo in the election runoff, saying that the incumbent,
\nPresident Megawati Soekarnoputri, did not deserve its support, as
\nshe had failed to solve the country's problems.<\/p>\n
The engagement with Susilo will likely stand in the next five
\nyears, as the PKS was given ministerial posts in the United
\nIndonesia Cabinet and pro-Susilo parties came together to endorse
\nhis Assembly speakership nomination.<\/p>\n
Hidayat, however, countered a suggestion that the Assembly
\nwould become an institution that would validate attempts to
\nimpeach or defend the President.<\/p>\n
\"Do not view the MPR as a gatekeeper for thwarting or building
\nmomentum for an impeachment,\" he said in response to a question
\nposed by The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Born in the Central Java town, Klaten, on April 8, 1960,
\nHidayat has been immersed in religious education for almost all
\nhis life.<\/p>\n
His grandfather was a local religious leader affiliated with
\nthe second-largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, while both
\nparents were activists in the same organization.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Gontor modern Islamic boarding school in
\nPonorogo, East Java, he went to Saudi Arabia to pursue Islamic
\nstudies at Medina Islamic University. He abandoned his desire to
\nstudy medicine at Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University.<\/p>\n
He stayed there until he obtained a doctorate from the same
\nuniversity in 1992.<\/p>\n
Hidayat now lives with his wife and three children in a modest
\nhouse in the southern outskirts of Jakarta. In his spare time he
\nenjoys playing two of the country's most popular sports, soccer
\nand badminton.<\/p>",
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