NU has its hands full of problems ...<\/p>\n
By Santi W.E. Soekanto<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The largest Moslem organization Nahdlatul Ulama
\n(NU) will have a lot more to do in its coming national congress
\nthan licking its wounds.<\/p>\n
After its politicians suffered an embarrassing defeat in the
\nrecent election of the Moslem-based United Development Party
\n(PPP), NU now faces frictions within itself, while having to
\nappease the concern of its confused followers who have had to
\nwatch their leaders jostle one another for political positions.<\/p>\n
There are still other, intertwined problems that the
\norganization has to contend with, including the allegedly
\ninefficient organizational structure and the poverty experienced
\nby many of its followers.<\/p>\n
In its last congress in 1989, K.H. Achmad Siddiq, then chief
\nof the law-making board (Syuriah) warned that NU leaders should
\nwatch where they were taking the organization.<\/p>\n
\"NU is not a taxi that can be ordered to go anywhere according
\nto the wish of its passengers, nor is it a suitcase which can be
\nfilled with anything that the owner would like to fill it with,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
\"Those who lead the organization, as well as the strategy of
\nthe organization, may change, but not the track,\" added the
\nsenior ulema, who died in January 1991.<\/p>\n
Now, five years later, as the organization is preparing for
\nits congress next month in Tasikmalaya, West Java, many NU
\nfollowers may have started wondering where they have been heading
\nall this time.<\/p>\n
As the jostling in the run-up and during the PPP congress
\nearly this month indicated, the NU has been facing threats of
\ndivision within its own body. Observers, including Laode Ida from
\nthe University of Hauoleo in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, pointed
\nout that NU's leading members are now split into three groups.<\/p>\n
The first comprises those who want to stick to the 1984
\n\"khittah\", or vow, that NU will shun politics and concentrate on
\nbecoming a purely socio-religious organization as it was when it
\nwas founded. The second group comprises those who accept the vow
\nbut want to remain politically active on an individual basis by
\njoining either one or the other of the existing political
\ngroupings. The last group comprises those who refuse to accept
\nthe khittah.<\/p>\n
Charismatic NU chairman, Abdurrahman Wahid, may have to be
\nplaced in a group of his own. He would not let NU name candidates
\nto run for political positions, then he gave signals that were
\ninterpreted as meaning that he endorsed certain persons. He,
\nhimself, can be described as a political activist as viewed from
\nhis activities in the Forum Demokrasi group, which is highly
\ncritical of the government.<\/p>\n
Long before PPP held its congress, a number of NU leaders, who
\nwere inclined to politics, had started preparations to wrest the
\nleadership of the party from the hands of the incumbent chairman,
\nIsmail Hasan Metareum, who hails from the Muslimin Indonesia
\nfaction. They said that after years of standing on the sidelines,
\nit was time for the NU faction, which represents the largest
\nnumber of PPP members, to lead the party.<\/p>\n
When pressed about their commitment to the khittah, these
\nsenior NU leaders, including K.H. Cholil Bisri and K.H. Syansuri
\nBadawi, said they did not see any problem in reconciling their
\npolitical activities with the vow. \"Life itself is politics,\"
\nBisri said.<\/p>\n
NU has probably misread the cues of the government (which, in
\nline with existing laws, has control over the political life of
\nthe nation and the activities of political groupings) as to how
\nmuch involvement in politics it can have at this time.<\/p>\n
The increasingly cordial relationship between the government
\nand the Moslem community, as marked by officials' visits to
\nMoslem ulemas and their pesantren boarding schools, as well as
\npolicies which benefit Moslem groups, has been translated by NU
\nas a sort of green light for its venturing further into politics.<\/p>\n
The fact that President Soeharto himself inaugurated a
\nnational congress of pesantren belonging to NU early this year
\nwas apparently read as a blessing for their political
\npretensions.<\/p>\n
As political analyst Sudirman Tebba has observed, these NU
\npoliticians then resorted to their age-old strategy, that being
\nthe mobilization of influential ulemas or kyai, who manage the
\npesantren. They held numerous, highly publicized meetings to draw
\nup plans and strategies on how to take the PPP baton.<\/p>\n
Some of the respected and widely-obeyed NU politicians brushed
\noff the concern voiced by many people, including Moslem youths
\nfrom major cities, such as Jakarta and Surabaya, about what their
\nmoves could do to the organization.<\/p>\n
For instance, a younger kyai, upon hearing the youths' plan to
\nhold a protest in Rembang where the politicking kyai were holding
\na meeting, said: \"As if they would dare! This is not Jakarta ...
\nif a senior kyai tells his students to kick them out, what could
\nthese young people do?\"<\/p>\n
With the benefit of hindsight, we can see at least two
\nmistakes that NU politicians have made in their maneuvering.
\nFirst, the highly-publicized meetings they conducted stirred up
\ntoo much controversy and created grievances among those who were
\nstill loyal to the khittah.<\/p>\n
The second blunder was their public request for an audience
\nwith President Soeharto in order to, as many people believed, ask
\nfor his blessing for their political moves, as well as for the
\nman they would pick to run for the PPP chairmanship.<\/p>\n
Through Minister\/State Secretary Moerdiono, President Soeharto
\ndeclined, citing his full schedule. In a political culture which
\nrelies so much on one's ability to \"read\" gestures and cues, the
\nkyai from NU should have read more deeply into the rejection and,
\nat least, changed tactics.<\/p>\n
They also should have read that the ongoing trend is that PPP
\nis to be kept in such a position that it will not grow big enough
\nto threaten the establishment, but also not become so small as to
\nupset the whole order of things as they are. NU, with its 35
\nmillion followers, is now too big and could cost the government
\nto high a political price. Clearly, so analysts, such as
\nNurcholish Madjid, Maswadi Rauf and Syamsuddin Haris, have said,
\nthe incumbent chairman of the time, Ismail Hasan Metareum, was
\nthe only man who fit the bill because he enjoyed the government's
\nsupport.<\/p>\n
There is still another development which needs to be monitored
\nsince the NU candidate, Matori Abdul Djalil, lost his bid for the
\nPPP chairmanship. Some of the most respected senior ulemas
\nresponded by threatening to abandon PPP altogether and join the
\nIndonesian Democratic Party (PDI), or even establish a new party.
\nThe last option, however, is quite unthinkable in the current
\npolitical situation.<\/p>\n
PDI, certainly, welcomed the development, especially because
\none of the ulemas who expressed his wish to join it was the
\ncharismatic K.H. Alawy Muhammad from Sampang, Madura, known for
\nhis daring criticism of the authorities.<\/p>\n
The ulemas may have had their own understandable reasons for
\nabandoning PPP, but to many people who opposed them in the first
\nplace, their statement sounded childish, or even like a case of
\nsour grapes.<\/p>\n
Granted, nothing of the politicians' efforts was really
\nuseless. Their maneuvering served purposes, including as an eye-
\nopener for many people as to how weakened are the existing
\npolitical parties' standings before the power holder, and how
\neven the ulemas' extensive charisma did not provide leverage
\nenough.<\/p>\n
One of the impacts of the ulemas' maneuvers was to bring
\nattention to how much healing and peacemaking has to be done
\namong them in the coming congress. Observer Fachry Ali believes
\nthere is still another problem to be handled immediately: the 34
\nmillion NU followers, who are now extremely confused.<\/p>\n
Most of these followers had been reared in a tradition
\nrespectful of their kyai. For some of them, even \"to hear is to
\nobey\". However, all this jockeying and maneuvering may have worn
\nthem out.<\/p>\n
These followers loyally followed their leaders when NU merged
\nwith three other Moslem parties to form PPP in the 1970s. They
\nalso followed when those leaders, feeling scorned after being
\nrelegated to second position in the party in 1980s, abandoned the
\nparty and vowed to shun politics.<\/p>\n
The uncertainty reigning over the organization right now may
\nwell present psychological problems which are not easy to
\nresolve.<\/p>\n
The kyai also need to consider the growing culture of
\nintellectuality among its members, due to social changes and more
\naccess to information. The fact that some Moslem youths dared to
\nquestion the kyai' move was an indication of a new development
\nthat should be answered properly if NU wants to stay strong.<\/p>",
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