NU needs leaders with fresh ideas<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), facing its biggest
\nchallenge yet in maintaining its organization and in sticking to
\nits mission, needs leaders with fresh ideas, one of its senior
\nleaders says.<\/p>\n
Ali Yafie, deputy chief of NU's policy making body, said
\nyesterday that in his opinion, 10 years down the track, NU's 1984
\npledge to return to its original mission as a socio-religious
\norganization, has not been fulfilled.<\/p>\n
NU, once a powerful political party, decided to abandon
\npractical politics altogether in 1984, and concentrate on the
\noriginal mission laid out by its founders, in 1926, to promote
\nthe education of Islam and the welfare of Moslems.<\/p>\n
The group's leaders are scheduled to meet for their annual,
\nfive-year, congress in Tasikmalaya, West Java, on Dec. 1-5. The
\nissue of the precise role of NU in Indonesian politics has once
\nagain drawn a heated debate within, and outside, the
\norganization.<\/p>\n
How far, or successful, has the NU been in dismantling its
\npolitical vest?<\/p>\n
\"I've been saying that the return to Khittah 1926 has not been
\nthorough,\" Yafie said, referring to the popular term for NU's
\nSpirit of 1926.<\/p>\n
He said since NU had been active in politics for 30 years
\nbefore 1984, many of its leaders are still accustomed to
\n\"thinking politics and viewing politics and they are having
\ndifficulties in simply thinking social or viewing social\", even
\nto this day.<\/p>\n
\"Their number,\" he added, \"is not small.\"<\/p>\n
With 34 million supporters, NU is Indonesia's largest Moslem
\norganization, something which no political party can ignore.<\/p>\n
NU helped found the United Development Party (PPP) with three
\nother Moslem political parties in 1973, when the government ruled
\nthat only three parties are allowed to contest the general
\nelection. Many of its leaders decided, in 1984, to abandon
\npolitics altogether, because NU had lost the power struggle in
\nPPP leadership.<\/p>\n
However, a small band of \"NU politicians\" remained in PPP and,
\nin September, they launched another bid to takeover the PPP
\nleadership at the party's congress. Predictably, they failed.<\/p>\n
New party<\/p>\n
Now some of these frustrated NU leaders are demanding that NU,
\nat its congress in December, review its 1984 decision to abandon
\npolitics. Some of them have also been talking about forming a new
\npolitical party.<\/p>\n
The mainstream NU leaders have, however, defended NU's hands-
\noff politics policy.<\/p>\n
Yafie said even if the Return to Khittah 1926 prevails, NU
\nstill has a major problem because the ulemas are not accorded
\ntheir proper leadership roles in the organization.<\/p>\n
Many said that the executive board, which is led by the deputy
\nchief, Abdurrahman Wahid, is virtually running the organization,
\nand the policy making board has been sidelined.<\/p>\n
One of the topics to be discussed at the NU congress is the
\nproposal to merge the two boards and end the dualism in the NU
\nleadership.<\/p>\n
Yafie however pointed out that the original NU organization in
\n1926 had both boards.<\/p>\n
If NU wants to be consistent with the Khittah 1926, it has to
\nfollow not only the original objective and the mission of the
\norganization, but its organizational structure must also be the
\nsame, and this means having both boards, he said.<\/p>\n
Many senior ulemas of the NU said that instead of merging the
\ntwo boards, the congress should define the precise role of the
\ntwo boards. The policy making body makes the policies and the
\nexecutive body simply executes the policies.<\/p>\n
Yafie said the congress must also find a new \"drawing card\"
\nnow that it has abandoned politics altogether.<\/p>\n
In the past, NU's participation in politics was a major
\nattraction for people because it offered them a chance to develop
\ntheir political careers there.<\/p>\n
At the last congress, in Yogyakarta, the NU leaders decided
\nthat it wanted to be active in the economy, and announced an
\nambitious plan to establish 2,000 rural credit banks with the
\nintention of helping small Moslem traders and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
NU struck a cooperation agreement with Bank Summa, which has
\nsince gone bankrupt. In the five years since Yogyakarta, only 10
\nsuch banks have been put into operation.<\/p>\n
\"You could hardly call that a success,\" Yafie said. \"The next
\ncongress needs to find a new drawing card.\"<\/p>\n
Asked to comment on the leadership of chairman Abdurrahman
\nWahid, who has held the post for the last 10 years, Yafie said
\nwhat matters most is the evaluation by congress about his
\nleadership.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman, who will complete his second five-year term at
\nTasikmalaya, has not stated his intention of whether or not to
\nrun again. One camp is urging him to stay on but another camp has
\nlaunched an equally vigorous campaign to have him replaced.<\/p>\n
\"I think the most important thing is not who is leading NU,\"
\nYafie said. \"What should count more is the programs that are
\nbeing drawn up at the congress, irrespective of who is going to
\nbe the chairman.\"<\/p>\n
\"I think the congress is wiser than I am in choosing NU
\nleaders, and NU has a whole warehouse of potential leaders.\"
\n(emb)<\/p>\n
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