Change looms for Nahdlatul Ulama
Change looms for Nahdlatul Ulama
Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Moslem organization with 30 million members and supporters, will celebrate its 70th anniversary on Jan. 31. Under the leadership of Abdurrahman Wahid and Ilyas Ruhiyat, it is undergoing reform geared to accommodate the growing number of young intellectuals in its fold. The Jakarta Post looks at how the traditional and conservative organization is coping with the changes. More stories on Pages 2, 6 and 9.
By Wisnu Pramudya & Santi W.E. Soekanto
JAKARTA (JP): "I was surprised. I never expected it," said M. Fajrul Falaakh, a young intellectual in the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), of his appointment last year as deputy chairman of the executive board of Indonesia's largest Moslem organization.
At the time the press immediately branded Fajrul, a graduate of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University and of the University of London, a representative of the "secularly educated" group in the elite layer of the NU.
It was Fajrul and others in this group who passionately supported the re-election of the chairman Abdurrahman Wahid at the Dec. 1994 NU congress in Cipasung village, Tasikmalaya, West Java.
Among the mainly rural supporters of NU, Fajrul and his friends stand out in the crowd for more reasons than one. Unlike millions of others, they cannot be considered real santri (students of the traditional Islamic boarding school of pesantren) because they spent years in "secular" learning institutions.
It is therefore of great significance that Fajrul was included on the leadership board. Observers understand that Fajrul's appointment was the manifestation of a new reform campaign, an effort to make Islam go native and to intensify dialogs on issues outside traditional religious spheres such as democratization and nationalism. And this campaign was launched by Abdurrahman, better known here as Gus Dur.
Many still remember that soon after his re-election in 1994, Gus Dur announced that it is the youths, rather than the kyai, or traditional Moslem leaders, who will drive NU in the future because they are better acquainted with contemporary issues.
Gus Dur's statement may be debatable, but it is obvious that the presence of young intellectuals such as Fajrul and the resulting debating of concepts within the organization have been the source of conflicting views for some time. Fajrul and his friends are known to be fluent in using "secular" and "Western" concepts for various discourses, and this is clearly a divergence from the tradition of thoughts based on the classic reference books of the ulemas, known here as the kitab kuning (literally yellow books).
Limited
Is it possible for NU to accommodate the secularly educated group and make use of them as part of its base, which traditionally consisted of rural people?
Masdar F. Mas'udi, another young intellectual in the organization, believes that the new trend of referring to secular concepts for various discourses is actually a limited phenomenon. A graduate of the Ohio State University in the United States, he reckons that the trend emerged after a number of NU youths became "modernized".
"Frankly, this creates tension between those who are more conservative, who adhere to the salafi tradition of thoughts, with the secularly educated," he said. The salafi tradition is rooted in the holy Koran, the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, and the ulemas' traditional reference books.
The leadership's wish to help the jam'iyah (congregation) modernize without sacrificing its salafi traditions makes for an arena primed for such tension.
The conservative Masdar sees the secular faction, as a group, minna (of us) but intellectually minhum (of them). In the Moslem community, the terms minna and minhum are often used to describe the positions of Moslems versus the infidels.
"The conservatives listen to the young intellectuals, but whether they agree with and support them is an entirely different question," said Masdar, who has frequently attempted to bring the two groups to sit together in various discussions.
The increasing presence of secular intellectuals within an organization, which will still place a kyai at the helm no matter what, is a phenomenon that should be watched carefully, he said.
Masdar cited as an example the five children of K.H. Muhid Muzadi, one of the chairmen of the Syuriyah (law-making body), who are all educated in secular institutions.
Genealogy
Despite the onrush of secular youths within NU, tradition seems to persist. The youths can enter the elite layer of NU only through a few doors; genealogy or loyalty toward the kyai.
Masdar believed that the inclusion of Fajrul Falaakh on the board was possible mainly because of his blood-line, as he is the grandson of NU founding father K.H. Wahab Hasbullah.
In addition, the secularly educated youths do not have other options but to act as a santri-abdi (a term which denotes not only a position as a disciple but also with a loyalty that borders on being a slave) toward the kyai.
"Not only do they have to accept the leadership of the kyai, they also have to recognize the authority of the kyai in the fields of knowledge and wisdom," Masdar said.
Dr. Fahmi D. Saifuddin, a candidate in the NU chairmanship election in 1994, serves as a good example of the importance of genealogy and loyalty toward the kyai. The public health expert at the University of Indonesia is the son of the late K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri, an NU ulema and former religious minister. However, he was "thrown" from the organization's elite because he "dared" to go against the wish of the majority of the kyai who supported Gus Dur's re-election.
Another example is that of Dr. Muhammad Thohir, the director of the Surabaya Islamic Hospital. He is the son of K.H. Thohir, a respected NU ulema in East Java, and known to have strong managerial skills.
But, Muhammad is very critical of Gus Dur, and his decision to join the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI) -- which, many understand, Gus Dur detests -- to ensure victory in the NU leadership race.
Masdar believes that NU only accepts the young intellectuals "half-heartedly". "Those who are taken into the elite layer are considered to be merely supplementary", he said.
Gus Dur, however, is a different phenomenon. The man not only has a bloodline -- because he is the grandson of NU founding father K.H. Hasyim Asy'ari, he is a kyai himself, as well as the strongest proponent for such secular concepts. Masdar refused to comment when asked whether Gus Dur himself is the imam (leader) of the secularly-educated youths.
Smoother
The campaign for reform within the organization, however, may prove to be smoother than expected. A respected kyai, Imron Hamzah, who is the Rais (chairman) of the East Java Syuriyah, said how NU should be "more open".
"This community of ahlus sunnah wal jama'ah (a mainstream of theology within Islam, which is adhered to by Indonesian Muslims) should be open to changes, as long as they are still in line with the fiqh," he said. The fiqh is complete adherence to the Al Qur'an, the hadith (sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad) and the ulemas' decrees.
"Many of the young intellectuals' thoughts may at first appear to deviate from Islam, but a closer examination will prove that they contain the truth too," he said.
He said that a process to accommodate the youths in the NU elite can proceed without threatening the organization's identity, on the condition that "all elements within NU leadership function".
Unfortunately, he pointed out, at the moment the Syuriyah (law-making body which K.H. Ilyas Ruhiyat currently chairs) is eclipsed by the Tanfidziyah (the executive board which Gus Dur chairs).
Pluralism
Fajrul acknowledges that not all new concepts are rjected by NU. It is true that most of the ulemas' traditional reference books do not deal with issues such as pluralism, or the state ideology Pancasila upon which all organizations should base their existence. "The problem, probably, lies more on how to translate the (new concepts) into the traditional language," he said.
He believes that so far, the wrestling of new and old concepts proceed smoothly because both parties exercise self restraint. The young intellectuals are careful not to overstep the fiqh boundaries, while the salafi traditionalists are careful not to close the door on dialogs.
Fajrul named at least three NU leaders who contribute greatly toward the effort to combine new concepts with the old. They are Gus Dur, K.H. Tholhah Hasan, the rector of the Islamic University in Malang, East Java, and K.H. Wahid Zaini, the chairman of the Rabithatul Ma'ahidil Islamy (an association of thousands of NU pesantren).
"These leaders are known to be people who hold dialogs with the younger, secularly-educated generation of NU without difficulty," he said. These are also the people who will be responsible for ushering in a new breed of NU leaders, namely santri who have also been educated at secular learning institutes.