East Java NU Branch Considers AHWA System the Best Proposal for Electing PBNU Chairman

Jakarta, VIVA – The Deputy Secretary of the East Java Regional Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PWNU) for the 2018–2023 term, H Abdul Muji Syadzili, has expressed hope that reports of the postponement of the PBNU National Working Meeting (Konbes), the National Conference of Islamic Scholars (Munas Alim Ulama), and the 35th NU Congress to late 2026 or early 2027 are untrue. He argued that such a delay would breach the reconciliation (islah) agreement.

“Following the daily meeting attended in full by the syuriyah and tanfidziyah of PBNU on Monday, 16 February 2026, on the eighth floor of the PBNU building, reports circulated that the 35th Congress had been pushed back. Hopefully this is not true and there is no intention to delay on the part of the PBNU leadership. If it were true, it would violate the previous reconciliation agreement,” he said in a written statement cited on Wednesday, 18 February 2026.

He assessed that the substance of the reconciliation had not upheld the values of honesty and keeping promises. Until now, he said, the broader Nahdliyyin community had been relieved by the PBNU reconciliation, along with the agreement to hold the PBNU National Working Meeting and National Conference of Islamic Scholars in the month of Syawal 1447 H, and the 35th NU Congress in July–August 2026.

“In this way, the ruhul khidmah (spirit of service) of PBNU appears sound, and it must not be allowed to turn into ruhul khid’ah (a spirit of deceit),” he said.

On a separate matter, Abdul Muji stated that Ramadan should be used by PBNU to absorb ideas and prepare a formulation for the mechanism of replacing the Rais Aam and General Chairman at the forthcoming congress.

An important lesson from the outcomes of the 34th NU Congress in Lampung, he said, was the failure of the two mandataries — the Rais Aam and General Chairman — to ensure effective, functional, and accountable PBNU leadership.

In this context, he continued, both the Rais Aam and General Chairman positions need to be reviewed, reflected upon, and reassessed. He noted that at the 34th Congress in Lampung, the organisational commission had in fact predominantly discussed the mechanism for electing the PBNU General Chairman through the AHWA (Ahlul Halli wal Aqdi) system.

However, the plenary session of the 34th Congress in Lampung merely read out the commission’s findings without debating or establishing them as norms within the NU Articles of Association and Bylaws (AD/ART). The AD/ART were not ratified; instead, they were recommended for ratification through a subsequent National Working Meeting and National Conference of Islamic Scholars.

“Therefore, the mechanism for electing the General Chairman at the 34th NU Congress in Lampung in 2021 was based on the AD/ART mechanism from 2015,” he said.