Generational rift emerges in NU

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta

Intense competition for the millions of votes from members of the Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama has led to calls for neutrality by the youth affiliates ahead of the country's presidential election.

In a bid to prevent NU "from breaking apart" -- in the words of one scholar -- the Fatayat organization representing NU's female youth and the NU student association (IPNU), which together claims over half of the NU's membership, called on members to refrain from campaigning for any of the five candidates.

"As the young generation of NU, we are deeply concerned about the organization's unity. We hope all NU figures contesting the election can teach people about democratic fairness, instead of provoking disputes among the followers," IPNU secretary general Syamsuddin M. Pay said.

IPNU claims some 17 million members while Fatayat claims 4 million of the 40 million NU members.

Prior to the month-long campaigning period starting on June 1, major political parties had vied for NU figures as running mates, as NU membership reaches the villages through the influential kyai (clerics) system.

The result is that NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi is the running mate to the Megawati Soekarnoputri, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and Solahuddin Wahid from the National Awakening Party (PKB) -- set up by NU leaders -- is paired with Gen. (ret) Wiranto, the candidate from the Golkar Party.

Jusuf Kalla, the running mate of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also is a prominent NU member, as is presidential candidate Hamzah Haz who has been nominated by the Muslim-based United Development Party.

Ahead of most previous elections, NU's traditional apolitical stance has often been challenged; however the first direct presidential could lead to a more severe rift given the direct involvement of NU figures in the competition for the country's top seats.

Fatayat and IPNU called on members to vote for the candidates "who are capable of leading the country to a better future." Members should prevent NU from being affected by "politicking" within NU, they said.

IPNU also urged members to cast their votes only for the pairing "that is concerned with improving national education", regardless of their affiliation to NU.

Syamsuddin said the group, which planned to hold a three-day national meeting in Riau from June 15 to June 18, would ask all candidates to sign "a political contract" promising improvement of education, including a 20 percent budget allocation for the sector.

"We won't necessarily endorse them on the spot, but we will consider voting for a candidate that will be pro-education, even if they are not from NU," he said.

Fatayat chairperson Maria Ulfa Ansor said the organization would ensure freedom to vote for its members and that gender discrimination should be put aside.

She, however, emphasized that such a call should not be seen as a political support to a certain candidate. A recent statement by clerics in East Java that it was forbidden under Islam to vote for women has been taken as a verbal edict, raising suspicions that the kyai were targeting Megawati. The clerics have denied they issued an edict saying they were reacting to journalists' questions about their endorsement of Wiranto.

Since the first day of campaigning, all NU figures among the candidates have visited various Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and held mass prayers.

Earlier, the NU's women's wing Muslimat, also called on members to refrain from campaigning for candidates, and that they should resign if they were involved in the campaign teams.

A scholar of NU, Sjafik Anwar of the International Conference on Islamic Pluralism (ICIP), said that the gap between the top NU figures and its youth groups had widened following the involvement of its top figures in the July election.

"The youth groups are moving to secure the organization, to prevent it from breaking apart, and they aim to steer NU back to its basics as a socio-cultural organization.

"I wish NU's law making body, the syuriah, would immediately overcome the problem by clarifying its stance," he told The Jakarta Post.