Hasyim resumes top Nahdlatul Ulama post
Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After almost four months of hectic political activities as the running mate of presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri, Hasyim Muzadi will return to the top post in the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) on Wednesday.
A plenary meeting of NU executives decided on Tuesday to restore Hasyim's status so as to enable him to prepare for the organization's national congress in Surakarta, Central Java, scheduled for the end of November.
Other NU executives who were involved in the presidential elections will also have their suspensions lifted.
"After being actively involved in the (presidential) election, it is now time for the NU executives to return to the organization and prepare (themselves) for the national congress," deputy chairman Fachruddin Masturo announced during a press conference here.
NU named Masdar Farid Mas'udi its acting chairman after Hasyim was declared fit to contest the election as Megawati's running mate late in May.
In their decree, the NU board of patrons set no specific date for the end of the suspension period, except to say that their non-active status would be lifted when the election process was complete.
"There may be several interpretations about when the process of the election is over, but we agreed that it happened when the election day took place," said Fachruddin.
Hasyim and Megawati qualified for the Sept. 20 runoff, but with over two-thirds of the vote counted their defeat by more than 20 percentage points seems assured.
Aside from Hasyim, other NU executives have been involved in the elections, including deputy chairman Rozy Munir who sits in the Election Supervisory Committee as the deputy chairman and several executives who were part of the campaign team for the Megawati-Hasyim ticket.
Masdar said he was relieved to return the top post to Hasyim.
"So now NU leaders and supporters in the grassroots can work together to prepare for the upcoming national congress," he said.
Regarding the congress, which will elect an NU chairman for the 2004-2009 period, Fachruddin said the participants would discuss several new regulations, including one that deals with the status of a chairman who is contesting the presidential election.
The congress would also discuss improvement in the curriculum of Islamic boarding schools as "the vanguard of development of Islam".
The congress will be held between Nov. 28 and Dec. 2.