Hasyim still mulling NU reelection bid
Blontank Poer and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta/Yogyakarta
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Muzadi said on Saturday that he had yet to make up his mind on whether to seek reelection during the organization's 31st national congress, to be held from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2 in Surakarta, Central Java.
The chairmanship issue has widened an internal rift in the country's largest Muslim organization, with Hasyim's supporters claiming that leaders of virtually all provincial NU branches supported his bid for a second five-year term.
Openly opposing the possible reelection bid is the grandson of an NU founder and a former president, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who has threatened to set up a rival organization if congress participants voted for Hasyim.
Some 5,000 NU members are expected to attend the congress, which will be opened on Sunday by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before he leaves for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Laos.
Hasyim said he would deliver an accountability speech on the organization's policies and finances under his leadership and on his decision to run in the direct presidential election this year.
He has denied suggestions that he and former NU chairman Gus Dur were enemies.
"My relationship with Gus Dur is normal," Hasyim said.
The election of the organization's chairman and head of its lawmaking body are the main agenda of the congress.
In Yogyakarta, NU leaders are divided, with the executive board supporting Hasyim's candidacy and the lawmaking body rejecting it.
Mahfoed Mas'oed, NU Yogyakarta head, said the chapter would support Hasyim in the leadership election.
However, the chapter's lawmaking body has nominated Chodrti Azizi as NU chairman and Mustafa "Gus Mus" Bisri as its new legislative chief to anticipate growing conflicts in the organization.
"We hope Pak Hasyim will withdraw his nomination," said M. Madany, who heads the Yogyakarta lawmaking body.
Separately, political expert Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia suggested that congress participants set up and improve programs and guidelines to anticipate an internal "political crisis".
The conflict arose after several leading NU figures, including Hasyim and Salahuddin Wahid, joined the presidential race.
"There is no explicit rule that limits the involvement of NU leaders in politics. Anybody could interpret the existing rules to suit their own interests," he told the Post.
Arbi, who will attend the congress as an observer, said the organization made a mistake in its 1999 congress when it recommended that NU members vote for the National Awakening Party (PKB), which was founded by senior NU leaders including Gus Dur.
"The NU is supposed to draw up guidelines and provide a means by which its members could join politics," said Arbi.
He also criticized Hasyim for refusing to resign as NU chairman when he ran as Megawati Soekarnoputri's running mate in the July election and the September runoff.
Set up in 1926, the NU claims to have around 40 million members, making it the largest Muslim organization in the country.