Hasyim still mulling NU reelection bid
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.