Masdar ready to take up NU reins
Masdar ready to take up NU reins
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post/Surakarta
Young Muslim scholar Masdar F. Mas'udi publicly announced his
intention here on Wednesday to run for the chairmanship of
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), challenging the incumbent, Hasyim Muzadi.
Masdar declared his candidacy after Mustofa "Gus Mus" Bisri, a
noted cleric and poet, who had won solid backing from the anti-
Hasyim camp, refused a nomination to run for the chairmanship and
instead gave his support to Masdar.
"I am ready to run for the chairmanship along with whoever is
elected the general chairman of the NU's syuriah (lawmaking
body)," Masdar told journalists at the media center on the
sidelines of the organization's congress at the Donohudan Haj
Dormitory in Surakarta, Central Java.
He did not say if he would pair up with former president
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid or the current syuriah chairman,
Sahal Mahfudz, a charismatic cleric.
Masdar said he had won the backing of Gus Dur and Gus Mus, as
well as many other influential clerics. "Gus Mus is more
concerned about how to strengthen the syuriah rather than the
post of executive chairman, and he has stated on a number of
occasions that the executive chairman should be a young but
experienced figure," Masdar said.
Masdar also claimed to have secured support for his nomination
from Sahal Mahfudz. "I have visited him to express my intention
of dedicating myself to the NU and he welcomed this."
Masdar, the current deputy NU chairman, temporarily replaced
Hasyim when the later stepped aside to stand as the running mate
of Megawati Soekarnoputri in the July presidential election and
the September runoff.
A young intellectual, Masdar strongly criticized Hasyim for
dragging the NU into politics by running for the vice presidency.
Hours ahead of the election of the new NU leader on Wednesday,
tension was increasing as Gus Dur and his supporters intensified
their efforts to thwart Hasyim's bid for reelection.
Dozens of protesters supporting Abdurrahman, better known as
Gus Dur, marched into the Donohudan Haj Dormitory in Surakarta,
Central Java, which is hosting the congress, disrupting a
commission meeting being held to discuss an overhaul of the NU
statutes.
Minor violence erupted at around 2 p.m. as South Sulawesi NU
leader Hasid Hasan Palogi was assaulted by a man in the crowd. As
a result, Hasid suffered slight scratches to the face. The chaos
ended after members of Banser militia intervened to calm down the
crowd.
The demonstrators, mostly youths, urged support from the
congress participants for Gus Dur and advised them not to vote
Hasyim for a second five-year term.
Outside the venue, the rival supporters of senior clerics met
on Wednesday morning at a house in downtown Surakarta to seek a
compromise deal to ease the tension among the delegates, who are
divided into pro-Abdurrahman Wahid and Hasyim Muzadi camps.