NU brings harmony and unity

NU brings harmony and unity

Nahdlatul Ulama, the nation's largest socio-religious Moslem
organization, is holding its congress tomorrow in the West Java
city of Tasikmalaya. Political scientist Mitsuo Nakamura argues
that the congress will have ample national and international
implications.

CHIBA, Japan (JP): The coming congress of the Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU) is likely to reconfirm the Khittah (basic guidelines) of
1926 and reelect Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, for
the leadership.

A more positive aspect of the coming congress is likely to be
its renewed efforts to emphasize its populist (kerakyatan)
approaches to national socio-economic development and
democratization.

It is clear that achievements through the first 25 year period
of national development has brought about a significant rise in
the well-being of the Indonesian people in general and formation
of a well-educated urban middle class in particular.

This emerging middle class is distinctly Islamic in its
outlook. These trends have found an organizational expression in
the formation of the Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals (ICMI) at the end of 1992 as a result of
cooperation between independent Moslem intellectuals and high-
ranking government officials. A process of "greening" of the
congress and government agencies, i.e. appointments of
individuals with ICMI affiliation, has ensued, creating an
atmosphere of "honeymooning" between the government authorities
and the Moslem community.

NU, however, was not involved significantly in the formation
of ICMI except for a few individuals. This was in a sense a
matter of natural consequence since the NU circles have not yet
produced a sufficient number of established intellectuals,
despite the fact that there are a great number of sons and
daughters of NU members currently undergoing or recently having
finished higher education.

Besides, Gus Dur, by far the most representative intellectual
from NU circles, expressed grave doubts of whether the ICMI might
encourage a sectarian tendency and has so far stayed away from
it.

Thus, aspirations of society's masses, still mostly rural, are
likely to be represented continuously through NU to a large
extent. Outside the formal system of political representation,
there still seems be a role for NU to play.

Continuity

Gus Dur, who has steered NU along this new direction with the
late Ahmad Siddiq since 1984, symbolizes the continuity of NU's
traditionalism and its vitally for self-renewal.

Being a grandson of the founder of the NU, Hasyim Asy'ari, and
a son of the first Minister of Religion from NU, Wahid Hasyim, he
has an impeccable family background, which is quite important in
Moslem leadership. Besides that, he was educated in traditional
pondok pesantren as well as in government schools in Indonesia
and received higher education in Egypt and Iraq.

He is widely read in Arabic and English, giving him constant
inspirations to re-examine the legacy of Islamic traditionalism
and to come up with fresh ideas to meet new situations. He
travels extensively to the U.S., Japan, Southeast Asia and
Europe, not to speak of the Middle East, talking to the highest
political, social and intellectual leaders of the regions.

His often controversial statements and actions are in fact
calculated carefully to invite the Moslem and national community
of Indonesia to ponder about contemporary issues of profound
importance.

He commands skills to communicate with and articulate the
thinkings of traditionalist ulama in their own language, who head
more than six thousand pondok pesantren across the country. He
also inspires and is inspired by ideas and feelings of an
increasing number of younger NU activists with religious
backgrounds as well as secular education and with jobs and
positions in the modern sectors of society.

The NU congress and its new leadership will reaffirm its
position for national unity, social harmony and tolerance between
Moslems and non-Moslems. The NU congress will try to formulate
effective means to raise the participation of the middle to lower
levels of society in national development, to lessen their
frustrations and social tensions, and to enhance social justice
through more equitable distributions of power and wealth, i.e.
democratization.

The outcome of the NU congress will have international
implications as well. At present, non-Moslem segments of the
world community are still suspicious of the threat of resurgent
Islam -- admittedly, largely because of ignorant and
irresponsible western mass media.

In this situation, the presence of NU in Indonesia as perhaps
the world's largest NGO Moslem organization in the world's most
populous Moslem nation today, advocating the solidarity of
mankind across cultural and religious differences, is undoubtedly
one of Indonesia's most positive contributions to the world
community.

The writer is a professor of anthropology at the Chiba
University's faculty of letters in Japan, and observer of Islamic
religious movements in contemporary Indonesia. Politics - Page 5