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