NU Congress discusses AD/ART amendments and PBNU leadership election method

Jombang (ANTARA) - The Organisation Commission of the 35th Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Congress is discussing a number of strategic matters, including proposed amendments to the organisation’s constitution (AD/ART) and the method for electing the PBNU leadership.

Muhammad Nuh, Secretary of the Steering Committee (SC) of the 35th NU Congress, said in Jombang on Saturday that the discussions were being held behind closed doors to give delegates greater freedom to deliberate.

“The session is closed; outsiders are not permitted to attend. During the ‘cooking’ process (the deliberation stage), no one may join, but once it is finished, we can all enjoy the results,” he said.

According to him, in addition to the Organisation Commission, the sessions of the Programme Commission and the Recommendation Commission were also being held behind closed doors.

The closed forum is part of the congress’s internal mechanism to keep the deliberation process focused until a formulation agreed upon by the participants is reached.

Nevertheless, the SC assured that the results of the commission sessions would be conveyed to the public once the deliberation and decision-making stages are complete.

“I will convey the results later,” said Muhammad Nuh.

He said that all material discussed by the Organisation Commission had been inventoried by the SC to be deliberated and decided upon in the congress forum.

According to him, organisational matters and other issues that could potentially give rise to differences had been discussed beforehand in a series of pre-congress meetings.

The preliminary discussions were held to minimise differences while deepening and enriching the material before it was brought to the congress forum.

“So that at this point, in the commission now, it is relatively richer, with greater understanding. Hopefully the differences will also become smaller, because the congress is a place for differences. If it were a place for uniformity, it would already be over,” he said.

The 35th NU Congress is holding a number of commission sessions in parallel, including the Commission for Bahtsul Masail ad-Diniyah al-Maudlu’iyyah, Bahtsul Masail ad-Diniyah al-Waqi’iyyah, Bahtsul Masail ad-Diniyah al-Qanuniyyah, the Organisation Commission, the Programme Commission, and the Recommendation Commission.

The results of each commission’s deliberations will then be brought to the plenary for ratification.