NU congress fails to elect chairman
KEDIRI, East Java (JP): The election of the Nahdlatul Ulama chairman and head of its law-making body here went beyond midnight on Thursday due to disagreements on election rules.
Debate hindered the session in the Muslim organization's congress prior to the election of Rois Aam Syuriah, the most prestigious position which deals with legal matters in NU, after representatives from Bengkulu demanded a vote.
Participants of the congress earlier agreed to a consensus to name Sahal Mahfudz of Pati in Central Java the sole candidate for the post.
The election, which was held under tight security, capped the organization's six-day congress which is scheduled to be closed by Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Friday.
As of 11.30 p.m. on Thursday, the organizing committee had yet to complete the registration of eligible voters. The vote on the chief of the law-making body would begin only after the registration process was completed.
The same procedure will apply to the election of the new NU chairman, who will replace Abdurrahman Wahid, the current President.
Representatives of 305 regional branches and 26 provincial chapters will cast their ballots to select two candidates for each of the top posts.
An official, Rozy Munir, said the committee also decided to postpone the schedule for the elections from 12 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on the same day to give candidates a chance to lobby each other. To make matters worse, voter registration began 30 minutes later than scheduled.
According to NU's statutes, a candidate for the chairmanship needs approval from the elected Rois Aam Syuriah.
Hasyim Muzadi, the former chairman of NU's East Java chapter, Said Aqiel Siradj, the former deputy secretary of NU's law-making body and Mustofa Bisri of Central Java were touted as candidates for the chairmanship.
Mustofa, who is also a renowned poet, refused to contest the top executive post, but was nominated by the Jakarta chapter on grounds that rivalry between Hasyim and Said could lead to a split in the 35 million-strong organization.
All three candidates for the chairmanship were briefed by NU's senior ulemas hours before they contested the election. Abdullah Faqih, Ilyas Ruchyat, Turmudzi Badruddin, Imron Chamzah and Idris Marzuki were among the ulemas attending the briefing.
In their statement, the ulemas said they called for the meeting after hearing reports of money politics and the use of unfair campaigns.
Said renewed his pledge to develop NU to become a democratic and modern organization and make it a motor of democracy in the country in the next five years.
"I want to adopt my predecessor's policy to keep the organization on its socioreligious mission. I will bring changes to the organization and work hard to produce intellectual santri (scholars). It is of the greatest importance that the NU is able to cooperate with other religious organizations to uphold democracy," he said.
Hasyim said that despite the abundant work a chairman must carry out, he promised to continue building pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in a bid to improve the quality of human resources in the country.
Hasyim, the director of Al-Hikam Islamic boarding school in nearby Malang, said he purchased a big plot of land behind the University of Indonesia in Jakarta for his planned boarding school for the university's students. (nur/rms)