NU mulls proposal to set up own party

NU mulls proposal to set up own party

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

To the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the notion of involving itself in
politics amounts to a taboo, but executives of the largest Muslim
organization are hinting that those days of are numbered.

NU chairman A. Hasyim Muzadi said on Wednesday that he
personally disagreed with the proposal to convert NU into a
political party, but it would be up to the NU members to decide
during the NU Conference and National Congress in July.

Hasyim was commenting on a proposal by two small NU-based
political parties -- the Awakening Ummah Party (PKU) and the
Nahdlatul Ummat Party (PNU) -- that NU should have a solid party
to politically unite its members.

The two parties voiced their concern over the split in the
National Awakening Party (PKB), which NU had helped to establish,
and over the fact that NU members were scattered in non-NU
political parties.

Under the leadership of Abdurrahman Wahid, NU issued a khittah
(decree) in 1984 to the effect that the organization would not
engage itself in politics but allowed its individual members to
do so.

PNU secretary-general Asnawi Latief was convinced that NU
members would agree with the idea of turning NU into a political
party.

"I'm sure they will agree with the idea. We still have two
years to go," he said referring to the 2004 general elections.

Asnawi said NU would not able to accommodate its members'
aspiration if it maintained its current role and function.

"Even to settle the PKB internal dispute, the organization had
its hands off. I wonder how they will handle problems faced by
PNU and PKU," he said.

Hasyim defended that NU was a non-political organization. "If
there is a merger among NU-based political parties, it has
nothing to do with the NU executive board, but we always protect
our members whatever their party is," he said.

"NU had once been a political party for 21 years and it
drained NU energy so it could not play its role for the promotion
of civil society, education, law, even economy," he said.

Nahdlatul Ulama, whose name means "the revival of ulemas", was
established on Jan. 31, 1926. It was meant as a response to the
aggressive modern teaching of the Moslem reformist in the early
years of the century.

In line with the political liberalization in the 1950s, NU
became a political party in 1952 and surprisingly grabbed third
position, behind the Indonesian Nationalists Party (PNI) and
Masjumi, in the country's first general election in 1955.

But after a defeat in the 1971 election and the policy imposed
in 1973 by the ruling government that there were supposed to be
only three political parties contesting the election, many of its
members joined the United Development Party (PPP), others joined
the ruling Golkar party and a small number in the third political
party, the Indonesian Democratic Party (PKI). NU returned to its
function as a social and religious organization in its 1984
Congress.

Hasyim said he was opposed to the proposal because it would
only restrict NU's nationalism and religiousness.

Meanwhile, NU deputy chairman Solahuddin Wahid said that
although the idea was understandable, he did not believe that NU
members had the intention to change it into a political party.

"It is too late. If NU wanted to become a political party, the
decision was supposed to be made in 1998. Now there is no chance
for it," he said.

Solahuddin said further that NU would not actively join the
political arena. "We don't want to plunge into real politics. We
should keep away from any political parties," he said.

Instead, Solahuddin suggested that NU members in non-NU-based
political parties to cooperate with each other through Stembus
Akkord (vote swap deal) if the government implemented the
district system in the 2004 general election.

"The district system will leave only two national parties, the
Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan), in the lead. Others will only be local players," he
said, adding that through the Stembus Akkord the NU members would
have a place in the MPR.