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.