NU Turbulence, Before and After the Congress

More precisely, I would refer here to PBNU and all its levels down to the Anak Ranting NU management at the lowest village-based level as a structural organisational product of the institutionalisation of Aswaja Islamic religious values. It has undergone a process of indigenisation in the Nusantara, more specifically condensed in the land of Java. Its adherents are often called Nahdliyin. Therefore, NU has its cultural base in Java, with pesantren as its most dominant primary social institution. Another major base of NU is the village. Thus, discussing NU cannot be separated from the keywords Java, Village, Pesantren, and Traditional-Classical Islam.

However, in its long history of slightly less than a century, NU was not born from a single context, as mentioned above, but has also become increasingly involved in the contest of national ideas and power politics, socio-economic realities, and issues of modernity. As a result, NU has undergone transformation and social mobility out of its traditional base roots, yet still remains firmly embedded.

The historical trajectory proves that NU as an Islamic mass organisation has also joined political parties and even founded its own political party. Previously, NU elites had also formed groups engaged in national aspects, intellectual movements, and economic-trade movements. Thus, simplifying the reality of NU or reducing it with a uniform approach while ignoring diverse approaches and interpretations is the result of incomplete intellectualisation. NU’s spectrum and horizon are so vast that it is necessary to view it per variable, per historical segment, and it would be better understood more comprehensively.

Equally important in reading structural NU as explained above is that we cannot escape analysing the actors who have traversed its historical journey from era to era. Actors often become the determining factor in shaping the direction, dynamics, dialectics, and even the controversies and contestations that colour NU. Each era certainly has its own colour and excitement.

The birth of NU in 1926 did not happen suddenly, but through a process of intellectual and movement struggle within various contexts, both local-domestic and global. The word ‘Nahdlah’, with emphasis on the letter ‘dhat’, became the inspiration in formulating NU’s institutional and structural framework. It began with the formation of ‘Nahdlatul Fikr’ (Intellectual Movement), ‘Nahdlatul Wathon’ (National Movement), and Nahdlatut Tujjar (Economic Movement). The awakening of Muslim intellectuals was deemed very important amid a society that was not yet educated, while European colonisers formed the Indonesian colony with a secular Western education system.

Ideologically, NU has solid roots, namely a fundamental idea that serves as the main guide in mainstreaming its movement and struggle: that there is no single interpretation in religious understanding and no uniformity in the implementation of religious understanding. Moderation is NU’s characteristic in thinking, behaving, and acting, formulated from the legacy of the classical Aswaja Islamic tradition and the legacy of the wali in the Nusantara, particularly in Java. It was this moderate ideology that gave birth to the Hijaz Committee, which rejected and negotiated the single Wahhabi interpretation of Islam in the Holy Land of Saudi Arabia. Likewise, the birth of anti-colonial national patriotism in its various expressions, such as the doctrine ‘Love of the Homeland is Part of Faith’, Hubbul wathon minal Iman, and most visibly seen in the ‘Resolusi Jihad’.

The institutionalisation of these values occurred in pesantren. Pesantren is NU’s most independent institution. Kyai and santri functionally carry out the transfer of Islamic knowledge and ethics, inheriting from the classical scholarly tradition to the next generation of ulama. The pondok is the place where this knowledge is transmitted, adopting exemplary conduct and self-reliance. Pesantren is not only a place for dialogue and cognitive and epistemological exchange of thought, but also a medium for instilling exemplary values and practical ethical values in daily life. The outcome of pesantren is outstanding santri who are ready to grapple with the realities of life, ready to compete and give colour in every locus and professional field. We can witness many actors who are pesantren alumni being adaptive and even giving spirit and great influence in community life.

For Kyai and santri, these values constitute a philosophy in religion and statehood, which was then formulated into the philosophy of the Republic by the nation’s founders, with Pancasila as the meeting point of Indonesian religiosity in the Nusantara. In my view, this is NU’s greatest and most historic legacy for the new order of life in Indonesia, which has become a solid foundation for Indonesia’s future sustainability. This is the national and state politics that NU has always championed, even though increasingly now and in the future it sounds somewhat foreign, outdated, abstract, and irrelevant.

In this era of disruption, there seems to be a view that the era of ideology is dead, replaced by the pragmatism of money, power politics, and hedonism-greed. NU’s challenge is to preserve that vision and mission or instead be deceived at the crossroads because it is tempted by the sweetness of worldly sugar. The institutionalisation of the above values at the level of NU’s structural arrangement (from PBNU down to the lowest level) presents a more complex challenge. This challenge relates to materialistic aspects (as opposed to idealistic); to human resources in managing the organisation, governance, management, office administration, costs, funds and sources of financing, and other matters that affect the stability of an organisational structure. External challenges are no less fierce, whether external influences entering or internal actors bringing in external influences.