PKB's Ulama Ijtima Highlights Four Key Points: Pesantren Stigma and Human Resource Governance

The National Awakening Party (PKB) convened the Ijtima Ulama Indonesia ahead of the peak of its 28th anniversary (Harlah) celebrations. The event produced four main points of focus.

“There are four main and strategic issues that we discussed. Firstly, the dynamics of national, state and community life,” said Saifullah Ma’shum, Secretary of the PKB Central Executive Council’s Syura Council, after the event at the Fairmont Hotel, Jakarta, on Thursday (23/7/2026).

Of the four points, one highlighted the plight of pesantren, which have recently often been stigmatised by society. In addition, the education budget allocation for pesantren was criticised as being far smaller than that for general schools.

“The (funds) for education are not entirely and not fairly distributed to religion and pesantren. The largest portion goes to general education under the Ministry of Education and Culture, Education Office and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. For the Ministry of Religious Affairs, it is extremely minimal,” he said.

Another point concerned the Ijtima Ulama’s support for the government’s economic policies, which were deemed to be in line with the constitution in empowering the people. Nevertheless, the readiness of Indonesia’s human resources (SDM) was seen as remaining a major challenge.

“In its implementation, there are still problems, particularly in governance or preparation, or the readiness of human resources that have not been properly prepared, so that deviations, distortions and inconsistencies with what the President has planned occur here and there,” he said.

“Therefore, the Ijtima stated that it must be evaluated and must be open to control at all times, because this is a major programme, a programme that allocates a large budget and has enormous socio-economic effects, so space must be opened as widely as possible for public participation, evaluation, monitoring and oversight,” he added.

On the same occasion, Deputy Secretary of the PKB Syura Council Maman Imanulhaq mentioned a forum called the Majelis Silaturahmi Ulama Rakyat (Masura), initiated by PKB. Masura serves as a platform for religious leaders to convey various issues.

“So village kiai can share anything that is happening, what PKB is doing, what the obstacles are and so on, including the decisions of this Ijtima,” said Maman.