Post-Muktamar: Where is NU Heading?

The 35th Muktlamar of Nahdlatul Ulama at the Bahrul Ulum Islamic Boarding School in Tambakberas, Jombang, has produced a new leadership. KH Miftachul Akhyar has been reappointed as Rais Am, while KH Abdul Hakim Mahfudz, also known as Gus Kikin, has been entrusted as the General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU) for the 2026-2031 term.

Leadership changes in an organisation as large as NU are not merely about changing names within a structure. More importantly, it is a momentum to answer a much more fundamental question: where will NU be led in the next five years? This question is vital because NU is currently entering a phase different from previous eras. NU is no longer just a religious organisation operating within the confines of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren). NU has become a social, educational, economic, national political, and even civil society diplomatic force that is significant in global affairs.

It must be acknowledged that such rapid development forces NU to face many paradoxes: how to become a modern organisation without losing tradition, how to be a global player without being uprooted from its pesantren roots, how to remain close to power without losing critical capacity, and how to develop economic strength without turning service (khidmah) into a transaction? In my view, the success of the new administration lies in answering these paradox and paradoxes.

ORGANISING THE JAM’IYYAH

A major challenge for the new NU administration is organising the jam’iyyah (the community/organisation). This may not be a widely discussed issue in NU forums. However, the larger an organisation becomes, the more dangerous it is if governance relies solely on charisma, personal closeness, or traditions of trust.

In this context, Gus Kikin’s background serves as an interesting asset. He has not only grown within the pesantren tradition and possesses long experience in education and community service, but he also brings professional experience in leading and managing companies. These two experiences provide an important perspective for NU on how to maintain the values of service and trust while building an organisation with managerial discipline.

Furthermore, the challenge lies in how he brings that managerial experience into the body of NU without turning NU into a corporation. NU is not a company, and its members are not merely consumers. NU is a jam’iyyah that possesses much more complex religious, social, cultural, and national dimensions. Therefore, modern management principles must be utilised as tools to strengthen service, not to replace it.

This is where governance reform becomes essential. Financial accountability, transparency in decision-making, auditing, risk management, organisational databases, clear division of authority, and programme evaluation should no longer be regarded as mere administrative matters. All of these are instruments to safeguard the organisation’s trust.

I believe that under Gus Kikin’s leadership, NU’s institutions can move from personal trust towards institutional trust. Trust in kiai (religious scholars) remains a vital foundation in NU culture. However, an organisation as large as NU cannot forever depend on trust in individuals. That trust must be transformed into trust in the institution, in systems that can be audited, in decisions that can be accounted for, and in governance that can be passed down to future generations.

At that point, Gus Kikin’s experience in both the pesantren and professional worlds can become a competitive advantage. He has the opportunity to prove that professionalism does not have to clash with tradition, and that modernisation does not have to mean westernisation. NU can remain rooted in the pesantren while being managed with increasingly professional organisational standards.

BUILDING INDEPENDENCE

In terms of quantity, there is no doubt about the greatness of NU, but size alone is not enough; we must not be satisfied with mere numbers. Indeed, NU’s main challenge today is transforming its greatness from a burden into empowerment. NU possesses extraordinary social capital. The network of pesantren, madrasahs, universities, educational institutions, business entities, women’s organisations, youth groups, and international networks are assets that few other socio-religious organisations in the world possess.

However, social capital does not automatically translate into strategic strength. NU’s problem has not been a lack of potential, but rather how to consolidate scattered potential into an organised force. For a long time, many NU institutions have operated in isolation. Pesantrens grow with their own strength, but they are not yet fully connected within a mature economic ecosystem.

Therefore, the task of the new administration is not merely to make NU larger, but to ensure that its greatness is truly beneficial. NU needs to move from being merely a large jam’iyyah to an empowered jam’iyyah—an organisation that does not just possess many institutions, but is capable of making all those forces work together.

Today, NU has pesantren, madrasahs, universities, hospitals, cooperatives, business entities, and various social institutions spread across many regions. However, these strengths often operate on separate tracks. Pesantrens have their own stories, universities move with their own agendas, and so do other economic and social institutions.

This is where the importance of the PBNU leader lies: to orchestrate a consolidation of action. The consolidation of NU should not be understood merely as tidying up the organisational structure or reorganising the division of labour. More than that, consolidation here is an effort to bring together the potentials that have been scattered so they become a collective strength. For example, a pesantren strong in education can support an economic ecosystem. A university can serve as a laboratory of knowledge for the pesantren and the community. Health institutions, cooperatives, and business entities…