Support grows for Sahal-Gus Mus ticket in NU
The Jakarta Post, Surakarta
The ground under incumbent Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) leader Haysim Muzadi appeared to be moving on Tuesday, as ex-president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's campaign to remove him from power gained some ground.
The two rival camps of elite clerics inside Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) are still seeking a compromise deal to prevent an imminent split in the nation's biggest Muslim organization over the reelection bid of Hasyim.
Hasyim's bid is still apparently supported by a majority of congress participants. However on Tuesday, more representatives started to move against the incumbent chairman.
Seven regional NU branches in North Maluku -- Ternate; North, South North and West Halmahera; and the Tidore and Sula Islands -- were the first contingents to publicly reject Hasyim.
The faction led by former chairman and ex-president Gus Dur is pressuring Hasyim not to contest a second five-year term in the congress in Surakarta, Central Java.
Instead, the Gus Dur camp asked its rival faction to accept noted cleric and poet Mustofa "Gus Mus" Bisri as an alternative to replace Hasyim and pair with charismatic cleric Sahal Mahfudz, who currently chairs the NU's lawmaking body.
"All-out efforts to compromise in the two feuding camps are underway. Let's wait and see," deputy NU chairman Masdar Farid Mas'udi told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He said that maintaining the pairing of Hasyim and Sahal could pose serious problems for the future of NU.
"Ulema want the NU central board led by Kyai (cleric) Sahal and Gus Mus because the two will be able to bring progress to NU," M. Zaim Ahmad Ma'sum, a spokesman for the senior ulema in support of Gus Dur, said on Monday.
Masdar concurred that the Sahal-Gus Mus ticket would be a good alternative.
Like Masdar, other young intellectuals in the organization have given their support to the Sahal-Gus Mus pairing as the best solution to settle the internal conflict among senior ulema.
"The only alternative to stop the bitter bickering is to prevent both Hasyim and Gus Dur from leading NU," Zuhairi Misrawi, a young NU scholar, said.
Zaim said several clerics were assigned on Monday night to meet Sahal and Gus Mus separately and ask for their readiness to chair the 40 million-member NU for the 2004-2009 period.
The two leaders had hinted strongly that they would accept the request, Zaim said.
Among the clerics sent to persuade Sahal and Gus Mus were Tuan Guru Turmudzi Badruddin of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, Sanusi Baco of South Sulawesi, Abdullah Abbas of Buntet, Cirebon, and Maftuchin Faqih of Gresik, East Java.
"Kyai Sahal also sent a team of four of his representatives to Gus Dur to express his readiness (to pair with Gus Mus) on the same night," a source close to Tuan Guru Turmudzi told the Post.
The source also said Gus Dur had held a private meeting with Gus Mus on Saturday.
But because Gus Mus had not stated his readiness to challenge Hasyim in the leadership election, Gus Dur had asked Gus Mus' mother to persuade her son to accept the request.
Since NU's Lirboyo congress in Kediri in 1999, Gus Mus has repeatedly said his mother had forbade him to lead the NU.
Speaking on Tuesday, Gus Mus however denied deciding whether to accept a nomination for the NU top post.
"None of the ulema have visited me," he said.
Nor did Gus Mus say he would be ready to chair the Islamic organization. He also criticized the NU's standing orders for not strictly regulating its relations with the National Awakening Party (PKB).
He urged the congress to annul the recommendation made in 1999 for NU members to back the PKB.