Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) patriarch and former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid has made it clear that he is extremely displeased with NU executive chairman Hasyim Muzadi and senior leaders are talking about forming a "rival" NU if Muzadi wins a further five-year term at its congress.

Over 1,000 NU leaders will attend the 31st congress or "muktamar" of the world's largest Muslim organization in Boyolali, Central Java, over the November 28-December 2 period.

Wahid has been telling reporters for weeks that the NU must be saved from "practical politics" and undergo a comprehensive overhaul after five years under Muzadi.

He is planning to lead the rejuvenation of the organization himself and is running for the position of Rais 'Aam' or head of the NU senior advisory board. The clinically blind cleric and scholar formerly served as head of the "Syuriah" board charged with authority over "law-making" or doctrinal affairs prior to becoming president in late 1999. He was forced from office in 2001 and replaced by his then deputy Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Muzadi's decision to run as Megawati's vice presidential candidate in this year's elections was a bitter pill for the venerable Wahid to swallow – and an unacceptable adventure in "practical politics" as the expression goes. Muzadi was officially relieved of his duties prior to the first-round election in July.

"Everything has become totally bogged down over the past five years," Wahid told journalists in Central Java on Friday (26/11/04).

He is not alone in thinking that the NU should remain a purely social-cultural organization but Muzadi's widespread support within the organization remains evident and many of the NU's 40 million strong flock voted for him at the polls after Wahid was disqualified from running for president due to health considerations.

After Megawati's reelection hopes were dashed at the September 20 run off, Muzadi began mobilizing support for his reelection as NU executive chairman.

Wahid said earlier this week that his preferred candidate for the position is Mustafa Bisri, a respected senior NU leader well known for his aversion to "practical politics". But Bisri himself told the Koran Tempo daily on Thursday that he did not have his eye on the top job and that any statements to that effect were a means to "force" him into the game.

The "misunderstanding" may have been cleared up on Friday, when Wahid visited Bisri at his home in Rembang, Central Java. Bisri concurred that the NU required a major overhaul and should concentrate on the development of its neglected social, cultural, economic empowerment and education programs. He did not, however, comment on whether he would run against Muzadi for the chairmanship, reported the tempointeraktif website.

If Muzadi should win a second term despite opposition from Wahid and against a strong contender in Bisri, senior NU leaders or kyai have urged the formation of a "rival NU" to challenge the Muzadi camp. They endorsed the move at a meeting in Surabaya, the provincial capital of East Java, on Tuesday this week.

"If the NU splinters, he [Muzadi] will go down in history as the man responsible," said NU Syuriah board member Masdar Farid Mas'udi on Thursday when the controversy hit a crescendo.

Wahid told reporters in Rembang that the kyai were prepared for the break up of the organization because they were determined to save it from "practical politics".

Muzadi denies rift

Muzadi himself claimed on Saturday that there is no conflict between himself and Wahid – just a difference of opinion. However, such "differences of opinion" on matters of NU policy and vision for the future were not sufficiently serious to warrant any sort of meeting with the former president, Muzadi said.

"We could meet at any time. There's no need to plan a meeting. We have met many times at the NU headquarters and there have been no problems," he told journalists in Solo, Central Java.

The statesmanlike Muzadi also expressed an opinion voiced by numerous other observers in recent days – that such controversies have marked NU congresses from the very earliest days of the organization, which was established in 1926. "As I remember, ever since the 27th muktamar, when I first became a committee member, it's always been like this," he confided to reporters.

Not unprecedented...

Observers have eyed the apparent "rift" between Wahid and Muzadi with substantial interest but little concern for the future of the organization. Wahid is well known and even loved for his sometimes erratic political maneuverings and the organization established by his grandfather Wahid Hasyim, among others, has weathered numerous storms in the past.

In 1996, for example, a faction headed by Abu Hasan hostile to Wahid's leadership held an extraordinary congress and declared themselves the rightful keepers of the NU fold. They were backed in their endeavor by former dictator Suharto.

The establishment of the National Awakening Party (PKB) after Suharto's fall in 1998 as the political arm of the NU has also failed to ensure the stability of the NU.

PKB chairman Matori Abdul Jalil enraged Wahid by attending the July 2001 special session of the People's Consultative Assembly that ousted him. The party later stripped Jalil of his party chairmanship at a hastily convened congress.

Jalil rejected the decision, claimed that he remained the PKB leader and caused no end of trouble contesting the legal rights to the party's property, logos and very existence. He received substantial financial support from parties intent on disgracing Wahid and became a lame duck defense minister in Megawati's military-backed government until ill health forced him from politics in 2003.

NU youth concerned

NU youth leaders and members, meanwhile, may be new to the game but are nevertheless actively urging their peers to refrain from perpetuating the twin miseries of "money politics" and "practical politics". A group of NU youth leaders announced earlier in the week that they had set up a "crisis center" ahead of the congress in response to worrying developments at the elite level.

Crisis center spokesman Luthfi Rohman told reporters on Thursday that they were concerned about vote buying and other forms of financial improprieties as competition for top positions in the organization intensifies. Rohman said they had no hard evidence of corruption but noted that a number of regency and municipal branch offices had received substantial amounts of money in recent weeks to fund renovations of NU offices and for other unspecified expenses.

He also said that it was well-known that "money politics" had been rife during the previous muktamar congress and that the NU was lagging behind other mass organizations in terms of releasing information on its funding sources and expenses. The crisis center activists were also concerned by the increasingly elitist nature of the NU, reported Tempo Interaktif.

Rohman said the NU leadership had become alienated from the mass of NU followers, most of whom live in underserviced and poor villages, and no longer understood their trials and tribulations.

He criticized the NU's lack of action towards the thousands of Indonesians working overseas – most of who come from NU strongholds in East and Central Java – particularly when they face oppression and exploitation.

Separately, head of the NU Youth Organization (KMNU) Naeni Amanulloh said they would hold their own "muktamar" not far from the hall where the NU elite is planning to meet. The activists plan to remind their peers that the NU should not fall victim to petty political bickering.

"The NU's history is one of struggle for the nation and the development of society. The NU elite of the past was like that. But now conditions have done an about face. Attention to the nation and society have been more than a little neglected because the NU elite have gone into practical politics," she said.

Event organization Kuat Hermawan Santosa said they had invited a range of NU and other leaders to partake in their open discussions on NU history, its social mission and the pressing issues facing the ummat or congregation. "The arena of the muktamar is already too politicized to produce discussions on these things," he told the Detik.com news website.

While Wahid himself is revered and loved by the vast majority of NU followers, many are growing weary of his outbursts on the evils of "practical politics" and the liberties he takes with the NU and its political party.

Wahid indicated on Friday in Rembang that, despite his abhorrence for the brand of practical politics exhibited by Muzadi, he would not distance himself from the PKB if elected to a position of leadership within the NU. "I will never stand down. Being in charge of the PKB doesn't require a position within the structure. And that is also true in the case [of the NU]," he said.