Muhammad Nafik and Suherdjoko, Surakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened a five-day congress of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) here on Sunday, with its senior leaders strongly criticizing the group, the largest Muslim organization in the country, for its involvement in politics.
They demanded that the NU congress toughen its standing orders, so its members can stick to khittah (the organization's commitment made in 1984 to stay out of politics).
"If we want to examine it, the bitter experience that we have undergone is because we have been inconsistent in applying khittah," NU syuriah (lawmaking body) chairman Sahal Mahfudz said in his opening speech during the congress.
"NU, according to its khittah, only focuses on 'the politics of nationhood' to secure the unity of Republic of Indonesia and 'politics of the people' aimed at looking after the people, not on 'the politics of power', or actual politics," he added.
Sahal's criticism came amid mounting accusations that NU executive leader Hasyim Muzadi breached the khittah when he stood as the running mate of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in the July and September elections.
Hasyim allegedly mobilized NU support for his vice presidential bid, despite the fact that he was non-active as the organization's chairman when he ran in the election.
The prevailing standing orders require NU executives to temporarily relinquish their posts if they want to contest government or legislative seats. NU officials are also banned from serving as board members in any political party.
Sahal said NU does not prohibit its members from playing a role in politics, but their lack of understanding of khittah or their being inconsistent about the guidelines often leads them to involve NU as an institution in politics, thus neglecting the bigger interests of the organization and the nation at large.
"It's time for NU to fully wean NU members who use their right to be involved in politics by setting strict rules in order to stop their explicit and implicit practices that drag the institution into political goals," he added.
Sahal, an influential and charismatic cleric who also chairs the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), urged the NU to annul the 'modified khittah' it had agreed on during the 1999 congress in Lirboyo, Kediri, which ordered the religious organization to structurally back the National Awakening Party (PKB) it founded months earlier.
Other senior ulema gave a positive response to Sahal's comments, saying the current national congress being held at Donohudan Haj Dormitory in Surakarta, Central Java, should renew its commitment to quit politics.
"NU should not be linked to any political party, but NU is inseparable from politics for the interests of its members and the nation," said leader of the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school Idris Marzuki, who backs the reelection bid of Hasyim for a second five-year term.
Earlier in the day, President Susilo opened the congress, which was attended by more than 3,500 leaders from NU's 450 provincial and regental branches across the country. Many Cabinet ministers, diplomats and foreign observers also attended.
In his speech during the opening ceremony Susilo, who is directly leading the anticorruption drive, asked the NU to help ensure that Indonesia becomes a "clean and civilized nation".
"I am sure that under the leadership of the ulema, our people will be able to demonstrate true human values, so we can become a civilized society," he said.
The President said the NU had played a major role in nation building in addressing backwardness and asked it to forge ahead with this noble mission in the future.