Syafiq Hasyim – Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation missed out on the most significant ministerial portfolio – religious affairs – despite supporting presidential candidate Prabowo. What now?
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, has been at the end of contrasting treatment from the Joko (Jokowi) Widodo and Prabowo administrations. President Prabowo has not offered NU all that it expected as reward for campaigning for his electoral victory in last February's presidential election.
NU, of course, has gained some ministerial positions for its cadres in Prabowo's cabinet: Syaifullah Yusuf (Gus Ipul) – former chief of NU's youth wing, GP Ansor – is now Minister of Social Affairs, Secretary of the Central Board of NU's women's wing Muslimat Arifah Choiri Fauzi is Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, former Ansor leader Nusron Wahid is Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning, and some other NU cadres also gained positions. However, none of these are strategic posts, chief of which is the religious affairs (MORA) portfolio.
What accounts for this seeming difference in the treatment of NU by the previous and current presidents?
NU's expectation of drawing closer to Prabowo is understandable due to how NU followers showed their full-hearted support for his presidential campaign: NU was the only major Muslim organisation that explicitly backed Prabowo. Admittedly, this support was driven by the political reality at the time, namely that Jokowi supported candidate Prabowo.
In contrast during Jokowi's second presidential term, NU was prioritised over others like Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest mass Muslim organisation. Jokowi fully supported and endorsed most of NU's initiatives, such as its internationalisation programme, humanitarian Islam, and others. Jokowi also attended almost all of NU's programmes, including official meetings like its annual Muktamar (National Congress) and national meetings (Munas), and even minor programmes like seminars or conferences.
In short, Jokowi was a good 'father figure' to NU when he was president. Unsurprisingly, NU backed Jokowi's endorsement for Prabowo with the assumption that this would generate payback from Prabowo for NU. Eventually, Prabowo appointed Nasarudin Umar, the Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque and Professor in Islamic Studies at State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, as MORA minister. However, Nasarudin Umar is not an NU representative, unlike Yaqut Cholil Qoumas who was GP Ansor general chairperson from 2015-2024, a position he retained as Widodo's religious affairs minister from 2020 until he was replaced as Ansor chair in early February 2024.
While Prabowo's decision not to choose Yaqut as his religious affairs minister was disappointing for NU, it could have been predicted. As minister, Yaqut refused to meet Parliament (DPR) to discuss the handling of hajj quotas in late September 2024. In the Pansus Haji (Special Committee on Hajj Quota) 2024's final session for its investigation into whether corruption was involved in the allocation of hajj quotas, the Committee advised the incoming president (Prabowo, who at this point had been elected but not officially inaugurated) to appoint a "more competent" minister of religious affairs (than Yaqut) due to his uncollaborative attitude with its investigation.
In NU's long history, the MORA post has held greater meaning than other ministerial posts. Socially and politically speaking, NU needs the MORA portfolio to be effective, as many NU programmes intersect with MORA's policies and programmes. In Yaqut's term as minister, NU benefited from the strong programmatic support of MORA. This included the recruitment of MORA's senior officials from NU, the socialisation of fiqh peradaban (or civilisation of fiqh, the theory and philosophy of Islamic law) among the followers of NU, NU's Islamic education programmes as well as its Keluarga Maslahat ("Good Family") programme.
At this early stage in his presidency, Prabowo seems to have decided to keep a rational distance not only from NU but from other Muslim organisations as well. Perhaps the president wants to have equidistance or similar relationships with all Muslim organisations regardless of their size and influence.
Prabowo has, however, attended some key official NU events and might yet go to NU's next Muktamar and Munas-Ulama (national meeting of NU ulama) later in his term. He did not attend an international conference on humanitarian Islam NU organised on 5 November 2024 but attended the NU Munas/Konbes (national congress) held in February 2025.
Although Prabowo has not yet rewarded NU with the biggest prize, the MORA portfolio, the organisation is still patiently dealing with the new government. As an organisation, NU will support Prabowo. Instead of using this opportunity to be critical of or distant from Prabowo, as expected by some independent and middle class cadres, the current elites of NU will continue to rely on the president and give him its gaspol, or full support.
[Syafiq Hasyim is a Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, and Lecturer and Director of Library and Culture at the Indonesian International Islamic University.]
Source: https://fulcrum.sg/joko-widodo-prabowo-and-nahdlatul-ulama