Gus Dur's Reincarnation
Gus Dur’s daughter, Alissa Wahid, said Gus Yahya was discovered and later promoted by Gus Dur to the national stage through his appointment as the president’s spokesperson.
Kiai Yahya Cholil Staquf or known as Gus Yahya visited the Kompas Daily Editorial office in Jakarta, Wednesday (6/10/2021).
During the 34th Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Congress in Lampung, on 22 and 23 Dec., 2021, a number of large banners with the face of KH Yahya Cholil Staquf, or Gus Yahya, adorned the main gate, the corners of the conference arena and the city streets. There were only a few banners with the pictures of KH Said Aqil Siroj and Muhaimin Iskandar, the two main competitors of Gus Yahya in running for NU chairmanship.
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The most common messages on the banners of Gus Yahya, who was later elected the chairman, was that he was the new Gus Dur or the "reincarnation" of Gus Dur. A book about Gus Yahya titled Menghidupkan Gus Dur: Catatan Kenangan Yahya Cholil Staquf (immortalizing Gus Dur: A memoir by Yahya Cholil Staquf) was launched and reviewed at the congress. "Reviving Gus Dur" was also one of the issues Gus Yahya addressed in an interview with Kompas (26/12/2021) after he was elected chairman of the NU executive board.
Indeed, there are several identified intersections of character and experience between Gus Yahya and Gus Dur. First, both of them are called Gus more often than kiai (Muslim scholar), something that set them apart from the former’s leadership rivals at the congress. Second, Gus Yahya, in his youth, accompanied Gus Dur when he was serving office as Indonesia’s fourth president. In fact,
Gus Dur’s daughter, Alissa Wahid, said Gus Yahya was discovered and later promoted by Gus Dur to the national stage through his appointment as the president’s spokesperson. Third, similar to Gus Dur, Gus Yahya is not deterred from making controversial moves and statements that create controversy.
One of the controversies was his attendance at the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Global Forum conference in Israel in 2018, where he spoke about a resolution to religious conflicts. Gus Dur also once waded into similar controversy stemming from his visit to Israel in his capacity as a leader of Islamic organizations to fulfill the invitation of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to witness the signing of the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan in 1994.
Gus Yahya showed his willingness to go against the mainstream when he talked about radicalism and terrorism during the National Islam Nusantara Symposium in February 2020. He said it would be difficult for Muslims and the Indonesian people to stem the tide of radicalism as long as they did not want to admit that there was a problem within themselves. "We are missing the obvious," Gus Yahya said.
What did he mean by "the obvious" thing that could sow the seeds of radicalism? According to him, we were not willing to admit that there were Islamic teachings or verses from the Quran that were potentially misinterpreted to justify radicalism.
For them, religion always teaches goodness, while terrorists are considered to have no religion. They allege that the cause of radicalism lies elsewhere.
This statement was in response to some religious figures’ rejection of the thesis that there were religious or theological elements in various acts of radicalism. Gus Yahya's statement certainly put him in opposition to some religious leaders because they said he had blamed Islam for, or accused Islam of being the root cause of, radicalism. For them, religion always teaches goodness, while terrorists are considered to have no religion. They allege that the cause of radicalism lies elsewhere.
According to Gus Yahya, as long as we do not acknowledge the problems above, it will be difficult to eradicate radicalism completely. Gus Yahya's approach has been conveyed many times, including in videos on Islam Nusantara and during his visits to Israel.
President Joko Widodo receives the elected General Chairperson of the Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) Executive Board, KH Yahya Cholil Staquf at the Bogor Presidential Palace, on Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Not only was his criticism related to the problems of Muslims in general, Gus Yahya also spoke up against NU regarding the cadre system. At a plenary meeting ahead of the closing of the National Deliberation and NU Grand Conference in Banjar in 2019, he criticized the age limit for the administrators of the Nahdlatul Ulama Student Association (IPNU) and the Nahdlatul Ulama Women's Student Association (IPPNU). According to him, if the upper age limit for IPNU administrators was close to 30 years, it was not surprising that the board of directors was filled with those who would use the organization as a political vehicle. This caused Islamic spiritual activities in various junior and senior high schools, he said, to be dominated by more radical Islamic movements.
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He said NU cadres were more busy in politics and had made Senayan a mecca rather than taking care of spiritual activities at school. Gus Yahya then asked how many high schools NU operated in and whether they had the IPNU and the IPPNU in Indonesia in general? It turned out to be a small number.
For the NU board, he did not rely exclusively on the National Awakening Party (PKB) but also on other parties, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
What Gus Yahya promoted seemed to be motivated by Gus Dur's spirit, which was to bring NU back to the khitah, redefining NU’s role as a religious mass organization, not a political party. In one of the interviews after the congress, Gus Yahya immediately pointed out that the president and vice president of Indonesia from the 2024 election would not come from NU. For the NU board, he did not rely exclusively on the National Awakening Party (PKB) but also on other parties, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
There is a tendency of various Islamic organizations to change their roles into political organizations or become dominated by politicians. Social organization offices are often accused of being like the offices of political parties. There are also accusations that certain mass organizations
are already “under payroll” from a party so that their every step and movement is dictated. Such a condition has often been raised in discussions, but few dared to speak out loud, let alone change it. As Gus Yahya comes forward, one of his missions is to bring Islamic organizations back to their true identity.
The steps taken by Gus Yahya in forming the NU board were also a new breakthrough. In addition to maintaining distance from political parties, he also installed 11 women in the organizational board. They do not merely serve as symbolic women’s representation but hold quite a strategic position. Of course, women have had an important place in NU and the NU board, but this is the first time they have entered the management board with a pivotal position. In fact, even during Gus Dur's time, women were not yet included in the management board. Apart from women, several non-gawagis (plural of gus or descendants of kiai) and nonactivists of the Indonesian Islamic Student Movement (PMII), which is one of the NU wings, are also included in the management.
The General Chairperson of the NU Executive Board Said Aqil Siroj submitted a decision letter from the 34th NU Congress committee to KH Yahya Cholil Staquf as Chair of the Steering Committee or SC (middle) and PBNU Chairman H Robikin Emhas as Chair of the Organizing Committee or OC in the 2020 Muktamar Coin Launching at the Office PBNU Jakarta, Friday (31/1/2020).
Finally, Gus Yahya has sought to take NU out of its main base in East Java and Central Java. He plans to build a new office outside Java and conduct the inauguration near the city that will become the nation's new capital, at the Balikpapan Sport and Convention Center in East Kalimantan. This can answer critics who say that NU cannot claim to be representative of Islam Nusantara because its membership is so concentrated in East and Central Java. Now, Gus Yahya invites NU out of Java to represent Indonesia as a whole.
(This article was translated by Musthofid)
