JAKARTA: Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has entrusted its leadership to East Java cleric Abdul Hakim Mahfudz through a historic indirect voting system intended to shield the organisation from external influence, although the mechanism and its outcome have instead renewed concerns over political interference.
Abdul, better known as Gus Kikin, was elected NU chairman for the next five-year term on Monday (Aug 31) morning, the final day of the organisation’s 35th national congress in Jombang, East Java.
Nine senior clerics on the Ahlul Halli Wal-Aqdi (AHWA) council unanimously selected Gus Kikin over four other nominated candidates, including outgoing chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf and deputy chairman Zulfa Mustofa.
The decision was NU’s first indirect election for its chairman, marking a historic shift for the country’s largest Muslim organisation.
The change came a day earlier, when the overwhelming majority of the congress delegates voted to have AHWA select the chairman, replacing the direct vote previously afforded to the delegates.
In his inaugural address, Gus Kikin expressed hope that NU, entering its second century this year, could collaborate with President Prabowo Subianto ’s administration to strengthen national unity.
“We can make Indonesia [better] going forward,” Gus Kikin said. “NU has a sufficiently large grassroots base, which we hope can help create a calmer and more cohesive society.”
Born in Jombang, the 68-year old cleric is a great-grandson of the organisation's founder and national hero Hasyim Asy’ari, giving him one of NU’s most distinguished clerical pedigrees.
Gus Kikin spent much of his earlier career in business, heading a state-owned shipping company branch in the late 1980s and founding an oil-and-gas firm before joining the leadership of Tebuireng Islamic boarding school (pesantren) in 2015.
He joined the NU central executive board in 2022 and led its influential East Java chapter from 2024 until this month.
The leadership race was brought forward following an internal leadership dispute late last year between Yahya and supreme leader Miftachul Akhyar, who sought Yahya’s removal over financial mismanagement concerns and his invitation of a pro-Israel scholar to an internal event.
The two disputing sides later reconciled and agreed to settle their differences through an early congress.
In light of the election outcome, Yahya will remain serving NU, saying on Monday that he “will continue to provide help, no matter [where he will be] within or outside the executive board.”
Less democratic?
The unprecedented AHWA mechanism has since drawn scrutiny among analysts, who deemed it a concentration of the decisive power previously held by hundreds of branch representatives in a council of nine clerics, with their own interests.
Political researcher Agung Baskoro said the makeup of the AHWA was itself an indication of potential imbalances, comprising six clerics from East Java, which provided an inherent advantage to Gus Kikin, although he noted that the province’s clerics did not necessarily form a single bloc behind him.
“Internal political dynamics within the AHWA can be more easily ‘conditioned’ than the much broader influence of the congress delegates, who number more than 500,” Agung said.
NU observer Alexander Raymond Arifianto of Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, meanwhile, pointed to Gus Kikin’s longer record as a businessman than as a senior religious leader.
“The rhetoric may be that Gus Kikin’s ancestry is an attempt to distance NU from practical politics,” Alexander said.
“But his track record as a cleric is not particularly long. He spent most of his life as a businessman rather than a cleric.”
Speaking to reporters, Gus Kikin said, however, NU “is not for politics [...] but it is a religious, civic organisation”.
Future election in sight Sudarsono Rahman, who chairs the East Java NU Activists Forum, said the congress already reeked of political interference, claiming that the outcome showed that “competing interests” were already maneuvering for NU support in the 2029 general election due to its political clout.
“What happened in this congress was that [outside parties] sought to control NU votes by tearing the institution apart [with this election],” he said.
With millions of members across the country, NU wields vast political influence and has long occupied a central place around government.
Several of its figures hold cabinet positions in the current Prabowo’s administration, while NU figures were a constant on election ballots as vice presidential candidates.
The organisation’s close tie with the government has also drawn controversy.
That includes accusations of quid-pro-quo politics after NU accepted a state-granted coal-mining concession under former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, which critics described as a reward for supporting his preferred successors: Prabowo and Jokowi’s son, Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
Prabowo, who attended the congress’ opening ceremony last week, returned for its closing on Monday, when supreme leader Miftachul presented him with a lifetime NU membership card, which the President claimed was “a great honour”. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
