Jakarta, NU Online
Deputy General Chairman of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) H As'ad Said Ali asserted that "NU currently has five pillars of strength that are able to raise the organization and the country in general." The five pillars are clerics, scholars, merchants, bureaucrats, and politicians.<>
"Clerics, including Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) where they live in, have played important roles to this nation," As'ad said at a meeting with the representative of the Kudus' Al Qudsiyah Education Foundation in Jakarta on Thursday ( 10/10 ) afternoon .
However, As'ad said, in addition to having clerics, the Indonesia's largest Muslim organization has also given birth to hundreds of thousands of scholars in various fields.
Their contribution, he added, was at least was to deal with the flow of secularism and religious extremism intellectually.
Merchants, he explained, were a symbol of economic independence that could support the struggle of NU. The strength would grow following the presence of professionals whose background are Nahdliyin.
Bureaucrats from NU have now scattered everywhere," he said.
As'ad said, "the next pillar is the presence of rajalus siyasah (politicians)," adding that there had now been many NU politicians involving themselves in the country's political arena.
Responding to the presence of NU politisians, Deputy Secretary General of NU Enceng Shobirin said that their presence had not yet been in an encouraging condition.
"Because I think now in terms of the pillar of politicians, the image of NU is still not good," Enceng said.
As'ad also called for the importance of taking into account the statement made by one of the NU founders KH Wahab Hasbullah in 1950, which reads:
"There are many NU leaders in rural and urban areas that are not convinced of the strength of NU. They believe in the strength of other groups. These people are affected by those who whisper propaganda in order not believe in the strength of theirs."
Reporting by Mahbib Khoiron; Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq
