PBNU And PKB's Feud Is Still A Long End

JAKARTA The interest between the Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) Executive Board and the National Awakening Party (PKB) is heating up again. The protracted feud has the potential to make PKB lose votes in the future elections.

Criticizing each other and threatening each other has happened again in recent weeks, although this sight has actually been going on for a long time.

Not long ago, PBNU Secretary General Saifullah Yusuf planned to form a fifth team or a special committee (Pansus). The goal is to reclaim the PKB to its legal owner, namely PBNU.

"PBNU is in discussion. If needed, the formation of a fifth team will be carried out immediately. This step is after seeing the historical statements of the PKB elite. There are signs that they will take them away from the history of the establishment of PKB," said Gus Ipul in a written statement.

Gus Ipul added that the five team that was being initiated would resemble the team formed by PBNU in the early days of reform to establish PKB.

The formation of the fifth team by PBNU was allegedly'retaliatory' after the House of Representatives (DPR) formed the Hajj Anggat Special Committee following the chaos of organizing the 2024 Hajj pilgrimage.

Muhaimin Iskandar, Chairman of PKB as well as chairman of the 2024 Hajj Supervisory Team proposed the formation of the Hajj Questionnaire Special Committee approved by the DPR.

Later, this special committee will investigate the decision of the Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas alias Gus Yaqut who is suspected of transferring an additional 20 thousand regular Hajj quota to a special pilgrimage. The special committee considers this transfer as a violation of the expected law on the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah.

However, the formation of the special committee of inquiry is considered to be thick with political nuances. Not a few also consider this an event to resolve personal grudges during the 2024 Presidential Election.

PBNU General Chair Yahya Cholil Staquf did not even cover up his objections to the formation of the Hajj Special Committee. He suspects that one of the special committee's goals is to attack NU, because the Ministry of Religion is currently led by his younger brother Yaqut Cholil Qoumas.

"About the special committee for Hajj, yes. So, this then raises questions to us about the special committee for Hajj and then attacks NU, maybe this is a personal matter. Maybe it's because of my sister's minister," said Gus Yahya at a press conference after PBNU held a plenary meeting on 27-28 July at the Bidakara Hotel, Jakarta.

The feud between PKB and PBNU is actually not the case. If you want to be prosecuted, the conflict between the two began when Cak Imin took over the leadership of PKB from Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) in 2008.

Cak Imin was elected as Chairman of the PKB during the 2005 PKB Congress, while Gus Dur served as Chairman of the PKB Syuro Council. But the internal condition of the party heated up three years later along with the issue of removing Gus Dur through the Extraordinary Congress (MLB).

Gus Dur's camp responded by holding a joint PKB meeting and removing Cak Imin as chairman. But Cak Imin did not remain silent. He filed a lawsuit in court and won. In addition, his removal as chairman of the PKB DPP was also canceled.

Cak Imin then registered his party management with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and was ratified. The Minister of Law and Human Rights' decision was sued by Gus Dur's camp to the Administrative Court but was rejected.

Each camp registered its party with the KPU for the 2009 election, but Cak Imin PKB was declared valid.

Since then, the relationship between Cak Imin and Gus Yahya and Gus Yaqut, who in fact was 'Gus Dur's people', has never been harmonious. On the other hand, when PBNU was led by Said Aqil Siroj from 2010 to 2021, these two institutions had good relations, because they were judged to have one frequency with Cak Imin.

The purpose of the PBNU led by Gus Yahya to return the PKB to its rightful owner is considered inappropriate, according to political observer from Al-Azhar University Indonesia Andriadi Achmad.

Andriadi emphasized that so far PKB has remained in line with NU, but not with the elites in it, including the two brothers Gus Yahya and Gus Yaqut.

The PKB is implicitly inseparable from NU. This can be seen from the PKB mass base, which is synonymous with the NU base, such as in Central Java and East Java where the PKB vote is very strong," Andriadi told VOI.

"Therefore, PBNU's desire to withdraw PKB into NU's lap is an inappropriate narrative. Because PKB is not going anywhere, PKB remains in line with NU," he continued.

Andriadi suspects that this is only the will of PBNU (Yahya Yaqut and Cholil Yaqut) to withdraw PKB from Cak Imin's leadership, following the cold heat relationship between the two camps for a long time.

One of them was during the 2024 presidential election, when the chairman of PBNU and the Minister of Religion did not support the pair Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar.

Andriadi Achmad said the prolonged PBNU and PKB feuds would cause both parties to suffer losses.

"Of course NU people (who suffer losses) in general, as we know NU is the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia. So that the chaos at the elite level must have an effect on NU's base on grassroots," said Andriadi.

For this reason, Andriadi said, the feud between PKB and PBNU needs to be resolved by the elderly kiyai.

The feud between the two is thicker because of political interests and power. So that it damages the image of NU in the community or causes PKB which is rooted among Nadliyin in particular and people generally lose votes in the future elections," Andriadi concluded.