PBNU Urges PKB To Restore Ulama Leadership

PBNU Chairman KH Yahya Cholil Staquf together with PBNU Deputy Chairperson Aam KH Anwar Iskandar gave a statement in Surabaya, Monday (19/8/2024). ANTARA/Willi Irawan

SURABAYA - General Chairperson of the Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) Executive Board KH Yahya Cholil Staquf urged the National Awakening Party (PKB) to restore the leadership of ulama in the party.

"We reported to the elderly kiai who were present from all over Indonesia, and then the kiai fully ordered us to continue these efforts until they could truly achieve the aggregation of the aspirations of the kiai, namely the return of the leadership of the ulama in the PKB," he said after the meeting between PBNU and Rais Aam and the senior Kiai at the PCNU Office in Surabaya City, reported by ANTARA, Monday, August 19.

Gus Yahya, as he is known, said that the efforts would continue until the aspirations of PBNU to PKB were actually realized.

"It will not stop until it works. The mandate of the kiai is that we must continue to strive, and must not stop until it works," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson of Rais Aam PBNU KH Anwar Iskandar said the steps taken were an effort to improve relations between NU and PKB.

According to him, the steps taken to improve NU and PKB relations are an organizational step based on various historical facts, which were carried out before the party was born.

"That is, starting with the aspirations of the kyai-kyai from all over Indonesia, who at that time gathered in East Java in Langitan, Central Java in Rembang, West Java in Buntet and conveyed their aspirations to PBNU so that PBNU would establish a party," he added.

Which, at that time, PBNU was followed up by PBNU by forming a Team 5 chaired by KH Ma'ruf Amin. The team then gave birth to a concept that eventually became PKB, and was declared by a large board whose declarators included KH Ilyas Ruchiyat, KH Muchith Muzadi, KH Bisri Mustofa and KH Abdurrahman Wahid.

In addition, he also reminded PBNU at that time instructing PWNUs throughout Indonesia and its branch leaders to facilitate the formation of PKB throughout Indonesia. The party is then equipped with AD/ART and moral values.

"My statement means, strengthening a reality that the relationship between NU and a political party called PKB is a historical relationship, an organizational relationship of ideological relations and others. So if someone now says, there is no PKB relationship with NU, it is a historical question that cannot be accepted by a reality of life," he said.

Currently, he stressed, there have been irregularities, namely eliminating the leadership of the ulama which has been mandated by the foundering father of the past.

"So that in the end, the role of the ulama becomes lost and in the strategic decisions of the party there is no role for the ulama to make decisions, everything is taken over by the Ketum. This deviation certainly should not happen, because the fitrah or PKB made was originally to provide a forum for severe ulama to channel political aspirations," he explained.