As tributes flowed in from world leaders following the death of the fourth president, and as thousands thronged his grave in East Java, lawmakers supported proposals to remember the cleric fondly known as "Gus Dur" as a national hero.
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid "is a son of the republic and a world figure because his thoughts and actions reflected universal interests," said a statement released Friday by lawmakers grouped in the Pancasila Parliamentary Caucus, citing the expressions of loss which "transcends state borders and primordial sentiments."
The caucus included Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and others from Golkar, Gerindra, Hanura and the United Development Party (PPP).
Their proposal echoed earlier proposals from the PPP and the PKB, the National Awakening Party founded by Abdurrahman, who died Wednesday in Jakarta at 69 years of age.
The two parties draw their main support from Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic organization, founded by Abdurrahman's grandfather, Wahid Hasyim. Gus Dur was buried next to him on Thursday in the Tebuireng Islamic boarding school compound, in Jombang regency, East Java.
Catholic priest Mudji Sutrisno and Muslim leader Din Syamsuddin also backed calls for hero status for Gus Dur, with Mudji calling him a "defender of the oppressed minorities".
At the military funeral, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had referred to Abdurrahman as the "father of multiculturalism and pluralism," who "raised awareness and institutionalized our respect for the diversity of ideas and identity, of religions, ethnicity and primordial *ties*."
Among thousands waiting patiently for their turn to pray at the grave on New Year's Day were many ethnic Chinese and former political prisoners - separately citing two of Abdurrahman's radical political reforms: the lifting of a bans on all forms of Chinese culture and of the 1966 ban on Marxism and Leninism, the latter which added to the stigma of political prisoners detained for decades without trial following the purge of communism.
On Thursday, Kompas quoted Sofyan Tan, a leader of the Paguyuban Tionghoa ethnic Chinese association, who said Gus Dur's reforms to enable displays of Chinese culture reflected his consistency with the Constitution and the recognition of all citizens' rights as equals.
Ahmad Faisal contributed to this report from Tebuireng, East Java.
