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NU welcomes women, political figures in new-look central board
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Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, has elected reform-minded Islamic scholar Yahya Cholil Staquf to lead it for the next five-year period. Yahya is a former presidential spokesperson and, more recently, a member of the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres). (Antara/Wahyu Putro A.)
N
ahdlatul Ulama’s (NU) new central board, which was unveiled on Wednesday, has been filled with prominent women and politicians in a move that reflects newly elected chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf’s vision of a more diverse and politically neutral NU.
A political analyst, however, has said Yaqut’s central board appointees, which include figures from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP) could also be interpreted as NU’s struggle to detach itself from politics, despite its chairman’s vision.
Following his victory in a tightly contested leadership race at NU’s national congress last December, Yahya said he aimed for a diverse range of figures to fill the new-look NU’s central board lineup, which comprises at least 180 members.
“The composition of the new board reflects the multipolar reality within NU in terms of regions, gender and political orientation,” Yahya said.
For the first time in NU’s history, the organization’s central board has included notable female figures such as Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, wife of late president and longtime NU leader Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid and her daughter Alissa Wahid, as well as incumbent East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa.
Yahya said the work of such prominent figures in the organization’s central board was expected to bolster NU’s efforts at women’s empowerment and other related issues.
“We’ve included them because there is an urgent need [to do so]. Women must participate in managing the NU central board because there are major issues related to women,” said Yahya. “Therefore, we’ve invited strong and capable female figures.”
