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Better luck next time for Nobel hopefuls NU, Muhammadiyah
Two of Indonesia's biggest Islamic organizations, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), may have failed to snatch the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize but experts believe they need to press on to promote peaceful Islam to the world.
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A panel of speakers in a seminar titled "Challenging Islamic Extremism in Indonesia", hosted by the Indonesian Embassy in Oslo and the Peace Research Institute Oslo on June 20. (JP/Nezar Patria)
T
he country’s two-biggest Islamic organizations, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), have learned that there is no shortcut to international recognition, after failing to win the revered Nobel Peace Prize this year amid stiff competition.
The two organizations were nominated by scholars in January for their contributions to democratic developments in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.
A number of big names were touted to win the prize this year, including 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, indigenous Brazilian leader Raoni Metuktire and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had won the prize "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea".
Indonesian Ambassador to Norway Todung Mulya Lubis, who campaigned for the nomination, said Ahmed was a deserving winner who achieved peace and reconciliation in his country, and that this year was just not the right time for NU and Muhammadiyah to shine.
“I am personally disappointed but we also have to be realistic. Even the EU [European Union] won the prize after being nominated 10 times consecutively before it won [in 2012],” he told The Jakarta Post earlier this week.
He said the main challenge going forward was how to promote the two organizations to the world, as they were largely familiar only to Muslim nations and Indonesians, yet completely unknown to the rest of the world – especially among Scandinavian countries.
