Months before the official start of campaign season, calls have grown louder for parties to choose NU-affiliated figures as vice presidential candidates on their tickets, which some believe could be decisive at the ballot box next year.

But the NU chairman, known colloquially as Gus Yahya, has sought to keep a buffer between religious affiliation and electoral politics, with NU and Muhammadiyah, the nation’s two biggest Muslim groups, denouncing the familiar brand of identity politics that has left the nation divided in past elections.

“I’ve always maintained that we don’t want Islam-based identity politics, or even NU-based identity politics,” Gus Yahya told reporters in Central Jakarta on Thursday.

“We don’t want to see a [candidate] running just because they’re from NU. What we want is someone to run because they genuinely have something rational to offer.”

The Muslim leader later clarified his statement, saying that if NU figures were to run for office, their candidacies had to be based on their own track records and credibility. They must not use their NU identity as “political capital”, he added.

Despite Gus Yahya’s apparent desire to keep NU clear of electoral politics, other figures within the organization have expressed support for potential NU candidates.

Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Gus Yahya’s brother and the leader of NU youth wing GP Ansor, praised State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir as the kind of experienced figure who could pair well with Ganjar Pranowo, days after the Central Java governor was nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on April 21.

 

Erick is a member of Banser, a paramilitary group associated with GP Ansor. He has maintained close ties with NU and chaired the organizing committee for its centennial celebration in Sidoarjo, East Java, in February.

Meanwhile, senior United Development Party (PPP) politician Muhammad “Romy” Romahurmuziy revealed last week that the party was courting senior NU cleric and grand imam of the Istiqlal Mosque, Nasaruddin Umar, for the same VP slot. The PPP lent its support to Ganjar on April 30, inking an official partnership with the ruling PDI-P in the process.

More recently, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, who was the rais aam (supreme leader) of NU before the 2019 election, claimed on Tuesday that the organization had more than enough capable members to succeed him.

“I’m [from NU], and I’ve done well as vice president,” Ma’ruf said during a visit to Bali, as quoted by Kompas.

The vice president doubled down on Wednesday, claiming that while he had no plans to run in 2024, he had consulted with several NU figures touted as potential running mates for presumptive presidential candidates Ganjar, Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto and NasDem-backed Anies Baswedan.

Open race

While the presidential race seems to have settled on three nominees who have all secured the necessary political party backing to run for president, none has settled on a definitive running mate, leaving the race to find the perfect pairing wide open.

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) political researcher Noory Okthariza told The Jakarta Post that the current situation could defy received political wisdom.

“There’s an old assumption that if a huge mass organization such as NU and Muhammadiyah is represented on a presidential ticket, support from religious groups will converge on that ticket,” Noory said Thursday.

“The fact is […] Indonesia has always had a sizable number of Islamic parties, which should indicate that the Muslim voting bloc is electorally diverse”.

NU and Muhammadiyah are the two largest Islamic organizations in the country, with the former reportedly having more than 50 million registered members.

However, Noory said that with the loss of former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid and Maimun “Mbah Moen” Zubair, who passed away in 2009 and 2019, respectively, NU no longer had a unifying political figure who could act as a role model for the organization’s grassroots members.

Despite this fragmented voting bloc, the three presidential hopefuls have continued to try to court NU voters, which includes suggesting NU-affiliated figures as potential running mates.

Having suffered major defeats in the NU stronghold of East Java in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections, Prabowo has been periodically touring the region for the past year, visiting Islamic boarding schools and meeting with several NU clerics.

Gerindra has also forged an alliance with the National Awakening Party (PKB), which was founded by Gus Dur and still shares close cultural ties with NU.

As one of his first acts after securing his presidential nomination, Ganjar, too, met with several prominent NU clerics based in Central Java. Meanwhile, Anies and several senior NasDem members met with former NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj in Jakarta in March.

More recently, senior Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Sohibul Iman said East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa was one of five names on the shortlist for Anies’ running mate.

“There is [Democratic Party chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono] and [PKS politician Ahmad Heryawan]. And from NasDem, the party has submitted Ibu Khofifah’s name,” Sohibul said on Tuesday, Kompas.com reported.

A longtime leader of Muslimat NU, the NU women’s wing, Khofifah is also reportedly being courted by Gerindra, with Prabowo having met her twice since May of 2022.