Abdurrahman Wahid

Abdurrahman Wahid (born Sept. 7, 1940, Denanyar, East Java, Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia]—died Dec. 30, 2009, Jakarta, Indon.) was an Indonesian Muslim religious leader and politician who was president of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001.

Wahid’s grandfathers were among the founders of the world’s largest Islamic organization, the 25-million-member Nahdatul Ulama (NU). Wahid studied the Qurʾān intensively at an East Javan pesantren (religious boarding school) founded by his paternal grandfather, Hasyim Asyʾari, and at institutes in Jakarta when his father was Indonesia’s first cabinet minister for religion. In 1965 Wahid earned a scholarship to study at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, but he bristled against the traditionalism of its faculty, and, instead of studying more scripture, he devoured New Wave movies, read French and English books, and studied Marxism. Leaving without taking a degree, he moved to Baghdad, where he soon began attracting attention with his religious writings.

After returning to Indonesia in the late 1960s, Wahid became a scholar. He was elevated to the post of general chairman of the NU in 1984. The organization then severed its ties to a Muslim-based political party and concentrated on social work and education. The managers of 6,500 pesantren nationwide—the backbone of the NU’s support—opposed any antigovernment moves. Wahid was nonetheless widely perceived to present a threat to political authority for his promotion of a vision for the NU that would, in his words, “move toward the transformation of society, socially and culturally.”

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As NU chief, Wahid was one of the most respected figures in Indonesian Islam and the most politically active. He headed the political discussion group Forum Demokrasi, which welcomed dissidents and human rights advocates. Wahid spoke frankly on national issues to ministers, diplomats, journalists, and others who consulted him. Deviating from the positions held by the leaders of many Muslim countries, he suggested normalizing ties with Israel and contended that the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina was not religious. Many admired his defense of Indonesia’s Christian minority. Even the powerful military was keen to maintain good ties to a perceived bulwark against radical Islam. Honoured in 1993 with the Magsaysay Award, Wahid was elected the following year to lead the World Council for Religion and Peace.

In 1990 Wahid declined to join the new Association of Muslim Intellectuals, accusing its chairman, B.J. Habibie, protégé of President Suharto and the country’s research and technology minister, of using Islam to gain power. Critics and even relatives conceded, however, that Wahid could not separate his own political stance from NU’s needs. In 1994 Suharto loyalists within the NU tried in vain to end Wahid’s chairmanship. In the wake of the Asian economic crisis (1997–98) that forced the resignations of Suharto and his successor Habibie, Wahid was elected president in 1999. He was the first candidate to win the presidency through a vote by the People’s Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat; MPR), as opposed to the earlier, consensus-seeking process. Economic and political instability, coupled with a corruption crisis in which Wahid himself was implicated, led to his impeachment and removal from office in 2001. After leaving office, Wahid encouraged interfaith dialogue for the promotion of world peace.