GUS DUR and CAK NUR
By Beni Bevly
There are two Muslim scholars from Indonesia that I admire, Adurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) and the late Nurcholish Madjid (Cak Nur). I came across visiting Afsyuhud.blogspot.com. I found two articles about Gus Dur and Cak Nur. Fatih has had written these articles very well. I believe these articles had helped readers to have better understanding about Cak Nur and Gus Dur, and promote their ideas.
In understanding people, I recall a discussion that I had with one of the Ahmadiyah practitioners in California, USA. He said, “If you want to see whether a fruit is good or bad, look at the root of the tree.” Basically he was telling me that the parents had enormous influence on their children. In this case, Wahid Hasyim and Abdul Madjid had taught their children – Gus Dur and Cak Nur respectively – very well. Hasyim and Madjid are the legends among their followers and for other many Indonesians. They had their own Islam education institutions (pesantren and madrasah) where they taught they children.
The knowledge and believe that they studied from their parents at the pesantren and madrasah became their foundation. Later on, Gus Dur crystallized his believed and intellectual at the University of Bagdad, Iraq, while Cak Nur did it mostly at Pesantren Modern Gontor in Ponoro East Java and at the University of Chicago, USA.
Currently, Cak Nur and Gus Dur become the most prominent moderate Muslim scholars. The world needs to know that we, Indonesia have these particular extraordinary men.
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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.
Without the citizenship, all Indonesian born chinese are prohibit to get a job.
Indonesia never been under chinese colonialism but was under Dutch and Japanese. However, Indonesian were not allowed to learn Chinese language but it was allright to learn Dutch and Japanese languages.
I heard; Gus Dur has been advicing the immigration department or whatever department you call in Indonesia not to discriminate Indonesian born chinese in obtaining their citizenship, thus allowing them to preserve the chinese culture such as celebrating the chinese new year and learning the chinese language like they learn dutch or japanese language.
He is blind but his hearth is not as blind as other government officiant who have normal eye. His effort in freeing discrimination toward Indonesian born chinese has been a great contribution toward human right and Indonesia modernization. Very Excellent job Mr. Gus Dur !!
You are correct, Lyl.
In modern society, people need to live side by side with other people who have differences in bio-demographic attributes, believe, knowledge and skill. We need to accept what they are, embrace and integrated them in national system. So each party will have win-win situation. This is also a part of Gus Dur’s and Cak Nur’s ideas.