Whither the NU traditional intellectuals?
Indonesia’s largest mass Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) reached the age of 90 last week. It was a critical juncture as it marked a transitional decade to the second life cycle of a 100-year period. In the early 1950s, NU founder Wahid Hasyim was uneasy about the scarcity of intellectuals from the organization. Of course, the intellectuals, to borrow a theoretical framework from Antonio Gramsci, refer to traditional intellectual figures. Gramsci (1971:5-16) divides intellectuals into two categories, traditional and organic. In principle, the traditional intellectual is a category that can be worn by the ivory tower intellectual figures. Organic intellectuals refer to figures or groups of intellectuals who have dedicated themselves to the struggle for the good of their own communities. Intellectuals of this type appear to represent their own people’s interests. Organic intellectuals do not appear to a big issue at NU milieu. Through a network of pesantren ...