Back to Situbondo? Nahdlatul Ulama attitudes towards Abdurrahman Wahid's presidency and his fall

Abstract

Within weeks after he had been brought down from the presidency, Abdurrahman Wahid made a tour to East Java, the province where he has strongest grassroots support, to present himself in his new role as human rights activist and opposition leader. The formal occasion for this tour was the khaul (death anniversary) of Kyai As’ad Syamsul Arifin, one of the last great charismatic kyais, in As’ad’s pesantren in Asembagus, Situbondo — probably the largest pesantren of all East Java. Abdurrahman could hardly have chosen a more fitting place and event to stage his comeback; the numerous symbolic associations were not lost on his followers — and no doubt of vital significance to himself.