Socio-economic independence NU's big agenda towards the first 100 years

Jakarta, NU Online

The NU 34th congress will be held in Lampung Province, on December 23-25, 2021. While the theme of this congress is Towards a Century of NU: Building Citizens' Independence for World Peace.

 

At the age of almost a century, NU has had extraordinary achievements. Among them are related to its national political thoughts and practices, as well as establishing education based on the values ​​of Ahlussunnah wal Jamaah. In fact, at this time there have been various NU universities that are not only based on religion, but also technology and science.

 

However, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee (OC) of the NU 34th Congress, KH Imam Aziz, said that there were still problems. He highlighted the issue of socio-economic aspects in which inequality is still felt, so that this is the big agenda of NU towards the first 100 years.

 

"That (socio-economic) is still a big problem for us, especially for NU members (Nahdliyin)," said Kiai Imam Aziz in the Discussion Towards the NU 34th Congress themed Pesantren and Global Challenges held by NU Online in collaboration with the Faculty of Islam Nusantara Indonesian Nahdlatul Ulama University (Unusia) Jakarta, broadcast live via the NU Online facebook page, on Wednesday (11/10/2021).

 

The NU's first problem towards socio-economic independence lies in sufficient human resources (HR) and could be a driving force for progress. This is one of the prerequisites for independence.

 

“Independence will not be possible if the human resources have not done enough transformation. Sorry, if we relate it to the second prerequisite, namely the mastery of technology, then we are still very weak there," Kiai Imam who is also one of the Chairmen of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) explained.

 

He was of the view that NU's human resources especially from Islamic boarding schools (pesantren), madrasas (Islamic schools), and various universities are still not able to support the mastery of knowledge and technology required for independence.

 

The next problem which is also a prerequisite for the socio-economic independence is access to networks and capital. This also applies to all parties, not only internal matters of the NU community.
 

That means, it is also related to the state that has been formed together, including NU in it, but in its implementation starting from the 1945 Constitution (UUD) then giving birth to the Law, including the various existing regulations, it is still not well accessible for the economic democratization process.

 

“So we still see inequalities and it seems that hard efforts must be made. On the one hand, NU itself must carry out the necessary transformations," Kiai Imam Aziz said.

 

The various transformations needed to achieve independence towards the first 100 years include increasing the human resources of NU members, mastering technology, accessing to capital, and accessing to agrarian sectors.

 

"We don't control everything. But more to other groups that are not from NU," Kiai Imam Aziz said.

 

On this stand, the organizing committee has raised the theme of independence in the upcoming NU 34th Congress, so that NU is able to prepare various prerequisites to achieve the socio-economic independence.

 

“So independence is not only making a congress coin, but also thinking about both cultural prerequisites in the form of human resource development and structural prerequisites, namely changes in state policies, especially in terms of the economy. NU also has to really think about that. I think this is what independence means," he said.

 

Kiai Imam Aziz emphasized that the issue of independence in the socio-economic field is only part of the various things that will be discussed at the congress forum later. In the future, he said, NU still had various agendas that are quite complicated to complete.

 

"Therefore, there must be more systematic thoughts and movements, both within NU itself and later on policy changes at the state level. This is the big agenda of NU in its first 100 years," Kiai Imam Aziz concluded.

 

Reporter: Aru Lego Triono

Editor: Sudarto Murtaufiq