NU CALLS FOR UNITY AMONG NATION`S LEADERS
(RACHMAD YULIADI NASIR, rbacakoran at yahoo dot com)
INDEPENDENT-Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), has called on the country's leaders to unite to solve its problems.
"NU has invited them all because we think if they understand and help each other, half of the nation's problems can be solved. The most difficult thing is actually not to manage the people but to manage the leaders," NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi said in hisspeech during the commemoration of the organization's 82nd anniversary at the Bung Karno Stadium in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Sunday.
The anniversary was attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and First Lady Kristiani Herawati, Vice President Jusuf Kalla and wife Mufida Kalla, People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nurwahid, Constitutional Court chairman Jimly Asshiddiqie, Supreme Audit Agency chairman Anwar Nasution, Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsudin and some Cabinet ministers.
Speaking before 100,000 NU members, Hasyim said that NU "wants to uplift the country's dignity in facing all these challenges by making our ulema and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) to be our main factors in working together with the country'sother elements," he said.
President Yudhoyono said that as the largest Muslimorganization, the NU already had a strategic position.
"The NU community has to stay as a pioneer in development and be a role model for the nation," he said.
