The 22nd Muktamar (conference) was a tough one. We can imagine how hard it was, since it was held six months after the Presidential Decree 5 July 1959 released. Finally, NU had to respond seriously toward the process of being back to UUD 1945, as well as the Demokrasi Terpimpin (guided non-parliamentary democracy) concept. It was at least reflected in the opening speech of Rais Aam while opening the Muktamar 13 December 1959 in Jakarta.

Coming close to the end of Muktamar 17 December, there was the time of election. But before that, the plenary session chairman gave the time for Rais Aam Kiai Wahab Chasbullah, in the name of PBNU, to officially state their resignation.

Since before Hajj time this year, Moslems all over the world have a debate about Mas’a (a place for doing sa’i) expansion, which is located in Masjidil Haram, Mecca. The place has to be expanded for considering the fact that the place is too narrow. But the problem is when we practice sa’i in the expanded place, it is still debatable whether it is valid or not according to fikih. The debate is still going on, yet the practice continues.

Actually, the idea about mas’a expansion firstly came from Indonesia, when Bung Karno performed Hajj in 1955. He saw the place was too narrow, whereas considering the numbers of Jamaah at that time, who were only hundreds, the place was sufficient.

Since the beginning the history of struggle against colonials driven by Muslim community could be first of all traced through Portuguese expelling by Adipati Unus to Portuguese colonizers who occupied Malaka. Since then, Islamic boarding school students (santri) have always struggled hard against the colonizers from plundering our political authority, taking away our natural resources, and colonizing our nation archipelago.

While non Islamic boarding school students were more cooperative with colonizers like Portuguese, Dutch, British, or Japanese. They became ambtenaars, paid armies, or military officers. For them, there was no benefit to fight against the Dutch colonizers, moreover they were very benefited economically, politically and socially. For that reason, there has been almost no fight against colonizers conducted by their groups. Instead, all fights against the colonizers were conducted by Islamic boarding school students.

Different from other Islamic Boarding Schools (pesantren) in Indonesian archipelago in general, pesantren in Padang Pariaman gives Tuanku title to all students (santri) who have finished their education there. It is unknown when the tradition begins, but now Padang Pariaman society have understood that Tuanku is an academic degree for pesantren salafiah in Padang Pariaman and other regions.

This tradition has still been preserved in Pariaman, because since the beginning in the region, especially around Syeh Burhanuddin Mosque guarded by very supernatural and brave heroes. Because of that, Wahabism Paderi troops had no courage to annoy the existence of pesantren and the sacred cemetery.

At the colonial era, the Dutch government worried about the constantly awakening of religious movements for being regarded to have disturbed the colonial quiet. To anticipate the religious movements, Dutch took immediately preventive step by dispatching intellectuals to pesantrens. It likely reminds us of the same moment while the Dutch ordered Gericke to observe pesantren’s activity of Tegalsari that was allegedly as a spiritual source of Diponegoro’s revolt. At the same time, the Dutch government ordered van der Plaas to campaign pesantren’s modernization. At that time KH Hasyim Asy’ari realized that there would have been such an “evil tactic” to undermine pesantren educational system to change it into Dutch school system.