7 - Being Funny is Trendy: NU Garis Lurus vs NU Garis Lucu

Summary

Internet-based schisms within the most prominent Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), have been a subject of interest among scholars, particularly between two factions: NU Garis Lurus (NU Straight Brigade) (Iqbal 2020) and NU Garis Lucu (NU Funny Brigade) (Hoesterey 2021). In the 2015 NU congress held in Jombang, East Java province, these social groups competed for power. NU activists who felt that NU was more liberal, established the NU Garis Lurus and campaigned through conservative social media outlets. Their sympathizers ran for NU’s top post, challenging chairman Said Agil Siradj, an NU veteran activist seen to be promoting liberal ideas. Running in the election provided NU Garis Lurus with a platform to increase its influence within the organization. Through the media, they expressed a barrage of criticism that NU leaders had given in to Western ideas of secularism, pluralism, and liberalism (SEPILIS) (Rohman 2020, pp. 269–71).

Alarmed by NU Garis Lurus’ influence, the NU liberal camp fought back. Young activists at NU established the NU Garis Lucu, a social media community that “used satire and humour to temper the accusations of NU Garis Lurus and to mobilise social media as a uniting force within Nahdlatul Ulama and Indonesia more broadly” (Hoesterey 2021, p. 85). These youth activists demonstrated that the anti-NU Garis Lurus movement did not represent NU’s structure. Hence, the dispute between NU Garis Lurus and NU Garis Lucu is not a social dispute that pits “structural NU” against “cultural NU”; rather, the dispute is an internal schism among the different factions within NU. “Structural NU” refers to a group of NU activists whose members assume formal positions in NU’s organizational structure and who are therefore influential among NU members. On the other hand, “cultural NU” refers to a group of NU activists who do not assume formal positions in NU’s organizational structure, but they wield considerable influence among NU members due to their expertise in Islam or their exemplary behaviour.

These kinds of discourse contestations among different camps within NU are old contestations that are translated, emphasized, and amplified through new platforms such as social media, in addition to mainstream media. This internal contestation is not novel in NU. Political schisms are not unusual and are most evident during the NU congress which is held every five years. One notable schism occurred ahead of the 1984 congress.