Abdurrahman Wahid

Abdurrahman Wahid (born Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil, 7 September 1940 – 30 December 2009), though more colloquially known as Gus Dur, was an Indonesian politician and Islamic religious leader who served as the fourth president of Indonesia, from his election in 1999 until he was removed from office in 2001.

A long time leader within the Nahdlatul Ulama organization, he was the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB).

He was the son of Minister of Religious Affairs Wahid Hasyim, and the grandson of Nahdatul Ulama founder Hasyim Asy'ari.

Due to a visual impairment caused by glaucoma, he was blind in the left eye and partially blind in his right eye.

He was the first (and to date only) president of Indonesia to have had physical disabilities.

President Abdurrahman Wahid was instrumental in lifting the ban on Chinese New Year (Imlek).

Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil was born on the fourth day of the eighth month of the Islamic calendar in 1940 in Jombang, East Java to Abdul Wahid Hasyim and Siti Sholehah.

This led to a belief that he was born on 4 August; instead, using the Islamic calendar to mark his birth date meant that he was actually born on 4 Sha'aban, equivalent to 7 September 1940.

He was named after Abd ar-Rahman I of the Umayyad Caliphate who brought Islam to Spain and was thus nicknamed "ad-Dakhil" ("the conqueror").

His name is stylized in the traditional Arabic naming system as "Abdurrahman, son of Abdurrahman".

Abdurrahman is of Chinese, Arab and Javanese ancestry.

After Indonesian Declaration of Independence on 17 August 1945, Abdurrahman Wahid moved back to Jombang and remained there during the fight for independence from the Netherlands during the Indonesian National Revolution.

At the end of the war in 1949, Abdurrahman Wahid moved to Jakarta as his father had been appointed Minister of Religious Affairs.

He was educated in Jakarta, going to KRIS Primary School before moving to Matraman Perwari Primary School.

Abdurrahman Wahid was also encouraged to read non-Muslim books, magazines, and newspapers by his father to further broaden his horizons.

He stayed in Jakarta with his family even after his father's removal as Minister of Religious Affairs in 1952.

In April 1953, Abdurrahman's father died in a car crash.

In 1954, Abdurrahman Wahid began Junior High School.

That year, he failed to graduate to the next year and was forced to repeat.

His mother then made the decision to send him to Yogyakarta to continue his education.

In 1957, after graduating from Junior High School, he moved to Magelang to begin Muslim Education at Tegalrejo Pesantren (Muslim school).

He completed the pesantren course in two years instead of the usual four.

In 1959, he moved back to Jombang to Pesantren Tambakberas.

There, while continuing his own education, Abdurrahman Wahid also received his first job as a teacher and later on as headmaster of a madrasah affiliated with the pesantren.

Abdurrahman Wahid also found employment as a journalist for magazines such as Horizon and Majalah Budaya Jaya.

In 1963, Abdurrahman Wahid received a scholarship from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to study at Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.

He left for Egypt in November 1963.

Unable to provide evidence to certify that he spoke Arabic, Abdurrahman was told when arriving that he would have to take a remedial class in the language before enrolling at the university's Higher Institute for Islamic and Arabic studies.

Instead of attending classes, Abdurrahman Wahid spent 1964 enjoying life in Egypt, watching European and American movies as well as indulging in his hobby of watching football.

Abdurrahman was also involved with the Association of Indonesian Students and became a journalist for the association's magazine.

After passing the remedial Arabic examination, he finally began studies at the Higher Institute for Islamic and Arabic Studies in 1965, but was disappointed as he had already studied many of the texts offered at the Institute in Java and disapproved of the rote learning method used by the university.

This restriction is made by the New Order government through a Presidential Instruction No. 14 of 1967 signed by President Suharto.

Until 1998, the spiritual practice to celebrate the Chinese New Year by Chinese families was restricted specifically only inside of the Chinese house.

On 17 January 2000, the President Abdurrahman Wahid issued Presidential Decree No. 6 of 2000 to annul the previous instruction.

He was also the one who established Confucianism as the sixth official religion in Indonesia in 2000 and the one who protected minority rights in Indonesia.

As a result, he was given the title "Father of Pluralism".

His popular nickname 'Gus Dur' is derived from Gus, a common honorific for a son of kyai, and from the short-form of bagus ('handsome lad' in Javanese ); and Dur, short-form of his name, Abdurrahman.

From his paternal line, he is descended from a well-known Muslim missionary from China known as Syekh Abdul Qadir Tan Kiem Han who was a disciple of Sunan Ngampel-Denta (Raden Rahmat Bong Swie Hoo), one of the Nine Wali (Holy Islamic Saints) who became one of the first Islamic Kings on Java who Islamicized Java in the 15-16th centuries.

He was the oldest of his five siblings, and was born into a very prestigious family in the East Java Muslim community.

His paternal grandfather, Hasyim Asy'ari was the founder of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) while his maternal grandfather, Bisri Syansuri was the first Muslim educator to introduce classes for women.