Abdurrahman Wahid ( AHB-doo-RAHKH-mahn wah-HEED; Indonesian: [abduˌrahman ˈwahid]; né ad-Dakhil, 7 September 1940 – 30 December 2009), more colloquially known as Gus Dur (Indonesian: [ˌɡʊs ˈdʊr] ), 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 also received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his services to democratization and human rights in Indonesia. He was the son of former 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 roughly 80% blind in his right eye. He was the first (and to date only) president of Indonesia to have had physical disabilities.
Wahid was instrumental in lifting the ban on Chinese New Year (Indonesian: Imlek). Until 1998, the spiritual practice to celebrate the Chinese New Year by Chinese families was restricted specifically only inside of Chinese community centers. This restriction is made by the New Order government through Presidential Instruction No. 14 of 1967 signed by Suharto. On 17 January 2000, Abdurrahman issued Presidential Decree No. 6 of 2000 to annul the previous instruction. He established Confucianism as the sixth official religion in Indonesia in 2000 and protected minority rights in Indonesia. As a result, Abdurrahman 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.
Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil was born on the fourth day of the Sha'ban, the eighth month of the Islamic calendar in 1940 in Jombang, 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 in the Gregorian calendar.
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 Wahid". The name Abdurrahman Wahid means "Servant of Mercy the First." Abdurrahman was of Chinese, Arab and Javanese ancestry. From his paternal line, he was 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 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.
After the 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 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. On 19 April 1953, Wahid Hasyim died in a car crash in Cimahi.
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 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 his 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 received his first job as a teacher and later on as headmaster of a madrasah affiliated with the pesantren. Abdurrahman Wahid 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 a number of the texts offered at the Institute in Java and disapproved of the rote learning method used by the university.
In Egypt, Abdurrahman Wahid found employment with the Indonesian Embassy. It was during his stint with the embassy that coup attempt was launched by the 30 September Movement, which the Communist Party of Indonesia was accused of leading. With Army Strategic Reserves commander Major General Suharto taking control of the situation in Jakarta, a crackdown against suspected communists was initiated. The Indonesian Embassy in Egypt was ordered to conduct an investigation into the political views of university students. This order was passed to Abdurrahman Wahid, who was charged with writing the reports.
Abdurrahman's displeasure at the method of education and his work following the coup attempt distracted him from his studies. He sought and received another scholarship at the University of Baghdad and moved to Iraq. There Abdurrahman Wahid continued his involvement with the Association of Indonesian Students as well as with writing journalistic pieces to be read in Indonesia.
After completing his education at the University of Baghdad in 1970, Abdurrahman Wahid went to the Netherlands to continue his education. He wanted to attend Leiden University but was disappointed as there was little recognition for the studies that he had undertaken at the University of Baghdad. From the Netherlands, he went to Germany and France before returning to Indonesia in 1971.
Abdurrahman Wahid returned to Jakarta expecting that in a year's time, he would be abroad again to study at McGill University in Canada. He kept himself busy by joining the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education and Information (LP3ES), an organization which consisted of intellectuals with progressive Muslims and social-democratic views. LP3ES established the magazine Prisma and Abdurrahman became one of the main contributors to the magazine. Whilst working as a contributor for LP3ES, he also conducted tours to pesantren and madrasah across Java. It was a time when pesantren were desperate to gain state funding by adopting state-endorsed curricula and Abdurrahman was concerned that the traditional values of the pesantren were being damaged because of this change. He was also concerned with the poverty of the pesantren which he saw during his tours. At the same time as it was encouraging pesantren to adopt state-endorsed curricula, the Government was also encouraging pesantren as agents for change and to help assist the government in the economic development of Indonesia. It was at this time that Abdurrahman Wahid finally decided to drop plans for overseas studies in favor of promoting the development of the pesantren.