I met the man Abdurrahman Wahid or better known as Gus Dur only once when he visited the Indonesian Consulate in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. At that time he was already about two years out of power.
The former Indonesian president had given a talk, about 40 minutes, touching on a wide-ranging issue, but the only thing that I could remember was this remark, obviously made in jest:
“Jawa Timur itu sama saja dengan Timor Timur. Kalau di Jawa Timur ada banyak NU, di Timor Timur pula ada banyak UN.”
Translation: “East Java is not much different from East Timor. In East Java, there are many NUs, in East Timor you’ll see a lot of UNs.”
NU is Nahdlatul Ulama, the party headed by him, and UN is the United Nations peacekeeping force. East Timor is, of course, now known as Timor Leste.
So I guess, I can agree with this article, “Who Is Gus Dur To Tell Us What To Do?”
