Kiai Haji Maksum Djauhari: "I just want an islah";
His long hair was slightly wavy and graying. He wore a haj cap casually, slanting it to the right and then to the left. Despite his sloppy look, he was hospitable and courteous. His speech was now and again philosophical. This is Kiai Haji Maksum Djauhari, leader of Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) Lirboyo in Kediri, East Java. This elderly cleric of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), nicknamed Gus Maksum, is as eccentric in appearance as in the way he perceives current issues. Indeed this is the case with his attitude to the crisis within the National Awakening Party (PKB), which has now split into two: the Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) camp and the Matori Abdul Djalil camp.
January 22, 2002
The 58-year-old, born in Kanigoro Village on the slopes of Mount Kelud, East Java, did not dismiss the birth of Matori's PKB. Gus Maksum appreciates Matori's invitation and attended his party's program in Jakarta at the end of October 2001. He was also invited to the Matori-led PKB extraordinary congress (MLB) in the capital on January 14-16, but failed to show on account of a uric acid disorder. He sent two younger representatives to the MLB
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