Abdurrahman Wahid

He died due to diabetes-related complications, and was buried at his birthplace, Jombang.

Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil Wahid was born to Abdul Wahid Hasyim and Siti Solichah. Named after Abd ar-Rahman I of the Umayyad Caliphate and nicknamed "ad-Dakhil" ("the conqueror"), he became popular by the name Gus Dur.

The oldest of five siblings, he belonged to a very prominent family in East Java. His father participated in the nationalist movement and was Indonesia's first Minister of Religious Affairs.

He attended KRIS Primary School and Matraman Perwari Primary School in Jakarta. In 1957, he passed Junior High School, in Yogyakarta, Java region. He shifted to Magelang to obtain Muslim Education at Tegalrejo Pesantren.

He enrolled at the Higher Institute for Islamic and Arabic Studies in 1965, but did not like the rote learning method used by the University. He also began to work at the Indonesian Embassy.

In Egypt, when he was working at the Indonesian Embassy, the 30 September Movement, a coup led by Communist Party of Indonesia, happened and Wahid was charged with writing the reports.

He transferred to the University of Baghdad and moved to Iraq, but continued associating with the Association of Indonesian Students and writing articles for Indonesian readers. He returned to Indonesia in 1971.

He joined the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education and Information (LP3ES), whose members were progressive Muslim intellectuals, and as an important contributor to its magazine Prisma, toured the pesantren and madrasahs across Java.

In 1977, he became the Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Beliefs and Practices at the Hasyim Asyari University, and served well in that capacity. He also delivered speeches to the Jombang Muslim community.

He joined the Nahdlatul Ulama’s (NU) Religious Advisory Council. Before the 1982 Legislative Elections, he campaigned for the United Development Party (PPP), formed by the union of four Islamist parties including NU.

Wahid’s National Unity Cabinet, in 1999, abolished the Ministry of Information, which controlled the media during the Suharto regime. He also dismantled the corrupt Ministry of Welfare for extorting money from the poor.

Faced with separatist movements, he offered East Timor autonomy, instead of independence. He held peace talks with the Free Aceh Movement’s commander Abdullah Syafii and achieved a ‘humanitarian pause’ in 1999.