Financial Times.com: Abdurrahman Wahid died on Wednesday aged 69, was often described as “nearly blind” and “frail”, the legacies of two strokes.

Obituary: Abdurrahman Wahid, the former Indonesian president
By Shawn Donnan

In his later life Abdurrahman Wahid, the former Indonesian president and religious leader who died on Wednesday aged 69, was often described as “nearly blind” and “frail”, the legacies of two strokes.

His critics derided the outspoken, jazz-loving cleric as so eccentric as to be erratic, or berated his tumultuous 1999-2001 presidency as leaving a legacy of missed opportunities to right the historic economic and human rights wrongs of the Suharto regime.

Wahid, who was renowned for his often off-colour jokes, was self-deprecating. He joked that Indonesia’s first president (Sukarno) was crazy for women, its second (Suharto) was crazy for money, its third (BJ Habibie) was plain crazy, and that he, the fourth, just drove people crazy.

But history may be kinder. To his defenders, Wahid, known to most Indonesians by the genial nickname “Gus Dur”, is responsible for helping to solidify the place of the world’s largest Muslim nation as one of its largest democracies following the 1998 overthrow of Suharto.

Greg Barton, the Australian author of Wahid’s 2002 authorised biography, argues that though his presidency was largely ineffectual, by promoting free speech, human rights and apologies for past wrongs Wahid transformed the political agenda.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Social fault lines remain as Aceh rebuilds - Dec-28
Jakarta opts not to confront China on trade - Dec-15

“As president he raised [Indonesians’] expectations of what democracy should be,” Mr Barton said on Wednesday. “Even though he left office under a cloud, people’s expectations of what a democratic president – of what a democracy – should deliver were forever altered.”

Wahid was born September 7, 1940, into the Indonesian equivalent of both Islamic and nationalist royalty. His paternal grandfather was one of the founders in 1926 of Nahdlatul Ulama, often dubbed the world’s largest Islamic organisation.

Wahid’s father was a prominent cleric and nationalist who was religious affairs minister after independence in 1948.

On to that heritage Wahid piled an education abroad, with stints at universities in Egypt, Iraq and Canada.

He returned home in the early 1970s and, as expected due to his lineage, rose to head Nahdlatul Ulama in 1984. He was a vocal critic of Suharto, eventually becoming a key figure in the Reformasi movement that led to the autocrat’s 1998 fall, and in the eruption of multi-party politics.

He also challenged the orthodox view of a Muslim leader, arguing that traditional religious practice ought to mix with modernity. He drew raised eyebrows in some circles by travelling to Israel and defending British author Salman Rushdie.

“Those who say that I am not Islamic enough should reread their Koran. Islam is about inclusion, tolerance, community,’’ he once declared.

He was elected by parliament to be Indonesia’s fourth president in October 1999. He struggled to do anything substantial, but travelled widely overseas to promote the idea of a democratic Indonesia. He launched the process of dismantling the Suharto regime’s administrative discrimination against the ethnic Chinese minority.

While his election was initially seen as a politically palatable compromise, his relationship with parliament soured, his domestic agenda stalled, and in July 2001 he was impeached and replaced by Megawati Sukarnoputri, his vice-president.

In his later years he was increasingly treated as a curiosity in Indonesian politics. But somehow, largely through his humour and geniality, he retained much of his moral authority. (FT.com - Published: December 30 2009 15:32 | Last updated: December 30 2009 15:32)