Jakarta. The Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, has historically been the incubator for the National Awakening Party (PKB), with both bound by the values of moderate Islam and pluralism championed by the late President Abdurrahman Wahid, or Gus Dur.

However, the two entities have found themselves in conflict over various issues, ranging from the presidential election to the planned House of Representatives inquiry into the government’s handling of the last Hajj pilgrimage.

The House inquiry was initiated by PKB Chairman and lawmaker Muhaimin Iskandar, raising suspicions that he is targeting Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, the younger brother of NU Chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf.

In response, NU leaders established a special committee to “revisit history,” alleging that the current PKB leadership has abandoned its NU roots.

During a party gathering in North Sumatra on Friday, Muhaimin said PKB is not exclusively the political arm of NU and that it dedicates resources to “further the interests of all Indonesian people.”

Under his leadership, PKB has emerged as the fourth-largest party in the House, winning more than 16 million votes in the last election. It is now the largest Muslim-based political party in Indonesia, following the February 14 election that saw another Islamic party, the United Development Party (PPP), eliminated from the House for the first time since its founding.

PKB Deputy Chairman Jazilul Fawaid said on Tuesday that NU has no right to intervene in the party’s internal affairs.

Jazilul emphasized that PKB and NU are two separate organizations regulated by different laws. PKB falls under the law on political parties, while NU operates under the law on community organizations.

“How can a community organization initiate a move to evaluate a political party?" he said.

His comment came after Yahya, the NU chairman, announced the assignment of two respected NU clerics to evaluate the situation and mediate a settlement of the ongoing feud.

Regarding the House inquiry committee into Hajj management, Jazilul urged the religious affairs minister to honor any summons.

“If you did nothing wrong, then you have nothing to be afraid of,” Jazilul said in an apparent message to Minister Yaqut.

He denied NU’s allegations that PKB was behind the inquiry, noting that all incumbent parties in the House agreed on the establishment of the inquiry committee.

On Sunday, Yahya said that PKB leaders have launched “frontal and sharp attacks” on NU leaders in recent months, without providing details.

“The NU leadership needs to take necessary measures and respond to the current situation,” Yahya said.

He noted that 20 percent of NU followers are PKB constituents and that the organization never prohibits followers from joining other political parties.

A day earlier, the NU leadership board held a meeting in Jakarta and agreed to establish a “special committee” to investigate PKB’s elite for “rewriting history” and “taking full control” of the party.

“The NU leadership board has noticed attempts by a small elite of PKB to rewrite history and distance the party from NU. We have heard multiple times from the PKB elite that PKB doesn’t belong to NU but to the nation,” said NU’s deputy secretary-general Suleman Tanjung.

“It’s true PKB belongs to the nation because NU gave birth to it as a gift to the nation, not to Muhaimin, the small elite, and their families,” he added.

PKB was founded in July 1998 by Gus Dur, then NU chairman, a few months after Soeharto abruptly stepped down from the presidency amid nationwide protests against his authoritarian rule.

The new party provided an alternative voice for Muslims after the Islamic political movement was restricted to just one party, the PPP, during Soeharto’s 32-year presidency.

In its election debut in 1999, PKB won 51 seats in the House of Representatives, and the subsequent parliamentary voting selected Gus Dur as the country’s president.

PKB was in disarray after Gus Dur was impeached by the parliament in 2001 for “incompetence,” and he accused Matori Abdul Djalil, PKB’s first chairman, of disloyalty.

Internal rivalries for power and distrust among party executives have marred the party since then.

Muhaimin, with Gus Dur’s blessing, rose to leadership in 2005, trying to reunite PKB executives and regain support from voters, but he too was involved in conflict with the former president who accused him of betrayal.

Muhaimin refused to back down and retained his chairmanship by a Supreme Court ruling. He discharged Gus Dur’s daughter, Yenny Wahid, as PKB secretary-general before the 2009 election.

Muhaimin has been leading PKB for almost two decades now.