National Santri Day: Digging up the Past

By M. Ismail Yusanto

Digging up the past is the most well-known motto among the archaeologists. This motto represents their spirit to reveal the past through discoveries and excavations of historical sites. The efforts results in the reconstruction of life or civilization of the past expected to give lessons to life at present and in the future.

However,  the motto can supposedly be used now by us who concern about the importance of rectification of history, especially after President Jokowi fulfilled his promise during the campaign of presidential election last year by declaring October 22 as the National Santri Day.  Declaring October 22 as National Santri Day cannot be separated from the participation of santris (Islamic strudents) and kiais in fighting against the imperialists who by all means tried hard to give threats to Indonesian independence which was just proclaimed at that time.

On October 21, 1945,  the kiais from across Java and Madura island gathered at the office of ANO (Ansor Nahdlatul Oelama). After holding an emergency meeting around the clock,  on the 22 of October they declared the call for jihad fi sabilillah (armed fighting for the way of Allah) known as Jihad Resolution. The point of the resolution is that defending Indonesian independence as a muslim country from the imperialists is an Islamic obligation. This is the jihad, as ordered by Allah SWT, in which the jihadists are much honored.

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We certainly hope that the declaration of October 22 as National Santri Day is not simply the fulfillment of the promise for the interest of political imagery, but there should be a broader mission, namely the effort to uncover the truth of the history. This mission  is very important since rectification of history will give big influence to the efforts in building correct public awareness in the future.

We know that history is not neutral in itself. History is the second-hand reality which depends much on who wrote it, and on what basis the historical interests were written. This is the starting point to smooth the political interests of the rulers, the writing of history often occurs.

There are at least three crimes of writing history with the purpose to obscure the roles of Islam in the history of this nation.

First, the burial and elimination of historical events. One of the most obvious examples is about Jihad Resolution. If the history were written honestly, the major roles of santri belonging to Hizbullah and the kiais belonging to Sabilillah during the period of defending  Indonesian independence would be very clear. More specifically, the role of KH Hasyim Asy’ari when issuing Jihad Resolution on October 22, 1945 to fight against the Dutch colonialism, by piggybacking the allies, when they were about to re-entrenched.

According to the grandson of KH Hasyim, KH Salahuddin Wahid, the resolution or the fatwa had driven tens of thousand muslims, especially those in Surabaya to fight against Dutch. The heroic event in Hotel Orange, Surabaya, was then commemorated as Heroes Day, on November 10. Without the resolution, perhaps the spirit to fight against the Dutch and its allies was not so high. However, in history books the important even is not written. It is strange that the November 10 is always mentioned while Jihad Resolution which drove November 10 is hidden.

The book Resolusi Jihad Paling Syar’iy (The Most Islamic Jihad Resolution), written by Gugun el Guyanie (Pustaka Pesantren, 2010) is one of the books whose sub-title is  “Let the truth which has been buried for almost a century  uncovered” describing the passion to uncover the truth especially regarding Jihad Resolution, which according to Dutch historian Martin van Bruinessen, is an important event which receives no proper attention from historians.

Second, the “blurring” of historical events. For example, who was the real aspirator of national awakening against the invaders?  If the history records honestly, the one should not be Boedi Oetomo, but Syarikat Islam (SI) which was the development of Syarikah Dagang Islam (SDI) which was among others led by HOS Cokroaminoto, who should be referred to as the forerunner of national awareness to fight against the imperialists. As a political movement, at that time SI was in national level in nature, characterized by its existence in more than 18 regions in Indonesia, and with a very clear goal that was to fight against the Dutch colonialist. On the contrary, Boedi Oetomo was simply a small group, very elitist, even racist, and did not have the spirit of resistance against the Dutch. But why putting Boedi Oetomo as the pioneer?

Third, “blurring” the context of historical events.  Certainly, it was not a coincidence when National Awakening Day was declared based on the birth of Boedi Oetomo, not Sarekat Islam – as well as National Education Day not based on the birth of Muhammadiyah with its first school founded by KH Ahmad Dahlan in 1912, from whom Ki Hadjar learned a lot. Ki Hadjar himself just founded the school of Taman Siswa in 1922. The reason is that, if it was done then the spirit of Islam would be raised. In the setting of political interests of the rulers at that time, it was simply not wanted.

In fact, the spirit of Islam had long been the basis of the struggle of the independence.  The wars during the 19 century against the Dutch were driven by the spirit of jihad against the invaders. When Prince Diponegoro called the volunteers then those who came up were the ulamas and santris from remote villages. Likewise, the peasant uprising against the repression took place continuously throughout the 19 century under the banner of Islam. The resistances conducted by Tengku Cik Di Tiro, Teuku Umar and continued by Cut Nyak Dien from 1873 to 1906 were the jihad against Dutch. Similarly, the war of Padri. The call of Padri illustrated that the war was a religious war. So, it was obvious that there have been systematic efforts to marginalize, even eliminate the roles of Islam in the history of the struggle for the independence and eliminate the spirit of Islam from the face of the history of the nation.

Therefore, the declaration of National Santri Day should be used as a momentum to fight against the crimes of the history, as well as an attempt to rewrite history: on what is so-called national awakening, national education and national history, including the history of the movement of the pre-independence in a critical, honest and objective manner so that the roles of Islam can be placed appropriately. History in terms of the Qur’an is a story, which contains ibrah or lessons. Moreover the ‘blurring’ of the history from the the actual facts would cover ibrah that should have been obtained.

Thus, when referring to the real historical role of Syarikat Islam, KH Ahmad Dahlan, and others as well as the roles of KH Hasyim Ashari with his Jihad Resolution and the roles of Hezbollah – Sabilillah, we would get the spirit of Islam. In addition, the real Awakening is the return of the awareness of the nature of human life as Abdullah (the servant of Allah)and khalifatullah (the vicegerent of Allah) with the mission to worship the Creator and to prosper the earth by implementing all of His commands. So, the word Awakening is not just a slogan, but a word that initiates the struggle for a change in all aspects of national life from the ideologies of ignorance that afflict people towards the ideology which gives mercy to all. That is the awakening to the spirit of Islam, which was inflamed by Tjokroaminoto and SI. Such Islamic spirit is needed as the source of power struggle to bring this country to a better direction under the pleasure of the Divine.

So, National Santri Day should not be digging up the past, rather it should be digging up the truth![]