Abdurrahman Wahid , though more colloquially known as Gus Dur , was an Indonesian politician and Islamic religious leader who served as the 4th president of Indonesia, from his election in 1999 until his removal from power in 2001. A long time leader within the Nahdlatul Ulama organization, he was the founder of the National Awakening Party . He was the son of Minister of Religious Affairs Wahid Hasyim, and the grandson of Nahdatul Ulama founder Hasyim Asy'ari. He had a visual impairment caused by glaucoma; he was blind in the left eye and partially blind in his right eye. He was the first and as of 2023 the only president of Indonesia to have had physical disabilities.
Wahid was instrumental in lifting the ban on Imlek. Until 1998, the spiritual practice to celebrate the Chinese New Year by Chinese families was restricted specifically only inside of the Chinese house. This restriction is made by the New Order government through a Presidential Instruction No. 14 of 1967 signed by President Suharto. On 17 January 2000, the President Abdurrahman Wahid issued Presidential Decree No. 6 of 2000 to annul the previous instruction. He was also the one who established Confucianism as the sixth official religion in Indonesia in 2000 and the one who protected minority rights in Indonesia. As a result, he was given the title "Father of Pluralism".His popular nickname 'Gus Dur' is derived from Gus, a common honorific for a son of kyai, and from the short-form of bagus ; and Dur, short-form of his name, Abdurrahman.
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“There is no power worth defending by bloodshed of the people.”
Ex-President Gus Dur's vision for democratic Islam in Indonesia, Wahid, Alissa, 7 September 2017, Deutsche Welle https://www.dw.com/en/ex-president-gus-durs-vision-for-democratic-islam-in-indonesia/a-40394288,
