Abdurrahman Wahid (also known as Gus Dur) (born August 4, 1940) was President of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001, and leader of the National Awakening Party, which he founded after the fall of Suharto. He was educated in Indonesia, Egypt and Canada. He was a widely-respected populist Muslim cleric and leader of the Nahdatul Ulama before being elected President by the Indonesian parliament. Because of serious illness and allegations of corruption, he was impeached in July 2001.

Despite his seeming inattention to governmental issues, he succeeded in decentralizing many aspects of the governance of Indonesia. He also repealed many of the laws that discriminated against the Indonesian Chinese and even went as far as admitting that his maternal grandmother was part Chinese. He is widely known as a moderate Muslim cleric and the Nahdatul Ulama, which traditionally is led by members of his family, has been known to collaborate with other religious groups in Indonesia. He is well-known as a very frank speaker, and is respected as an elder by many Indonesians, as evident in his nickname "Gus Dur".

Despite his impeachment, Gus Dur is still active in Indonesian politics, providing witty and sometimes sarcastic commentary on Indonesian politics. He publicly admitted that he abstained from voting in the second round of 2004 Indonesian presidential election[1] as a sign of protest against the General Election Committee (KPU) for disqualifying him from candidacy.

External links

• Official website