Abdurrahman Wahid

Abdurrahman Wahid (* August 4, 1940 in Jombang in Java, Indonesia, † December 30, 2009 in Jakarta ), also known as Gus Dur, was an Indonesian politician, president of 1999 to 2001.

Political career

Wahid's grandfather was a famous Muslim leader in 1900, his father in 1945 Minister of Religious Affairs in the first government of Sukarno. Wahid studied Islamic law, Arabic and literature in Cairo and Baghdad. In 1971 he returned to Indonesia.

In Indonesia, he became involved in was founded by his grandfather Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a decidedly anti-fundamentalist Islamic organization with more than 30 million members. In 1984 he became chairman of the NU. In April 1991 he founded the Democracy Forum in opposition to President Suharto. In July 1998, he founded the Party of National Revival ( PKB), the third-strongest force was in the 1999 parliamentary elections.

After Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had renounced a bid again, Wahid was surprisingly elected on 20 October 1999 by the People's Consultative Assembly with 371 votes for President, while the winner of the parliamentary elections Megawati Sukarnoputri received only 313 votes. He was the first freely elected President of Indonesia.

2007 Wahid organized a Holocaust conference in Indonesia. The conference was intended as a counter-event to the Holocaust Conference of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Allegations of corruption

On July 23, 2001 Wahid was deposed by the People's Consultative Assembly for incompetence and involvement in financial scandals that he has previously rejected. He was succeeded by Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the first Indonesian President Achmed Sukarno.