The conflict in Nahdlatul Wathan (NW) organization occured in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (2008-2009). It was a family conflict which changed into social conflict involving grassroot groups who were fighting for power. Such a conflict did not only happen in one place but it also spread to other Nahdlatul Wathan communities. “The conflict is reproduced through discourse analysis with the support of the mechanism of religious media which is prayer gathering,” said Dr. Saipul Hamdi, M.A., in his open doctoral exam, Saturday (26/2) at UGM Graduate School.
Saipul Hamdi mentioned that after the Praya Congress of Nahdlatul Wathan in 1998, the discourse war in religious meeting had transformed into conflict practices and violence among NW supporters. The pattern of conflict and violence is almost similar to what happens during the prayer gathering. In his dissertation entitled “Conflict and Power Reproduction in Nahdlatul Wathan Organization in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara”, the lecturer of Environmental Management of State Agricultural Polytechnic of Samarinda delivered that during the gathering, one of conflicting parties will attack the other, trying to thwart the gathering. Both were fighting for a gathering area in NW community. Reconciliation efforts conducted by NW always fail, particularly in elite level.
“Although NW conflict is not a religious conflict, religion plays an important role in it,” said the man born in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, 8 January 1980.
Saipul Hamdi said that religious symbols are often manipulated and exploited as tool of conflict legitimation for power. “In this case, religion fails to play its role as reconciliator. It even became the trigger of the conflict,” the 1,349th doctor who graduated cumlaude emphasized.