SANTRI DAY 2025 AND THE IRONY OF MEDIA’S MISCONDUCTIVE FRAMING OF NU BOARDING SCHOOL
By: Adlan Daie
Political and Socio-Religious Analyst
National Santri Day (HSN), which we will soon commemorate together on October 22, 2025, is clearly “la raiba fih” (a symbol of the Islamic tradition). Its historical sanad undoubtedly demonstrates the consistent national charitable work of NU boarding school students towards the existence of the Indonesian “nation-state.”
Ironically, a decade after HSN was legitimized in the state gazette, namely Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 22 of 2015, a barrage of malicious framing accusations against NU boarding school students have been launched by a number of media outlets. These accusations are insinuating and undermine the dignity and traditions of the boarding school.
This must be defended, not just because NU Islamic boarding schools are educational institutions. More than that, to quote Gus Dur, Islamic boarding schools are a “subculture” of the Indonesian nation and guardians of local wisdom, even a hub supporting the intersection of Islam and nationality.
Trans 7, a national television station, recklessly broadcast a senior NU kiai in a “conflicting” manner. On the one hand, the kiai was feted with wealth and luxury cars, while on the other, the students and their guardians (guardians) were narrated as “bowing” feudally, handing envelopes to the kiai. Sadistic!
A few days earlier, the collapse of a prayer room at the Buduran Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, one of the oldest NU Islamic boarding schools, which claimed the lives of several students, instead of empathy, they received a negative media framing of the school—relentless bullying.
In fact, Guru Gempul, a social critic, openly narrated the negative stigma surrounding NU Islamic boarding schools in a YouTube video. “If there’s sexual abuse in a pesantren, if there are students worshiping a kiai, it’s almost certainly that pesantren,” he said.
Are NU pesantren, which Gus Dur called a “subculture” of the Indonesian nation, so corrupt that they have to be framed in this way? Students serve to “pour blessings” into the building, framing it as exploitation and slavery.
NU pesantren are under attack from cases of indecent individuals, bullying, and culminating in the viral moment of the collapsed building at Buduran Islamic boarding school, which was then generalized to the call to “don’t stay at the Islamic boarding school.” The position of ulama is being “stripped” of its morality, removed from the hearts of the people.
In Dr. Zamahsyari Dhofir’s doctoral dissertation, published in the book “Tradisi Pesantren” (1982), NU pesantren are founded on five “basic elements” of pesantren: kiai, santri, mosque, pondok, and yellow books. These are the five basic elements of pesantren in the context of the NU pesantren tradition.
The relationship between kiai and santri is not simply a teacher-student relationship like in public schools, nor is it limited to the classroom. It extends to the students becoming alumni and contributing to various fields within society—the relationship between the students and kiai remains “built-in.”
This is the tradition of NU Islamic boarding schools, where the relationship between kiai and santri is not merely a matter of “teaching and learning,” but rather a spiritual relationship, fostered by the pesantren ecosystem and the pesantren’s network of scholarly chains. This is difficult for outsiders to understand.
This context explains the fatwa “Resolution of Jihad” issued by KH Hasyim Asy’ari, the Grand Leader of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), on October 22, 1945, which later became the spirit behind the establishment of National Santri Day (HSN) every October 22. Its power lies precisely in the spiritual position of “kiai” Hasyim Asy’ari within the NU pesantren ecosystem.
Thus, the fatwa “Resolution of Jihad” transcended regional boundaries, igniting the magnetism of santri (Islamic students) who came from various regions willingly to sacrifice their lives and bodies to resist the Dutch military aggressors and Allied forces in Surabaya. This was NU’s ongoing national charity for the existence of the Indonesian “nation-state.”
Unfortunately, the state’s treatment of pesantren, despite the enactment of the Law on Pesantren, frankly, still positions them as “alternative” education, not yet “mainstream” educational institutions.
In fact, the Minister of Religious Affairs, Prof. Nazarudin Umar, stated that the state’s mindset regarding pesantren still inherited colonialism. The state’s budgetary policy towards Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and madrasahs (Islamic schools) compared to general education remains highly discriminatory.
As a “subculture” with strong community self-reliance, Islamic boarding schools have historically not been particularly demanding of discriminatory state budgetary policies. They fully understand the limitations of the state’s fiscal space.
However, the state must not allow Islamic boarding schools to be bullied and negatively framed by any media outlet, regardless of their name. If this continues, it has the potential to cause severe political turbulence and upheaval, something that should never happen.
Let Islamic boarding schools stand strong as subcultures with the strength of their traditions. Kiai (Islamic scholars) do not need to be taught about human rights. The kiai are well versed in determining which aspects of the pesantren must be “reconsidered” and maintained, and which must embrace new innovations (“Al jadi Al aslah”).
The kiai fully understand what is beneficial and what is harmful for the students and the survival of the pesantren. Furthermore, the state provides assistance not out of compassion but out of obligation to the pesantren educational institution, which has no historical flaws whatsoever to the state and nation.**
Indramayu, October 14, 2025
—-
