Introducing Gus Miftah: A Celebrity Cleric Consolidating Prabowo-Gibran’s Victory

The presumptive victory of Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka in Indonesia’s presidential election (PE) of 2024 cannot ignore the role of Nahdlatul Ulama’s (NU) clerics (kyais). Prabowo’s campaign team had changed their strategy from what was used for PE2019, where they prioritised getting support from Islamist ulamas like Rizieq Shihab (former spiritual leader of the Islamic Defenders’ Front, FPI), Adi Hidayat (Muhammadiyyah preacher) and Abdul Somad (Islamist preacher). In PE2024, Prabowo’s campaign turned to traditional clerics such as Gus Miftah (full name Miftah Maulana Habiburrokhman) from NU.

Gus Miftah can be described as one of Indonesia’s celebrity kyais who is popular among NU’s Javanese followers. He is the leader of Pesantren Orak Aji (colloquially, “Worthless Pesantren”), in Sleman, Yogyakarta. Unlike figures like Abdul Somad, Adi Hidayat, Khalid Bassalamah, and other NU kyais, Gus Miftah tries to brand himself as a well-rounded but eccentric kyai. His followers come from various backgrounds, including actors and political figures, as well as those from marginalised and poorer communities, while he sports long hair and dark glasses. In PE2024, Gus Miftah clearly played a role as an influencer and campaigner for Team Prabowo-Gibran.

Whether kyais should be involved in electoral politics has long been debated in Indonesia. Kyais hold a unique and special position, especially among the communities they hail from or reside and work in; ideally, in this author’s view, they should remain politically neutral.  

In Indonesian Islam, the position of a kyai is less based on one’s academic and theological achievements but more on social recognition. In the academic literature within anthropology and sociology on Indonesia about the kyai’s position as a “cultural broker”, as scholar Clifford Geertz said, kyais can be agents of change and mouthpieces for the Islamic sciences. Notably, the distinguished position of a kyai is not reserved for Muslims but is also open to non-Muslims. For instance, the late Gus Dur (President Abdurrahman Wahid), member of the Presidential Advisory Council Habib Luthfi, and former NU chairperson Said Aqil Siradj, had and have many friends and pupils who are non-Muslims.

However, since Indonesia has introduced the direct PE system from 2004, the role of kyais in politics has been visible, where they are not only political figures but also political brokers. Many voters seek advice from their kyais when deciding who to vote for as their preferred candidates. The voters think that kyais, with their capacity and authority, know more about such matters. Conversely, politicians approach kyais for electoral support, on the basis of mutual benefit and interest, like giving donations to a certain kyai’s pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in exchange for their political support. In this regard, many kyais may proactively promote and influence their community to choose a particular leader. Gus Miftah is one such kyai, who intensively lobbied for Prabowo and Gibran in PE2024.

Gus Miftah had even boasted of his closeness (to Prabowo) to the other two presidential candidates. Almost a year ago, Prabowo’s opponents Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo noted Gus Miftah’s tendency to support Prabowo. Gus Miftah has also claimed that he approached Gibran to be Prabowo’s running mate during the hajj month (beginning in late June) in 2023, after Gus Miftah sought Widodo’s permission.

Unlike previous clerics who blessed Prabowo in the previous PEs in 2014 and 2019, Gus Miftah not only publicly gave his blessing to Prabowo but even lobbied other vital figures to engage their support for Prabowo-Gibran. Two hotspots became Gus Miftah’s stomping grounds: Central Java and East Java. These two provincial headquarters of NU had also hinted they were on the side of Prabowo-Gibran. Gus Miftah, one of NU’s cultural ulama (who are not officially part of the organisation’s board), had been working in both provinces since at least September 2023 to boost Prabowo-Gibran’s support base.

…Gus Miftah understood how to win the heart of NU’s followers (nahdliyyin) for Prabowo-Gibran’s victory.

Gus Miftah claimed that Prabowo had explicitly asked him to meet with kyais, habaib (the Prophet Mohammad’s descendants), and gus-gus (colloquially, sons of important kyais) since September 2023. Gus Miftah, allegedly based on written instructions from Prabowo, consolidated study sessions (pengajians) and courtesy visits (silaturrahmi) to these figures. Gus Miftah’s assignment from Prabowo’s campaign team was to do this across Indonesia but he prioritised East and Central Java. He organised a gathering reportedly with 1,000 kyais in Pati, Central Java to convince them to vote for Prabowo-Gibran.

Gus Miftah is the first figure to convince the ulamas of East Java, including Madura, to choose Prabowo-Gibran. Journalists caught him on camera in the act of money politics in Pamekasan, Madura and even reported this to the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). Bawaslu examined this case but did not decide on a punishment for Gus Miftah, which surprised Ganjar Pranowo. In his defence, Gus Miftah argued that he was not part of Prabowo’s national campaign team and claimed that the money he distributed to the people was not from Prabowo but from a rich man in Madura.  

Related to Gus Miftah’s activities on Prabowo-Gibran’s behalf, Gus Kautsar (from Pesantren Ploso), Kyai Agoes Ali Masyhuri (Pesantren Progresif Bumi Sholawat in Sidoarjo) and Gus Iqdam (a popular kyai with more than 70,000 students attending his weekly sermons) were the three key pro-Prabowo vote-getters in East Java. Gus Iqdam declared that he found Prabowo’s calmness in responding to the attacks of his PE2024 rivals interesting.  

In this author’s view, Gus Miftah understood how to win the heart of NU’s followers (nahdliyyin) for Prabowo-Gibran’s victory. He even claimed that the late Gus Dur also supported Prabowo, using to Prabowo’s advantage (and taking out of context) Gus Dur’s testimony that Prabowo was an honest figure and would become president in his old age. Gus Miftah depicted Prabowo as one of Gus Dur’s pupils (tukang pijat – colloquially “massage therapist”), a narrative that is meaningful in East Java.

Gus Miftah’s success in promoting Prabowo-Gibran for PE2024 was based on his outspokenness as their supporter and his ability to speak with his fellow kyais and several groups of potential voters. Arguably, Gus Miftah is an example of a kyai who has successfully transformed the role of kyais as cultural brokers into that of political brokers.

2024/75