December 1, 2025 | 10:00 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The WhatsApp group of Nahdlatul Ulama’s Syuriah (Advisory Council) leaders and Tanfidziyah (executive board), or PBNU, buzzed nonstop on Wednesday, November 19, 2025. Hundreds of members in the chat forum spent the day consumed by the widening rift among NU’s senior leadership, involving General Chair Yahya Cholil Staquf and Rais Am (supreme leader) Miftachul Akhyar, who is backed by then Secretary-General (currently Chair of the Education, Law, and Media Division) Saifullah Yusuf.
Sumantri Suwarno, a member of the group who also serves as PBNU’s General Treasurer, railed that the uproar inside the organization stemmed from the management of a mining concession. The PBNU elite has not agreed on a partner for Berkah Usaha Muamalah Nusantara—NU’s mining firm—tasked with developing a concession area in East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan. “This mine is the source of the chaos,” Sumantri told Tempo in South Jakarta on Tuesday, November 25, 2025.
In the virtual communication group, Sumantri proposed returning the mining concession to the government. He believed that giving the mine back to the state would end PBNU’s internal conflict.
Sumantri is now drafting a judicial review lawsuit to the Supreme Court targeting Government Regulation No. 25/2024 on the Implementation of Mineral and Coal Mining Business Activities. The regulation provides the legal basis for granting mining concessions to religious organizations.
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