An ex President of Indonesia within period, Gus Dur whose real name is Abdurrahman Wahid, left us all for good just before the end of 2009, precisely on Wednesday evening, December 30, 2009, at 18:45 o’clock in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta due to the complications of the disease, he had suffered for a long time. This is of course very shocking news for all people throughout the world in general and for indonesian people for sure. Being born on August 4, 1940, he was named Abdurrahman Addakhil then few years later changed the name to Abdurrahman Wahid, and then better known as Gus Dur.The soul of leadership owned by Gus Dur had been noticeable since he was still very young. One sample is at the age of 9, Gus Dur had a hobby to play around a pond with his friends. In any games they played, Gus Dur always gave his friends instruction to do this and that, to go there and here and others.
Besides smart, young Gus Dur was also known as a well behaved kid. He often went somewhere out of his village but he was always nice with anyone he knew and introduced for the first time, though as a child he overacted.
During his adventuring age of a youngster, he got his first experience in politic on legislative general election in 1982. Starting from this moment, he began his political career though there were plenty of contradictions from many political parties, especially from Islamic sides.
After positioning himself inside government and country parliament for years, on October 20, 1999 Gus Dur was elected as the 4th President of Republic of Indonesia replacing Mr. Habibie . During his presidency, Gus Dur omitted some departments inside the government structure and brought about several new rules and policies. A lot of pros and cons were emerging under his leadership and this caused the top organization of Republic of Indonesia, MPR, to suspend Gus Dur from presidency and replaced him with the vice president at that time.
Though his career on presidency must be hampered, he remained active on many political and social organizations until he must be taken to the hospital just few days before he died.
During his struggle for life and education, he had achieved a lot of awards and honoraries which some of them are listed:
* Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in Law from Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand (2000)
* Honorary Doctorate from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand (2000)
* Honorary Doctorate of Law and Political Science, Economics and Management Sciences, and Humanities from the University Pantheon Sorbonne, Paris, France (2000) * Honorary Doctorate from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (2000)
* Honorary Doctorate from the University of Twente, The Netherlands (2000)
* Honorary Doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India (2000)
* Honorary Doctorate from the University of Soka Gakkai, Tokyo, Japan (2002)
* Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from the University of Netanya, Israel (2003)
* Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Konkuk, Seoul, South Korea (2003)
* Honorary Doctorate from Sun Moon University, Seoul, South Korea (2003)