Achmad opens ICMI congress

JAKARTA (JP): The third congress of the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) was opened on Thursday by its acting chairman Achmad Tirtosudiro, who stressed the importance of human resources development.

"As many people choose political parties, it's a chance for ICMI to focus on the development of human resources," Achmad, who also chairs the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA), said in his address to around 1,000 participants at the Pencak Silat Center near the Indonesia Miniature Park, East Jakarta. The congress is held every five years.

He urged ICMI, as a group of intellectuals, to continue its struggle for improving human resources quality, both in their religious and professional standards.

He claimed that ICMI's cadres, who include members of the bureaucracy apparatus, had contributed much to the democratic transition period from the New Order to the current reform era.

"Our intellectual cadres were also involved in asking the former President to step down. We also contributed to the acceleration of the democratization process during the term of former president B.J. Habibie," he remarked.

Habibie, who has led the association since its inception in 1990, failed to show up for the ceremony.

Achmad said Habibie was accompanying his ailing wife in Germany.

"Pak Habibie said he hoped to see ICMI's existence maintained to help the nation foster unity," Achmad said.

He said ICMI would also remain an association of intellectuals of various backgrounds and educations.

As a religious-based organization, Achmad said ICMI had succeeded in leading Muslims from a peripheral to a major role in the country's political scene.

The four-day congress will elect a new chairman and other executives for the next five-year term.

Several names have been tipped to replace Habibie, including the incumbent secretary-general and former minister of cooperative and small and medium enterprises Adi Sasono and ICMI deputy chairman M. Dawam Rahardjo.

During Habibie's term, many ICMI members held crucial ministerial and other government posts.

Several ICMI's senior members, including chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) Satrio Budihardjo Joedono, and former state minister for food A.M. Sjaifuddin, attended the ceremony.

President Abdurrahman Wahid was known as an outspoken critic of the association in the past. (jun)