Adi Sasono defensive upon election
Adi Sasono defensive upon election
JAKARTA (JP): Adi Sasono, 52, was all smiles following the announcement that he had been elected secretary of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI) over the weekend.
"It's time for you to start praying for me now," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday, acknowledging the burden of helping the 25,000-member ICMI meet its ambitious agenda of bringing economic prosperity to the country's poor Moslems.
"ICMI is not a political organization. It was established to improve the quality of life of Indonesian Moslems, the quality of their faith, their thoughts, work, performance," he told the Post prior to the congress.
The question of ICMI's political maneuvering and his own had been dogging Adi since news broke out that he was among the top potential leaders. The former student activist has since been using every high-profile opportunity to deflect accusations of ICMI politicking.
The closer it came to the congress, observers could detect defensiveness behind Adi's explanations of the organization and its programs and activities.
"Who says ICMI is elitist? If it was, it wouldn't have bothered to set up economic schemes to help alleviate poverty or push for the establishment of a draft law on the protection of small scale entrepreneurs," Adi said.
Some people said the defensiveness was understandable given the fact that Adi Sasono was once a student activist and a leader of a non-governmental organization critical of the government, and how close he is now to the center of the power.
"Who says ICMI is close to the power holders?" he said recently in a discussion. "It's not even enough for us to be close to the power. We should be that power. Only from within the (power) system can we make changes in society".
He is the chairman of ICMI think-tank Center for Information and Development Studies and the recipient of the 1989 Aga Khan award for community work. He dropped out from the Bandung Institute of Technology but was appointed a senior researcher at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, which ICMI chairman Habibie heads.
"We can see how proud Habibie is of Adi, how he admires Adi's intellectual capability," political observer Arbi Sanit said of Adi.
Observers say Adi successfully kept his calm during the tense hours prior to his election. He seemed unruffled when news circulated that a senior bureaucrat, Jimly Ashiddiqie, had as great a chance to obtain the position.
Born in 1943, Adi joined the 1966 student protests against the communists' role in the previous year's coup attempt. He helped establish some organizations, including the Masyarakat Pembangunan Indonesia (the Indonesian Community for Development).
Despite all the controversies over ICMI's political roles in society and its involvement with the power holders, "one thing we can be sure of is that Adi has his own commitment to the community," said one reporter covering the congress. (swe)