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)