Adi Sasono elected ICMI's new chairman

JAKARTA (JP): Former state minister of cooperatives and small and medium enterprises Adi Sasono was elected chairman of the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association (ICMI) at the end of the association's four-day congress on Sunday.

He replaces former president B.J. Habibie, who had held the post since the association was established in Malang, East Java, in 1990.

Adi, who was the association's secretary-general, will be assisted by five deputies -- economist M. Dawam Rahardjo, businessman M. Amien Azis, lecturers Jimly Asshidiqie and Zuraini Jamal, and Shalahudin Wahid, the deputy chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, and the brother of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

The congress also elected communications expert and Golkar Party legislator Marwah Daud Ibrahim as secretary-general.

Former forestry minister Muslimin Nasution was elected chairman of ICMI's council of experts, replacing Amien Rais, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly and chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

A former acting chairman of ICMI, Achmad Tirtosudiro, was appointed chief of the association's supervisory board, while former state minister of human rights affairs Hasballah M. Saad was named the board's secretary.

Adi, who chairs the People's Sovereignty Party (PDR), defeated a number of other candidates, including Muslimin, Marwah and Jimly, in the early Sunday morning election.

Noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid had been nominated for the chairmanship, but was dropped as a candidate because he failed to fulfill the requirement obliging candidates to explain their vision for the organization.

The 57-year-old Adi said under his leadership the association would concentrate on four main agendas, including programs dealing with the people's economy and humanitarian issues.

"The economic development of the people is significant for the country's economic recovery," he said during a media conference after closing the congress.

He said the association also would help contribute to the settlement of humanitarian problems in the provinces of Aceh, Maluku, West Kalimantan and Irian Jaya.

He revealed ICMI had established three teams to lead the organizations humanitarian program.

The Aceh team is led by the former chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), Ismail Hasan Metareum, while the team for West Kalimantan, Maluku and Irian Jaya is led by Hasballah. A team established to help victims of flooding and landslides in Central Java is being headed by Republika daily general manager Parni Hadi.

Habibie, who had been scheduled to open the congress on Thursday, did not appear until the congress' closing because he had accompanied his wife to Germany for medical treatment. (jun)