Adi Sasono elected ICMI's new chairman
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)