Amien Rais re-elected as Muhammadiyah chief

By Santi WE Sukanto and Wisnu Pramudya

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): The new central executive board of Muhammadiyah re-elected intellectual Amien Rais yesterday as chairman of the reformist Moslem organization.

It took the 13 board members only three minutes to reach the decision, and even that struck some members as too long.

"Especially because the opening of the meeting itself took another two and a half minutes," Rosjad Sholeh, one of the board members, announced to great applause from participants in Muhammadiyah's 43rd congress.

In the final plenary session, the congress announced the re- election of Amien, who first took assumed the chairmanship following the death of K.H. Ahmad Azhar Basyir last year. It also issued a number of recommendations on various social, economic and political issues.

"Muhammadiyah supports the government's policy of not establishing diplomatic ties with Israel," one recommendation declared.

Another called on Moslem countries to solve problems among themselves, "in the spirit of brotherhood", to prevent outside interference.

But it was the re-election of Amien Rais that mattered most to most congress participants and political observers on the last day of the congress.

"The board members unanimously agreed to recommend to the congress that we elect candidate Amien Rais to be chairman of the Muhammadiyah central executive board for the 1995-2000 term," Rosjad Sholeh announced.

"All those in favor? In favor?" Rosjad asked the around 1,000 people in the assembly, to which the cheering majority answered that they were. Rosjad brought down a gavel, and Amien was formally elected.

Amien is expected to call a meeting of the new board soon to elect a secretary and a vice chairman and to decide whether more personnel will be needed to help manage the organization, which has 28 million supporters across the country.

Conclusion

At the conclusion of the plenary session, the congress had achieved its target of electing a new executive board and preparing a set of programs for the coming five years. The congresses of Aisyiyah and Nasyiatul Aisyiyah, the Muhammadiyah's women's wings, concluded, having elected, respectively, Elyda Djazman and Diah Siti Nuraini as their presidents.

"This is such a great task...If I ever make any mistakes, either from the perspective of Islamic laws or human laws, please don't hesitate to warn, to correct me," Amien Rais said in his acceptance speech.

"God willing, I will accept the warning and criticism with grace," he added, to loud cheers from the plenary session.

Vice President Try Sutrisno officially closed the congress last night at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque.

The presence of top government officials at the congress -- it was opened by President Soeharto on Thursday, and 13 ministers addressed the participants -- attest to the importance of the Islamic movement to the government.

The leadership of Muhammadiyah is different from that of other social or religious organizations in that the chairman does not have superior authority to the other board members.

The smoothest

Syafii Maarif, also a member of the new board, said the congress was the smoothest and most democratic he has seen. "Not too much conflict occurred here," he told the Jakarta Post.

Syafii was among leading candidates reported to be standing in opposite positions regarding the inclusion on the board of controversial activist Lukman Harun. When the election process had been completed and both men had been included on the new board, Syafii immediately went to Lukman and hugged him in a gesture of reconciliation.

In his speech yesterday, Amien told the congress that he would rely on his colleagues on the board and would not run the organization single-handedly.

"This is a collective leadership," he said. "Just like all of you, I have my weaknesses, shortcomings...So remind me if I make mistakes. Being a candidate who received the most votes is not a cause for me to jump in glee."

He said that the five-year term was long and the board needed all the prayers that the members could say for them in order to take the organization through to the next century.

"With the help of Allah, all burdens will be lighter, all difficulties will be resolved," he said.

He concluded his speech by calling on all members to perform a sujud syukur, a prostration in gratitude to Allah.