Amien says Muhammadiyah has no conflicts

Amien says Muhammadiyah has no conflicts

JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the Muhammadiyah reformist Moslem
organization, Amien Rais, denies any internal rift occurring in
connection with next month's chairmanship election.

"There is no such thing as the `poles of Jakarta and
Yogyakarta' in Muhammadiyah," he said yesterday, referring to two
major branches of the organization. "Neither are ulemas pitted
against intellectuals."

"There are people who say that there are conflicting sides
within Muhammadiyah, but those so-called poles are imaginary," he
told the Antara news agency in Yogyakarta.

He acknowledged only the existence of small groups trying to
disrupt the organization from within.

"These parasites should be eliminated. But the organization
itself is growing healthily," he said, without making specific
allusions to anyone.

The congress is expected to proceed smoothly and compactly and
to serve as an example for other congresses, he said confidently.

The organization will hold its 43rd congress and elect its new
leadership in Banda Aceh from July 6 to July 10.

For the last several weeks, speculation has been rife as to
whether the organization will be able to iron out alleged
differences among various groups during the congress.

However, a number of scholars, including political scientist
Afan Gaffar of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, have
said that there are groups standing on opposite poles in the
organization. He said there are leaders who are loyal to the
organization, and there are those who only seek personal gain
from it.

But yet another prominent scholar took the opposite view.
Political observer Maswadi Rauf from the University of Indonesia
optimistically said that there is only a small chance that
conflicts will occur during the chairmanship elections because
"there is no rigid dichotomy" within Muhammadiyah.

Unlike the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) organization, which is
currently chaired by controversial scholar Abdurrahman Wahid,
Muhammadiyah does not appear to have pronounced differences among
its members' views, he said.

For instance, there are no people who are overly "pro" or
"against" the government, Maswadi told The Jakarta Post. "There's
no such dichotomy," he said.

"I don't think there are going to be sharp conflicts occurring
in the congress. At least I haven't seen signs of such
conflicts," he said.

"I believe the organization will be able to avert full-blown
conflicts because most of the leading members are intellectuals
who don't have radically contradictory views," he said.

Maswadi also said he believed the government would take a
milder stance regarding the election of the new Muhammadiyah
leadership, and would not interfere as much as it did during the
election of the NU's executive board in December last year.

"The government is not as concerned as it was then over who's
going to be the new chairman," Maswadi said. "I believe it's the
same for the government, whether the congress elects Amien or
Lukman Harun, or anybody else."

"There are great opportunities for prospective candidates to
compete honestly," Maswadi said.

Lukman Harun is a former leading member of the organization,
on whom analysts have slapped various labels, including
"government lobbyist".

Afan

Afan Gaffar said yesterday in Yogyakarta that Muhammadiyah
will have a more marked "political nuance" if it elects Amien
Rais next month. "This is a logical consequence of the character
of that leader," he said.

Afan himself has been inviting criticism over his analysis of
the organization's leaders. Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi
Taher has said that Afan stepped over the line when he said there
were some Muhammadiyah leaders who were looking out only for
their own political interests.

"His analysis was way out of line," Tarmizi was quoted by
Antara as saying yesterday. "It's not true that there are groups
of such leaders in Muhammadiyah.

"Muhammadiyah has developed and matured. There are no internal
problems, so it's not true that it has three groups of leaders."

Afan grouped Amien Rais and several other leaders as those who
are loyal to the organization, Lukman Harun and Djazman Al Kindi
as those who only seek a livelihood from it, and intellectuals
Din Syamsuddin and Watik Pratiknya as those who threaten to use
the organization as a steppingstone to further their political
interests.

Tarmizi also reiterated the government's non-interference
stance on the congress, saying it will not favor any candidate
over the others. (swe/har/02)