Amien's resignation a matter of prestige

Amien's resignation a matter of prestige

JAKARTA (JP): Amien Rais relinquished his top slot in the
Association of Indonesian Moslems Intellectuals (ICMI) last week
because of pressures from within the Muhammadiyah organization he
chairs, it was claimed yesterday.

Amien resigned from ICMI's Council of Experts on the
Muhammadiyah Youth Association's recommendation last November,
said the youth wing organization leader, Hajriyanto Y. Tohari.

Hajriyanto told reporters the youth wing advised Amien to
resign after he was publicly scolded by an ICMI top executive for
an unknown reason.

"We then asked Pak Amien to quit his post in ICMI," he said.
"We couldn't accept such treatment. We thought the incident had
hurt Muhammadiyah's pride."

A plenary meeting led by organization chairman B.J. Habibie
decided Monday to "accept" Amien's resignation as chairman of the
association's Council of Experts.

Habibie said Amien had asked to resign from his post last year
on the grounds that his heavy Muhammadiyah workload had made it
difficult for him to function effectively in ICMI.

He denied allegations that Amien was forced to resign because
of his critical stance on several government policies, including
the activities of the giant American mining company PT Freeport
Indonesia in Irian Jaya and the planned Busang gold mining
operation in East Kalimantan.

"By the same token, we would have asked Amien to resign from
Gadjah Mada University if he had been scolded by its rector,"
Hajriyanto said.

Amien is a politics lecturer at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah
Mada University.

Amien said yesterday Muhammadiyah would propose Malik Fadjar
and Fuad Bawazier to step into his shoes at ICMI.

Malik is Muhammadiyah's coordinator for human resources and
cultural development and Director General for Institutional
Supervision at the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Fuad is
Director General of Taxation at the Ministry of Finance.

Habibie has said that it has been decided that Amien's
successor will come from Muhammadiyah. He named Fuad Bawazier,
who is also a member of ICMI's board of advisors, as a likely
candidate. (imn)