Anas Urbaningrum elected as new HMI chairman
YOGYAKARTA (JP): The Association of Islamic Students (HMI) concluded its chaotic congress yesterday by electing Anas Urbaningrum as its new chairman for the 1997/1999 period.
Marked with brawls among participants and delays in its agenda, the congress gave majority support for the 26-year-old postgraduate student of the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences over six other candidates.
Replacing Taufik Hidayat, Anas won 128 out of 316 votes. Three other candidates -- Viva Yoga Mauladi, Umar Husein and Muzakhir Ridha -- won 80, 65 and 43 votes respectively.
Anas had from the start appeared to be the strongest contender in the congress which had been scheduled to conclude on Tuesday. More than a third of 103 HMI branches expressed their support for Anas, who passed with honors from the undergraduate sociopolitical program at the University of Airlangga in Surabaya.
"With Anas as the (new) chairman, we hope HMI will be able to restore its declining image as (an organization of) intellectuals," said Taufik in his speech. Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher closed the congress.
The congress also reached some important decisions, among which was the inclusion of all branch chiefs as members of the plenary council of the executive board.
The students also drew up a series of recommendations on various social and political issues. It called for the establishment of antimonopoly laws, and a limitation to the presidential term in the post-Soeharto era after 2003.
The congress also called for the independence of university campuses from various sociopolitical forces, and for the Armed Forces (ABRI) to restore the true meaning of its dual-role function. ABRI recognizes the concept of a dual-role function, known as Dwifungsi, which enables its officers to serve both in defense and sociopolitical roles.
Extended
The biennial congress was opened on Aug. 20 and had been scheduled to close on Aug. 25. It was extended following tension in some of its sessions.
The plenary session to elect a new chairman, for instance, was scheduled for Monday but only began on Wednesday and concluded yesterday, a few hours before the closing ceremony at 2 p.m.
As a consequence, the closing ceremony was also delayed several times. Tarmizi Taher had originally been invited to preside over the closing ceremony on Monday.
"I am touched that Minister Tarmizi made it to the closing ceremony," Taufik said. "This helped to disprove critics who said the HMI congress (was neglected by) top government officials."
Some senior officials -- including Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S. M. and State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung -- failed to attend the congress, as did prominent HMI alumni, such as scholars Nurcholis Madjid and Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
Anas will also chair a team entrusted with the task of establishing a full lineup of the organization's central board.
Sources said many of the sessions were delayed or prolonged because of the tension that arose when the congress heard Taufik deliver his accountability speech in a closed meeting which lasted for two days.
The tension took the form of fist fights and chair tossing by participants. Some of the delegates were injured and needed medical treatment.
Even after the session concluded, some participants still expressed dissatisfaction with Taufik's account of his leadership for the 1995/1997 term.
On the sideline, the women's wing of HMI, known as Kohati, held its own meeting which was also marked with its own problems. Secretary of the wing's Bandung branch, Yanti, was reportedly kidnapped on Tuesday afternoon and was locked inside a house until early Wednesday.
Yanti, who claimed to lead pro-democracy cadres of Kohati, said her as yet unidentified abductors threatened her not to stand in the Kohati chairwoman election. She had been scheduled to give a press conference on Tuesday, during which she planned to call for autonomy for the women's wing. (swa/23)