Din's Muhammadiyah win another blow to Amien

Muhammad Nafik and ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post/Malang

In a foregone conclusion, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) secretary-general Din Syamsuddin was officially declared the new chairman of Muhammadiyah here on Thursday after winning unanimous support from the newly elected executive board of the country's second biggest Muslim organization.

His victory appeared to be a new blow to former Muhammadiyah chairman Amien Rais who was eliminated in the first round of last year's presidential election.

Amien launched political maneuvers in an apparent attempt to block the election of Din, although the former People's Consultative Assembly speaker had vowed to retire from the political arena after his failed bid for the presidency.

Amien had supported Abdul Rosyad Sholeh to challenge Din in the leadership race. On the other hand, Amien could also have accepted any candidate other than Din, to replace Ahmad Syafii Maarif as the Muhammadiyah leader for the 2005-2010 period.

But when Rosyad failed to get more votes in the election of the organization's 13-member central board on Tuesday and only came sixth in the poll, Amien had to acknowledge the popularity of Din.

In an about face, Amien publicly urged the 13 names, elected by a total of 2,041 voters from a list of 39 candidates to sit on the board, to immediately name Din as the new chairman of Muhammadiyah, so as not to tarnish the democracy that it has been promoting.

With Din unanimously elected on Thursday to take the top post of Muhammadiyah, it shows that Amien's influence and charisma has further diminished in the organization he once chaired.

Speculation surfaced among Muhammadiyah activists that Amien might still have ambitions to contest the next presidential election, when he moved to exercise his influence on the Islamic organization, which claims some 30 million members nationwide.

For that reason, Din's campaign team and young Muhammadiyah members accused Amien of meddling in the leadership race in the hope that he could have used the organization to back his possible presidential bid in 2009.

Amien still holds a firm grip on the National Mandate Party (PAN), which he formerly led and founded with other Muhammadiyah leaders in 1998, after his handpicked candidate, businessman Sutrisno Bachir, won the party's top post in April.

Din's inner circle said Amien was expecting Muhammadiyah under Din to support his second bid for the presidency in 2009, which Din rejected given Amien's waning popularity.

Din was one of Amien's main campaigners in the presidential election last year.

The growing opposition of young Muhammadiyah intellectuals to Amien also played a role in his faction's loss in Thursday's election.

On the other hand, the youths' support for Din boosted his popularity in the organization by middle class Muslims.

For young members, Din is considered the most eligible figure to lead Muhammadiyah among other candidates including Rosyad Sholeh, Haedar Nasir and Malik Fajar. They believe that Din, who obtained his doctorate in Islamic studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a "progressive Muslim scholar with a global vision".

Joining Din's campaign team were several political scientists and Muslim scholars, including Bachtiar Effendi from the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) and Rizal Sukma from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Close relations between Din, a professor of Islamic studies at UIN, and liberal intellectuals in Muhammadiyah further improved the support for him.

Accusations that Din defended or protected radical Islamic groups in Indonesia were not considered a serious problem for him and Muhammadiyah, although many non-Muslims worry whether he could be as tolerant and moderate as his predecessor Syafii Maarif.

Last month, Din was invited by the United Nations to address a forum in New York to discuss religious pluralism. Earlier, he also spoke at a similar conference on Islam in Russia. This all apparently signaled an international recognition of his Islamic credibility.

His prominent role in Golkar's executive board during the Soeharto era is often considered a negative factor for him because he is often perceived as an opportunist. His past role, however, apparently did not reduce his popularity among Muhammadiyah members.

Support for Din also came from other groups on almost all levels of Muhammadiyah, where he served as vice chairman under the leadership of Syafii Maarif.

His frequent visits to the organization's provincial and regency branches proved to be effective in his efforts to solicit support for his successful leadership bid. Fortunately for him, many current Muhammadiyah executives in the local branches also serve in the MUI, a reality that further strengthened their structural ties with Din in the organization.

The election of Din took less than two hours, with all 13 elected members of the new central board unanimously naming him the new chairman.

Now the question becomes: Can Din perform better than his predecessor Syafii, who won international recognition for his inclusive and moderate stance, in improving the lives of Muhammadiyah members?