Din's Muhammadiyah win another blow to Amien

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?