Former Muhammadiyah leader dies

Former Muhammadiyah leader dies

JAKARTA (JP): Abdur Rozak Fachruddin, for 22 years the leader
of the Muhammadiyah, the country's largest socio-educational
organization, died in Jakarta yesterday from a long bout with
several illnesses.

He was 79 years old and is survived by his wife Hajjah
Komariyah and seven children. He was buried later in the
afternoon in Yogyakata.

Fachruddin suffered from heart trouble, leukemia and vertigo.
Before being treated at the Islamic Hospital for two weeks, he
had been treated in a Muhammadiyah hospital in Yogyakarta, his
hometown.

President Soeharto paid his respects to Fachruddin at the
Jakarta hospital yesterday morning. He also ordered Fachruddin's
body to be flown by a special Hercules plane to Yogyakarta later
in the day for burial.

When Fachruddin was in hospital here recently, Soeharto
assigned one of his specialists to help the hospital's team of
doctors. The President also ordered Minister of Religious Affairs
Tarmizi Taher to represent the government at the burial ceremony.

Also paying their respects yesterday were Minister Tarmizi,
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Ismail Hasan
Metareum, the visiting Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak
and chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas' Council KH Hasan Basri.

Fachruddin was chairman of Muhammadiyah from 1968 until 1990,
the longest serving leader of the organization, which runs some
12,000 schools.

Fachruddin stepped down in 1990, refusing to be re-elected due
to his deteriorating health, even though his popularity among
the leaders in the provinces was unchallenged.

At the end of his tenure, when the government imposed the
adoption of Pancasila as their sole ideology and some groups
rejected it, Fachruddin accepted. He compared the obligation to
"ordering a motorcyclist to wear a helmet." The order had just
then been introduced.

His activities in the organization started as a teacher and
as a leader of the Muhammadiyah boy scouts in Palembang in 1934.
During the Indonesian revolution Fachruddin joined the Moslem
militia, which was later integrated into the formal army. He
ended his military career as second lieutenant.

His later years saw him as an official of the Ministry of
Religious Affairs apart from his continued teaching career.
Between 1988 and 1993 he was member of the Supreme Advisory
Council, an august state body in charge of giving advice to the
President.

Fachruddin, who never had his own home until his death, was
known as a humble man. Minister Tarmizi quoted President Soeharto
as saying recently that Fachruddin was a very modest person,
simple at heart and dignified in the way he talked.

"This nation needs leaders with Fachruddin's quality," the
President said as quoted by Tarmizi. (tis)