Fuad wins KAHMI chairmanship

JAKARTA: Former finance minister Fuad Bawazier was elected as the Islamic Student Association Alumni Family (KAHMI) chairman at the conclusion of the organization's extraordinary congress in Yogyakarta on Tuesday.

Fuad, who served during the last term of former president Soeharto in 1998, won 169 of 209 votes to beat 12 other candidates, who included former Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief of staff chief Maj. Gen. (ret) Kivlan Zein and Tamsil Linrung, a National Mandate Party (PAN) activist who was arrested along with two other Indonesian nationals in Manila over illegal possession of explosives early this year.

Tamsil said the victory for Fuad, a PAN legislator at the People's Consultative Assembly, was expected.

The congress was challenged by the National Assembly Presidium of KAHMI and the HMI Alumni Forum.

Activists from the HMI Yogyakarta and Central Java chapters staged a rally to protest the congress, which they said would split the association and pave the way for its affiliation to a certain political grouping.

Of 188 regional chapters across 30 provinces, 156 supported the congress, making it legitimate according to the organization's statutes. -- Antara