Habibie receives greater support for ICMI chair
Habibie receives greater support for ICMI chair
JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals (ICMI) entered the second day of its congress
oiling the machinery for the re-election of old chairman B.J.
Habibie.
Plenary sessions as well as other items in the congress'
agenda saw even greater support for Habibie, who is also State
Minister of Research and Technology. For instance, it took the
plenary less than one minute yesterday to agree to accept
Habibie's account of duty.
"Shall we agree to accept his account?" meeting chair
Imaduddin Abdulrahim asked the 1,200 participants after Habibie
was given the opportunity to clarify his report of duty, which he
delivered on Thursday.
The participants yelled in unison "Agree!". Some whistled.
Imaduddin brought down a gavel, thus signifying the end of the
1990 - 1995 term of ICMI executive board under the leadership of
Habibie.
Imaduddin led the gathering to shout Allahu Akbar (Allah is
Great) three times, and in giving Habibie warm, lengthy applause.
In the previous sessions, representatives from 36 regional
branches here and abroad were given time to review the
performance of ICMI for the past five years, and to criticize or
praise.
Twenty-eight branches broke the congress' schedule and began
expressing their conviction that Habibie should be re-elected.
The remaining eight representatives at first tried to follow the
schedule and refrained from stating their preference for the top
man, but Habibie later urged them to do so.
As widely expected, the representatives then took the
opportunity to declare their support for Habibie.
In his speech yesterday, Habibie reminded the participants
that he would like to follow procedures of the congress to the
letter. "I appreciate your decision to nominate me. I respect
your wish, but let's follow the regulations and let the congress
decide," he said.
Habibie said he did not mind should other names emerge as
potential leaders in the congress. "If you want to name other
people, please do, as long as you do it by the regulations, and
that is electing those names at elections at units level," he
said.
Habibie obtained the most votes during all of the preliminary
elections at the level of 434 units and regional branches.
Habibie said that the procedures and the mechanism for
leaders' elections have been established "bottom-up", and that
nothing was imposed from "top-down".
Everything had been decided first by the meetings of the
organization's 434 regional branches and units, he said.
He refuted suggestions that some top layers of the
organization have forced their will on the rest of the members.
"There are no top-down policies adopted by ICMI," he said.
The congress then established the council of electorate
consisting of 45 representatives from 36 regional branches and 9
from the outgoing executive board. Habibie, former minister of
environment Emil Salim, Haryanto Dhanutirto, who is also Minister
of Transportation, and Ahmad Watik Pratiknya, a senior official
at the Ministry of Education, were included in the council.
The others were Muhammad Thohir, Muslimin Nasution, A.M.
Lutfi, Mahmud Zaky and Yusuf Amir Faisal, and the representatives
of the 36 branches.
The body met until late last night to choose seven people to
become a "team of electorate", which will then be entrusted with
the task of establishing the line-up of the 1995 - 2000 executive
board.
Congress sources said the negotiations are likely to be tough,
despite the fact that preliminary elections have established a
list of names for the new executive board and other bodies.
"I believe, it wouldn't have to take long if only Habibie were
willing to be a little more forceful with the rest of the
council," he said. However, "if Habibie chooses to be democratic,
it's going to be a lengthy process."
Difficult negotiations may also take place because of the wish
to accommodate as many parties as possible, including those who
are critical of its outgoing leadership. Legislator A.M.
Saefuddin, who campaigned for Habibie to be replaced by Emil
Salim, for instance, is reportedly included in the organization's
board of experts.
"Whatever the congress decides, I would be loyal to it, but my
stance doesn't necessarily mean that I would also be loyal to the
chosen chairman," he said.
Politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas, who is a staunch critic of
the government and member of the outgoing executive board, stole
the show yesterday by appearing "without being invited". He met
Habibie in a separate room, and the two men chatted for a while.
Bintang, however, told the press he did not support Habibie's
re-election. "If Habibie chairs ICMI again, the organization will
become even more dependent on the bureaucracy," he said.
"ICMI should be chaired by independent people like Imaduddin
or Dawam Rahardjo," he said. The last name he mentioned was also
member of the outgoing board. (swe)
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