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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