Habibie's nomination not a victory for Moslems: Scholar
JAKARTA (JP): The imminent accession of State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie to the vice presidency does not represent a victory for Indonesian Moslems in politics, but for the political elite, a political observer says.
Moeslim Abdurrahman said yesterday that the solid support Habibie enjoys from the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) did not correlate with Moslems' increasing involvement and influence in the country's political affairs.
"An indicator of Indonesian Moslems' increasing political influence would only be when a Moslem figure, like Amien Rais or Nurcholish Madjid, is elected vice president," Moeslim said before a discussion on political and economic reform held by the AKATIGA Research and Analysis Institute.
He speculated that Habibie did not enjoy the support of Moslems because executives of the influential Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI), which Habibie himself chairs, had repeatedly said it was not a political institution and never nominated Habibie for the vice presidency.
However, Moeslim said it did not by any means indicate that Moslems are divided over the future state leadership.
"Indonesian Moslems have never been divided into groups," he said. "The reality is that they have withdrawn from practical politics."
Asked for the reason why Indonesians remained subservient in the political arena, Moeslim said they were not strong enough to voice their aspirations.
"There are no alternative political powers among the grassroots, (so people don't have a strong) political bargaining position from which to forward their aspirations," he said.
Moeslim also commented on the firm support that Habibie enjoys from the ruling Golkar and the Armed Forces. He speculated that the two factions did not choose Habibie independently but were influenced by President Soeharto's preference for him.
Habibie's nomination is President Soeharto's victory, Moeslim said. He also suggested the current situation was that Golkar and the Armed Forces no longer played a dominant role in political decision-making.
Dissent
The chairman of Golkar's MPR faction, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, expressed his optimism yesterday that there would be no dissenting voices in his team on Habibie's vice presidential election nomination in March.
"Insya Allah (God willing), such a possibility (of a split) will not happen, because everybody has to stick to the organization's policy," Ginandjar said after presiding over a plenary meeting of the Golkar faction at the Assembly building.
Ginandjar was responding to speculation that some Golkar Assembly representatives would refuse to vote for Habibie.
Golkar holds 588 of the 1,000 Assembly seats, thanks to its landslide victory in last year's general election. However, it also enjoys traditional support from the Armed Forces and the Regional Representatives factions, which hold 113 and 149 seats respectively.
Ginandjar, who is also State Minister for National Development Planning, said he formally received yesterday an order from Golkar's board of executives to nominate Soeharto and Habibie for the presidency and vice presidency respectively in March.
Earlier yesterday, deputy Assembly speaker Abdul Gafur accepted motions in support of Habibie's nomination from four mass organizations.
The Association of Indonesian Engineers (PATI), the Central Sulawesi Community (IKST), the youth wing of Golkar-affiliated cooperatives association (Kosgoro) and the association of Maluku- descents living in Jakarta (EMMJ) said in their statements yesterday they supported Habibie's nomination.
The secretary-general of Kosgoro's youth wing, Fachri Andi Laluasa, said after meeting with Gafur that his organization decided to back Habibie after learning that all five factions in the Assembly nominated him.
"We did not include Habibie among our potential candidates previously, but now we must be realistic," Laluasa said, adding that his group would urge Kosgoro to follow suit. (imn/amd)