Habibie's nomination not a victory for Moslems: Scholar

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 "The reality is that they have withdrawn from practical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)