Looking to the future

Looking to the future

The congress of Muhammadiyah, which was closed in Banda Aceh
yesterday, ran without any substantial discord among its members.
Amien Rais, the incumbent leader, won by a land slide majority in
the election of new chairman and, examining the background of the
12 other figures, who were chosen to sit on the board, we tend to
believe that many members of his future cabinet consist of
unselfish and fully dedicated leaders.

The fact that the 83-year-old reformist organization has been
free of internal squabbles from the start of its congress is
noteworthy because, in this country, such a reality has been
rare. The people, notably political observers, have always blamed
intervention from outside elements--in which they also include
the authorities--for the troubles within many organizations here.

However, with Muhammadiyah, this kind of unwanted mediation
was nowhere to be seen. Muhammadiyah, with its estimated 28
million supporters, has great appeal to political groups, who
will contest in the 1988 general election, but none tried to
intervene in the congress. Its success seems to have been made
possible not because Muhammadiyah has no political attractiveness
but because it has an iron-clad integrity and high standards of
discipline among its rank and file, apparently managing to keep
outside elements out of the meeting hall.

But this success does not mean that the new executive board is
free of challenges. The fact that Muhammadiyah is one of the
largest organization in the world's largest Moslem community, is,
in itself, a challenge. In this situation Moslems should shoulder
the greatest responsibility for the nation's well-being, meaning
that their organizations, such as Muhammadiyah, are also called
upon to come up with best ideas to address the nation's lion's
share of problems.

Muhammadiyah, which runs more than 13,000 schools, has done
much in the domain of reformation, but it has acted like a
dormant volcano for many decades. Amien Rais' leadership, which
will take Muhammadiyah into the 21st century, should work harder
and more professionally. He should make Muhammadiyah a viable
reformist movement because of future challenges, especially the
complexity of modernism. Otherwise, the organization will fail to
survive, or, if it did, it would only watch the growing mental
decay among the people without being able to heal it.

Muhammadiyah should be pro-active in facing the onrush in the
development of communication technology, by producing its own
concepts on how to modernize education in the wider sense of
meaning. Also it should not be reluctant to criticize any
government program which it finds not in the interest of the
public.

The congress's critical stand on monopoly and the current
general election system is a step in the right direction. These
two, much-criticized elements are political in nature, which are
outside Muhammadiyah's spectrum of attention, but then in many
fields it is very difficult to separate moral from political
substance.

Modern and reformist concepts are also badly needed from the
organization's leaders in order to put an end to the staleness
and sense of stagnancy which Muhammadiyah's supporters have long
complained of.