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.