Maulana Isman becomes head of Kosgoro youth

Maulana Isman becomes head of Kosgoro youth

JAKARTA (JP): Maulana Isman, a younger brother of State
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman, was elected
chief of the Kosgoro youth organization in a congress last week.

Maulana's election surprised many observers because he was not
on the original list of candidates in the race for chairmanship
until the last hours of the congress that took place in the West
Java town of Serang, 90 kilometers west of here.

Initially, Maulana declined to enter the chairmanship race,
which was fought for by seven senior Kosgoro figures, including
Eddy Sofyan, who replaced Hayono after he was named minister.

Kosgoro is one of the four organizations that helped found the
ruling political grouping, Golkar, in 1964.

Isman, father of Maulana and Hayono, was the first chairman of
the mass organization. Until he was appointed minister last year,
Hayono was Kosgoro's chairman.

Kosgoro was founded on Nov. 10, 1957 by former members of a
student army as a saving/lending cooperative. It developed into a
regular mass organization after people from other organizations
joined and increased its membership.

When attending the congress, which brought together 1,200
Kosgoro members from across the country, Hayono told journalists
he would remain neutral in the election.

In Saturday's election, which lasted until 12.30 a.m. in
Serang, Maulana obtained 20 votes while his top rival, Setya
Novanto, received only eight.

Maulana, the current chief of the Jakarta chapter of the
Indonesian Youth Committee, promised he would reform Kosgoro and
strengthen its commitment to defend the poor.

He announced his intention to enter the race only late on
Friday, just hours before the election was due to begin. "I
decided to enter candidacy because of the urging coming from many
provincial branches," he said in a letter made available to the
congress participants.

His change of mind threw the scenario of candidacy into
disarray as Eddy Sofyan, Setya Novanto and Uncu Natsir were then
the strongest candidates, Antara reported.

In the preliminary selection, 13 of the 27 vote-holding
representatives from the provinces voted for Maulana, 11 for
Novanto and three for Natsir.

In the final round, Maulana won 20 of the 29 eligible votes.
Eight voted for Novanto and one abstained.

The congress, which was closed on Saturday, also formed a
seven member electoral board, which will select new members on
the board of executives. (pan)