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)