Moslem Student Organization in identity crisis

Moslem Student Organization in identity crisis

JAKARTA (JP): The Moslem Students Organization (HMI) will face
nothing less than an agenda of crisis when it begins its
twentieth congress today in Surabaya.

After President Soeharto opens the meeting today, leading
figures of the 200,000-member organization will begin
scrutinizing the issues of future leadership and the recruitment
of members.

The organization, which used to have important roles on the
domestic social and political scene, will have to deal with the
question of what kind of role it should be playing in the present
day.

HMI is now at the crossroads, facing the question of whether
it needs to return to a greater involvement in politics, or
whether it should "return to the campus", to a more academic
orientation.

None less than its former leader, Akbar Tanjung, who used to
be a vocal political activist and is now Minister of Public
Housing, has urged HMI to withdraw from politics and "get back to
campus".

"Nowadays it is no longer appropriate for the association to
be involved in practical politics," Akbar said. "Of course an
individual association member may indulge in practical politics
in his private capacity, by joining one of the political
organizations, but he must not do so while carrying the
association's banner."

Established in 1947 in Yogyakarta, HMI became an important
political force and was involved in the nation's struggle against
communism during the chaotic years of the 1960s. Many HMI leaders
went on to important positions in the bureaucracy.

Prominent former members of HMI include Finance Minister
Mar'ie Muhammad, Golkar Deputy Chairman Abdul Gafur, Minister of
Public Housing Akbar Tanjung, United Development Party chairman
Ismail Hasan Metareum, Moslem scholar Nurcholish Madjid and
political scientist Deliar Noer.

Since the late 1970s, when the government clamped down on
student movements by introducing the concept of "normalization of
campus life", HMI gradually lost its luster. When in early 1980s
it decided to join other organizations in accepting the state
ideology Pancasila as the sole foundation of all organizations,
the religious student movement became dormant.

"The organization is in a coma," political scientist Dr.
Maswadi Rauf of the University of Indonesia told The Jakarta Post
yesterday. "It has been dormant for years, it no longer has
political clout, and it has not been responding to various
problems in the society."

Maswadi was in agreement with political observer Dr. Afan
Gaffar of the Yogyakarta-based University of Gajah Mada that the
most urgent problem facing HMI is its lack of strong leadership.

"HMI is in a crisis of leadership," Afan said. "It's been
unable to produce leaders with clear vision, leaders who are as
strong as its former figures like Nurcholish Madjid, Akbar
Tanjung, or Mar'ie Muhammad."

Both men listed numerous steps that the organization needed to
take in order to gain more clout in society, especially on
campuses which during the last decade have seen student apathy
and a reluctance to join any mass organizations.

"HMI should re-evaluate its situation and its roles, and re-
orient itself if needs be," Afan said. "It should cooperate with
other organizations and student movements, including those which
are religion-based, in order to attract more members."

Even if the organization cannot be directly involved in
practical politics, it should at least become a moral force in
society, he said.

"The organization has been too quiet, it has not responded
adequately to issues such as human rights, democratization, labor
conditions and land disputes," Afan said.

Afan believed that some of the former members of HMI who join
the Corps of HMI Alumnae (KAHMI) group, have contributed to the
stagnation. Many members of KAHMI occupy important positions in
bureaucracy.

"Many of those alumnae have a vested interest in making HMI
weak...they hold the purse-strings of the organization," Afan
said. "If HMI is too daring, these alumnae's positions might be
threatened, so they tell it to keep quiet."

Maswadi backed Afan's opinion, saying HMI needs to rally all
its resources and address the problems of "poor programs, poor
recruitment mechanism and poor roles".

He suggested that HMI should now return to the campus, not in
the sense of abandoning politics and concentrating only on
academic matters, but with a view to training more members.

It should approach the education authorities, including the
Minister of Education and Culture, to develop collective programs
for addressing social issues, he said.

HMI should "re-invigorate its activities from the lowest
layers of the organization, in order to cultivate new potential
leaders," Maswadi said, adding that the group had to re-assert
its independence.

"It should become more political, not in the sense of merely
engaging in mud-slinging or raining criticism on power holders,
but in the sense of being more involved with its surroundings,"
he said.

One of the most pressing problems that HMI will deal with in
the congress, however, is that of leadership.

"We realize that our past recruitment has excluded quality
cadres," outgoing chairman M. Yahya Zaini told the press.

Maswadi agreed. "The least that HMI can do now to start its
campaign for greater independence is to elect an independent
chairman," Maswadi said. (swe)