Muhammadiyah asked to support Amien
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The second largest Muslim organization in the country has repeated its call that members of the organization should throw their support behind presidential hopeful Amien Rais.
Unlike an earlier call which was met with some opposition, this call appeared to receive wider support.
"Muhammadiyah members might have voted for various political parties in the recent legislative election but this time, we all must support Amien Rais for president," Muhammdiyah's deputy chairman Dien Syamsuddin told a press conference here on Monday.
The legislative election was held on April 5 as a precursor to the July 5 presidential election.
Muhammadiyah is the power-based of the National Mandate Party (PAN) who nominated Amien Rais, a former chairman of the organization, as its presidential candidate.
Dien was accompanied by Muhammadiyah secretary Haedar Nashir, Muhammadiyah treasurer Dasron Hamid, Muhammadiyah's women wing Aisyiyah chairwoman Siti Chamamah Soeratno, Muhammadiyah Youth Organization head M. Mufti and chairman of the Association of the Muhammadiyah Students Ahmad Rofiq.
The last three had earlier expressed their opposition to the first call for its members to support Amien for president, fearing that the organization would lose its independence.
The call was also rejected by Muhammadiyah deputy secretary Hajriyanto Y. Thohari, who is also a House of Representatives legislator from Golkar Party.
Muhammadiyah Chairman A. Syafii Maarif failed to attend the conference, which was also attended by PAN Chairman Amien Rais, PAN secretary-general Hatta Radjasa, PAN campaign manager Bambang Sudibyo and legislator A.M. Fatwa.
In February, Syafii said that his organization supported Amien's bid for president as the organization believed Amien had a clear commitment to reform and served Muhammadiyah with dedication.
However, the call of the organization, which boasts 35 million members, has failed to help PAN to boost its number of votes.
As of Monday, it remains in seventh position with only 6.4 percent or slightly less than its 1999 achievement of 7 percent.
Amien admitted that he was "a little shocked" with the result of the vote, however, he maintained his goal of running in the presidential election in July.
"I am here and I will still run for president, God willing," he told the press conference.
Amien said that his party has failed to meet the target to become one of the big three winners in the legislative election. However, he believed that PAN would get 49 to 51 seats, among 550 in the House of Representatives across the country.
"I insist on going for the presidential election because PAN will get 9.5 percent of the seats and because I am supported by Muhammadiyah and other reformist elements," he said.
Amien said that he would wait until the General Elections Commission (KPU) announces the election results at the end of this month before he named his running mate.
"I am not interested in becoming vice president, I am not power hungry," he said.
Political expert from Airlangga University Daniel Sparringa had said that the official call from Muhammadiyah to its follower would not significantly increase votes for PAN or Amien since Muhammadiyah members were rational and rarely devoted themselves to certain figures over and above the organization's values.
"Muhammadiyah is different from NU, whose followers will obey whatever their clerics propose," he said, referring to Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization.