Muhammadiyah calls for honest brotherhood

Muhammadiyah calls for honest brotherhood

The rivalry between Abdurrahman Wahid and Amien Rais has been
blamed for tension among the grassroots of their respective
organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah.Fasichul
Lisan, chief of Muhammadiyah East Java whose members number 1.5
million, pleads for honest brotherhood (ukhuwah). The professor
of pharmacy at Airlangga University in Surabaya also calls on
members of the two largest Islamic organizations to cease their
preoccupation with politics.

Question: In February, tension between Muhammadiyah and NU
turned into attacks and intimidation. How is the situation now?

Answer: Alhamdulillah (thank God), there are no more attacks
now. But among the grassroots, tensions remain because of the
lingering residue of violence. The mobilization of jihad fighters
(in defense of the President from his political foes) has
indirectly aggravated the situation.

Actually, long before February, we received a number of
reports about Muhammadiyah friends being provoked, and that they
wanted to return the attacks. This peaked on Feb. 7 when a number
of Muhammadiyah schools, mosques, university buildings and even
orphanages were vandalized.

A mob of 50 unidentified people surrounded the house of a
Muhammadiyah leader to intimidate him. Another friend was
actually attacked by four people -- Alhamdulillah, he could chase
them away single-handedly.

We endured it without retaliating, but I told my friends that
if necessary we could defend ourselves. To boost our morale, we
remobilized our security units such as the (martial arts group)
Tapak Suci and Hizbul Wathan. Not to show off force, but because
members of Muhammadiyah should be physically and mentally
prepared to face threats.

Had counter-attacks by Muhammadiyah really occurred, we would
have had a real mess. Physical actions should be the last resort
which is why we still focus on ukhuwah.

Q: How much damage was incurred during the attacks?

A: Monetary value is not important. What's more important is the
question of morality. If vandalism was allowed to occur without
punishment than people would find it easy to attack one another.

Later, I turned down the NU's offer for financial assistance
(for repair work, on condition that Muhammadiyah proves that NU
members were indeed involved in the attack).

That's because I consider ukhuwah to be important, and I'd
like to build a "clean" ukhuwah untarnished by suspicion. I was
afraid that if I received the money, new problems would emerge
and people would say that it was just the money that we wanted
after all.

Yet we believe everything will settle down as soon as the core
problem is resolved. The core problem is the politicking. I am
hoping that constitutional institutions will soon resolve it so
we can move ahead with democratization.

Q: How are you handling the remaining tensions between members of
the two organizations?

A: As I have said, by striving to build ukhuwah, through
diplomacy, by raising public awareness that brotherhood is more
important than politicking. Only by realizing that brotherhood is
the backbone of our community can we then hope for an end to
political bickering.

But what we want is an honest friendship, where there is
respect, openness, one that is clean and long-lasting. The
brotherhood that we have today among Muslims is still marked by
suspicion and trickery. That's not ukhuwah. I don't want this to
continue the way it is -- the generations that come after us will
blame us for this and continue blaming one another.

Q: You're relying on honesty and respect?

A: All social relations are built upon trust. The greater the
trust, the stronger is the relation. I yearn for a relationship
that is based upon this trust, honesty, openness and respect for
one another that becomes of paramount importance. Only with those
elements can we build true brotherhood.

I believe that both NU and Muhammadiyah need one another's
respect. Not that this is easy to achieve. History has shown that
the two organizations do not always have smooth relations. Let's
agree on honesty and on brotherhood.

Q: What is the biggest challenge to building brotherhood?

A: I blame everything on politics. Muhammadiyah has made efforts
not to enter politics. Had our friends from NU had the same
principles as ours and done the same things that we had, all
these problems would have been resolved.

We understand that with Khittah 26 (NU's 1926 declaration to
forswear politics and become a socio-religious movement), NU is
non-political. (However, if this was really the case) NU and
Muhammadiyah would be the same as they are both socio-religious
movements.

Now if we talk about social issues, we will invariably
encounter the same problem, namely poverty and ignorance. And if
we talk about religion, we will have the same source, namely the
Koran. Although there are indeed differences, if we view these
differences wisely, we could co-exist peacefully.

As for the tension, it is not the responsibility of
Muhammadiyah alone to reduce it. That is the duty of all of us.
Under such tension, how can we be productive? How can we work to
build the country's future?

If Muhammadiyah is expected to carry out its part in reducing
tension, then other parties should not do anything that would
create fresh tension ...

And the challenge to your effort to build ukhuwah?

As I have said, everything is affected by politics. Which is
why the Muhammadiyah of East Java wishes to develop other pillars
such as economic, social and cultural aspects of community life.
We hold, for instance, art and painting exhibitions. Now we are
working on developing the economy of the ummat by, for example,
building a retail business called Markas.

Will this endeavor involve NU? Economic activities are
indiscriminate, so of course the NU grassroots will be involved.
In fact, we want to provide alternatives so the community is not
preoccupied with politics.

Q: What are you doing to prevent Muhammadiyah from being trapped
by politicking?

A: We disallow members from holding two posts. All executives of
Muhammadiyah at all levels must not be simultaneously active in
political parties. We uphold this principle to prevent the
overlapping of Muhammadiyah's activities and political activities
as it is usually difficult for the public to tell whether a
person is acting on behalf of his party or Muhammadiyah.

We ask our friends to stay as far away as possible from
politics. They have asked me for advice whether to accept or
reject certain assignments. I tell them that it's no longer in
the realm of Muhammadiyah. If the letterhead of Muhammadiyah is
being used to obtain a post, that's politics. And politics is
about power.

Q: Amien Rais has yet to be able to stop using Muhammadiyah as
his political vehicle, because his National Mandate Party (PAN)
is still small...

A: I don't know, but there is a very long-standing emotional tie
(between Amien and Muhammadiyah). Pak Amien became an activist of
Muhammadiyah when he was just a child. It would be difficult to
ignore those emotional and cultural ties just like that. Besides,
Pak Amien's achievement in Muhammadiyah was great. He was once
the chairman of Muhammadiyah.

Now that he has entered politics, not everyone has been able
to adjust their stance, regarding him, immediately. But this
adjustment is needed because his activities are now different
from those during his days in Muhammadiyah ...

But at the same time there are people who disagree with Pak
Amien and try to drag Muhammadiyah into politics. So the change
is not real. Some people still see Pak Amien as identical with
Muhammadiyah which is problematic.

We really have to work hard to clarify that Pak Amien is now
Pak Amien with his PAN, while Muhammadiyah is Muhammadiyah.

Besides, the constituents of Muhammadiyah are not being
courted by PAN alone, but also by other parties. So ... we can
understand why some friends in PAN claim that Muhammadiyah is
also PAN.

Muhammadiyah, however, has to be firm and declare that
Muhammadiyah is not PAN. It would be belittling to Muhammadiyah,
which is such a big and old organization, to be placed under PAN.
Pak Amien once said, "parties can come and go, but Muhammadiyah
should not go the same way." This is an organization that is more
than 100 years old, after all. (Santi W.E. Soekanto)