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)