Muhammadiyah congress begins in deadlock
Edith Hartanto and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
A day before the opening of its congress the Muhammadiyah youth wing has failed to come up with its list of leader candidates with its present leader citing participants wishes that it return to its original role as a socioreligious organization as the main reason for the delay.
The election process was marred by strong inferences by 91 Muhammadiyah leaders nationwide in the meeting that the youth wing could end up becoming an auxiliary organization of well- trained cadres, serving certain political parties as possibly a physical force in the upcoming 2004 polls.
The youth wing is set to begin its congress on Sunday with the election of a new chairman high on the agenda. The congress itself is due to end on July 10.
The current chairman of the Muhammadiyah youth wing, Imam Addaruqutni, said that the youth wing would be consistent in ensuring that it will act as a socioreligious force and that it will not involve itself directly in politics, particularly with the 2004 general polls coming up.
"We will make sure that we are not made into a political tool of a certain party or parties, in connection with the elections. We need to produce statesmen ... and not just political party workers," Imam told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
A selection team of mostly Muhammadiyah officials was still working to pick the final prospective candidates late on Saturday night.
The preliminary Tanwir (annual) meeting on Saturday afternoon, which was supposed to set ground rules for the election and select the final candidates for youth wing leader, ended in deadlock.
Some 46 representatives voted that the future youth wing leader must not be a chief, or secretary-general of any political party, 20 others took a stronger stance by not allowing any political party members to join the chairmanship race, 13 abstained from voting while at least 12 others ended up walking out of the meeting.
Since most of the candidates for the top post are members of political parties, including the National Mandate Party (PAN), they insisted on staying in the chairmanship race.
Among the widely-mentioned candidates are Suyoto, the rector of Muhammadiyah University in Gresik who is also a member of PAN and Najamudin Ramdy who is one of PAN's executives. The current chief is Imam Addaruqutni.
Muhammad Midarsy, who is the PPP secretary-general for East Java chapter and was one of the candidates vying for the post of youth wing leader, fell out of the race on Saturday.
"There is no way I am going to go for chief or secretary- general of the youth wing now. Their objectives are different ... I feel, as if I am being pressured to work for PAN, when actually I am totally a PPP guy," he said.