Muhammadiyah looks to establish party

Muhammadiyah looks to establish party

SEMARANG (JP): Amien Rais, chairman of the Muhammadiyah Moslem
organization, has said he will ask his deputy, Syafii Maarif, to
head a political party after it was evident that there was an
enormous desire from members of the organization to establish
one.

Amien said after closing a leadership meeting here late
Tuesday that the creation of a new political party would be
discussed further at the organization's plenary meeting in
Jakarta next week.

"If it is established, I will assign deputy chairman Syafii
Maarif to be the chairman of this new political party," Amien
remarked.

Amien asserted that he would remain leader of the organization
until the next Muhammadiyah congress in 2000.

However he expressed his readiness to be nominated as
president by the new political party.

Amien, who was at the forefront of the reform movement which
led to former president Soeharto's resignation in May, also said
that the party would be open and democratic.

Syafii himself was aloof when asked about his name being
mentioned to head the new party. He maintained that Amien's
support for him was individual in nature and not on behalf of the
organization.

"We'd better wait until this new political party is
established," Syafii said.

Muhammadiyah was established by noted Moslem leader Ahmad
Dahlan in November 1912.

A senior member of Muhammadiyah's central executive board,
Lukman Harun, said last week that the organization was not going
to become a political party.

He said that since 1971, the organization has given up any
intention of becoming a political party. He said that the group
would stick to its current social mission.

Similar questions have been posed to the leaders of Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU), the country's largest Moslem social organization.
Some NU leaders have said they are considering setting up a
party. (har/byg)