Muhammadiyah may cast off Pancasila

Muhammadiyah may cast off Pancasila

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's second largest Islamic organization,
Muhammadiyah, looks set to drop state ideology Pancasila and
adopt Islam as its basic philosophical principle.

A majority of representatives from provincial chapters
attending the 44th Muhammadiyah congress here on Sunday expressed
support for a return to Islamic-based principles.

East Kalimantan's representative Andi Sofyan even suggested in
his presentation at the plenary session that Muhammadiyah push
for the inclusion of an adherence to Islamic law for Muslims in
the preamble to the 1945 Constitution.

"We support the idea that Muhammadiyah returns to an Islamic-
based organization. We also demand that Piagam Jakarta be used in
the Constitution," Andi said during the second day of the four-
day congress being held at Padepokan Pencak Silat, East Jakarta.

Delegates from Aceh, East Kalimantan, Jambi and West Nusa
Tenggara also formally expressed support for removing the state
ideology from Muhammadiyah's principles.

The final decision on whether or not to replace Pancasila will
fall on Monday at a debate between members of Commission C in of
the congress.

Pancasila consists of five articles, in which the first
article states a Belief in One God.

The first articles of Pancasila contained in the 1945 Piagam
Jakarta include the Belief in One God and an obligation for
Muslims to abide by Islamic shariah law.

Muhammadiyah chairman Syafi'i Ma'arif conceded that there was
a strong demand for the organization to return to Islam as its
basic principle.

"However, I would personally prefer if Muhammadiyah did not
have a proclaimed basic principle. Muhammadiyah itself is already
considered as Islamic, without it implicitly being mentioning,"
Syafi'i said on Sunday.

He pointed out that since the founding of the organization in
1912 until 1956, Islam was not formerly stated as a principle of
the organization.

Muhammadiyah, which was founded by Ahmad Dahlan in Yogyakarta,
adopted Islam as its basic principle between 1956 and 1985. Then
the government at the time "decided" that all organizations
should use Pancasila as their basic principle.

Deputy chairman of Pemuda Muhammadiyah, the youth wing of the
organization, Joko Susilo maintained that it was almost certain
that Pancasila would be dropped since the use of the state
ideology in the past was demanded by the government.

"At that time, it was as if we were raped by the government,"
Joko who is also a legislator from the National Mandate Party
(PAN), said on Sunday.

He supported Syafi'i in that it might not be necessary to
explicitly declare Islam as a basic internal principle since
Muhammadiyah was already known as an Islamic organization.

"Whether or not Islam is declared as our basic principle is
fine by me," he added.

Muhammadiyah activist Din Syamsuddin viewed the strong demand
to remove Pancasila from provincial chapters as a reflection of
disgust against past governments.

"We had to accept Pancasila at that time because of the
government's hegemony. Now it seems that they want to oppose past
intervention," Din, who was a former deputy secretary-general of
the Golkar Party, said.

But he said even if Islam was formally declared as a basic
principle, it would only amount to a legal-political statement
that would not significantly change the organization's daily
practices.

"Although Pancasila should be viewed as state ideology, mass
organizations should be free to choose their principles as long
as it's not against Pancasila," he said.

Meanwhile, in its accountability report on Saturday night,
Muhammadiyah observed that the nation was in a "sick condition",
due to the incomprehensiveness of the national leadership and
management.

"Even in some things, it seems that Muslim participation is
neglected in the nation's life," said the report read by
secretary Ahmad Watik Pratikya.

Watik claimed that the nation was suffering a national
leadership crisis, and urged all national components to improve
themselves.

He said Muhammadiyah would continuously evaluate the national
problems to find clear thoughts and sharp analyses as it had done
from the independence of the country until now.

Muhammadiyah, with its 30 million-strong membership, was
formerly chaired by Amien Rais, who was known as an outspoken
critic against former president Soeharto's administration.

Amien, who now chairs PAN and is the People's Consultative
Assembly Speaker, is also known as a critic of President
Abdurrahman Wahid.

Abdurrahman is a former chairman of the largest and most
moderate Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama. (jun)