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)