Muhammadiyah needs to do more in future: Observers

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): Both foreign and domestic observers have called on Muhammadiyah to improve the quality of its leadership and, with its 28 million members, to help find solutions to international problems.

Two experts on Muhammadiyah, Mitsuo Nakamura from the Chiba University in Tokyo and Mohammad Sobary from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) expressed the hope, separately, that the 83-year-old organization would be able to retain its "specific culture" while, at the same time, gradually accommodating change.

"Muhammadiyah leaders should maintain the organization's culture," Nakamura said, adding that independence, a critical stance and non-involvement in politics were the organization's strong points which should be maintained.

"Muhammadiyah can serve as a moral force in handling social issues, such as corruption and collusion," the Japanese sociologist said.

"The organization (doesn't need to be) directly involved in political activities," he said. "Does it need to do any specific (political) activities using the strength of Muhammadiyah (members)?. I don't think so. Muhammadiyah should, instead, maintain its independence."

Nakamura praised the Moslem reformist organization, as a major national force, for its ability to cooperate with people from other religions, thus helping maintain national integrity.

However, he said the organization could do more in the international forum because it had "positioned itself as a modern movement which offers alternative ethics, ...moral values, as an answer for rapid social changes".

"This should answer some people's doubts about the ability of Islamic movements to find solutions to the problems of modern communities," he told the Jakarta Post.

Sobary, a Muhammadiyah member who has a regular column in the Kompas daily, said that in the future the organization would no longer be able to rely on the emotional attachment of its members in order to withstand problems.

The passion of the millions of people who make Muhammadiyah their identity, he said, was likely to remain, but the organization's leaders would have to find alternative roads for it to travel on.

"There are questions, such as the rush of modernity, to be dealt with," he said.

He said, however, that even the ongoing 43rd congress had proved that Muhammadiyah members were aware of the need to face future challenges on a more intellectual level.

He said that the majority of the 40 candidates for chairman of the organization were intellectuals and academics. "People have begun to realize that the organization no longer has leaders like A.R. Fachruddin," he said, referring to the late esteemed ulema, who led the organization for 22 years.

"It would be ideal if Muhammadiyah was led by people like Pak A.R. (Fachruddin), but there's nobody like him."

"The organization also has to contend with the fact that it's going to need leaders who are not only knowledgeable on religious matters," he said.

Chairman Amien Rais has expressed his conviction that Muhammadiyah may play a greater role on the international scene. Moslems, however, should be aware of what he says is the Western world's campaign against Islam's rapid development.

According to Amien, the West is resisting the revival of Islam using three strategies: "One which is blatant, one which is half- crude, and the other is slick, invisible but still resolute in hampering the growth of Islam."

He cited the Western world's treatment of several countries, such as Iraq, Iran and Libya, as examples of the blatant campaign. The recent developments in Sudan, Algiers, Yemen and Afghanistan were proof of the West's half-crude campaign against Islam, he said.

The West's slick ruses against Islam usually use issues such as human rights violations, he said. "Indonesia is one of the countries which have been subjected to this kind of strategy," he said, adding that very often it was Western countries which were actually violators of human rights.

"Look at how they handle the Bosnia-Herzegovina question," he said. (swe/Wisnu Pramudya)