Muhammadiyah to elect chairmanship candidates

By Santi WE Sukanto and Wisnu Pramudya

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): About 100 leading members of the Moslem organization Muhammadiyah will begin today the preliminary process of electing the group's chairman by short-listing 39 of the 95 registered candidates.

In a meeting of Muhammadiyah's law-making body, the Tanwir, expected by the leaders to proceed in a democratic manner, representatives of the 26 provincial branches of the reformist organization will be asked to name the leaders of their choice.

Muhammadiyah Vice Chairman Syafii Maarif said that two of the candidates were A.M. Fatwa and H.M. Sanusi, members of the Petisi 50 group of staunch government critics. Each have spent nine years in prison for subversion.

In its 1985 and 1990 congresses, Muhammadiyah leaders were "ordered" by the authorities not to include any Petisi 50 members in the group's election process. Petisi 50 is led by former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin.

"But that was then," Syafii told The Jakarta Post. "There were political, security reasons for that. It's different now. They are members of Muhammadiyah, they have rights and they are free."

The other candidates include incumbent Amien Rais; Golkar leading member Din Syamsuddin; former Muhammadiyah vice chairman Lukman Harun; Syafii himself; senior leader Prodjokusumo; a low- profile ulema from East Java, Abdurrahim Nur; and Secretary Rusjdi Hamka.

Syafii said that, so far, the Tanwir meeting, which is a prelude to the congress proper -- to be opened by President Soeharto on Thursday -- has been proceeding relatively free from any external pressures.

Golkar

Rusjdi said, however, that the whole issue of "pressure from outside elements" could not be separated from the fact that the Muhammadiyah has 28 million members, making it an appealing potential power base for any political grouping in the country.

Attempts to drag Muhammadiyah into politics have come from various quarters, including Golkar, through local government officials, said Rusjdi, who was recently elected chairman of the Jakarta branch of the United Development Party (PPP).

Rusjdi noted the persistence of State Minister of Food Ibrahim Hasan, when he was governor of this province, in urging Muhammadiyah to hold a congress in Aceh.

Ibrahim had strongly urged Muhammadiyah to hold the congress here since 1985, an informed source told The Jakarta Post. Only in 1990, when Ibrahim attended a Muhammadiyah congress as an ordinary participant, did the organization's leaders accept his offer.

Before 1987, Golkar, the government political grouping, had never won any of the three general elections in Aceh, which had been a stronghold of the PPP.

Rusjdi said the considerable assistance that the local administration had provided for the Muhammadiyah congress here was part of the Golkar campaign to convince the Acehnese that it pays as great attention toward Islamic causes as the PPP does.

Rusjdi said that, should the Golkar campaign succeed, the PPP would do even worse in the 1997 general elections. "I think, in that case, the PPP will be wiped out here," he told the Post.

The Tanwir is expected to end tonight. Tomorrow, hundreds of Muhammadiyah leaders will hold a special forum to deliberate contemporary questions, including labor conditions and national culture.

Amien Rais said yesterday that the ulemas would examine the two issues from the perspective of Islamic law and would probably establish a smaller team to conduct more intensive study and prepare solutions.

Some 50 Acehnese ulemas from other organizations will also take part in the meeting, one of the functions of which is to issue religious decrees (fatwa) to Muhammadiyah members.