Muhammadiyah urged to review its support for Amien's presidential bid
Muhammadiyah urged to review its support for Amien's presidential bid
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Scholar Muslim Abdurrahman urged the country's second largest
Muslim organization Muhammadiyah on Thursday to review its
decision to support Amien Rais's presidential bid, saying the
move would tarnish the organization's image as a cultural
movement.
"It's a political blunder. Sacrificing Muhammadiyah for
political interests," Muslim, who chairs Muhammadiyah's worker,
farmer and fishermen division, told The Jakarta Post.
He regretted that Muhammadiyah chairman Sjafii Maarif, a
national figure who had earlier managed to lead the organization
into a cultural movement along with other civil society elements,
had drawn the religious organization into politics.
According to Muslim, Sjafii was "forced" by Amien, who
formerly chaired Muhammadiyah, to make an official endorsement
for his presidential candidacy.
"Pak Amien was there (in Yogyakarta) when the decision was
made. There has been repeated pressure put on Sjafii to endorse
Amien through meetings," said Muslim, who joined Muhammadiyah's
plenary meeting in Yogyakarta on Tuesday.
After the plenary session on Tuesday, Sjafii announced his
organization's official support for Amien and urged all
Muhammadiyah members to choose the chairman of the National
Mandate Party (PAN) as their presidential candidate.
Another Muhammadiyah cadre, Hajriyanto Y. Thohari, also
regretted the decision, urging the organization to spell out the
criteria for a presidential candidate instead, rather than naming
certain candidates.
"The decision is disturbing because Muhammadiyah members could
be mobilized to vote based on sectarian reasons. It is
undemocratic," Hajriyanto, who is also a legislator from Golkar
Party, said on Wednesday.
While disagreeing that the endorsement would promote sectarian
politics, political observer Daniel Sparringa said on Thursday
that the endorsement would jeopardize the moderate and impartial
character of the organization.
Syafii met Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid at the
Muhammadiyah office in Menteng, Central Jakarta on Thursday to
discuss many issues, including the endorsement of Amien's
presidential candidacy.
"I respect Muhammadiyah's decision to nominate Amien Rais as a
presidential candidate," Nurcholish, who once joined Golkar's
presidential candidate selection, told reporters.
Sjafii insisted that in Muhammadiyah's view Amien was the only
presidential candidate who had consistently struggled for reform.
He reiterated that the endorsement had nothing to do with PAN
as Muhammadiyah members were free to choose any political party,
but were urged to vote for Amien in his presidential bid.
The legislative election will be conducted on April 5 to
choose members of the Regional Representatives Councils (DPD) and
the House of Representatives while the presidential election will
be held on July 5, with a possible runoff on September 20.
A total of 24 political parties will take part in the
legislative election.