Muhammadiyah Youth to win back reformist credentials
Muhammadiyah Youth to win back reformist credentials
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
Muhammadiyah Youth (the youth wing of Muhammadiyah) carries a
huge burden on its back: the venerable name of Muhammadiyah, the
second largest Muslim organization in the country.
Muhammadiyah Youth also carries another burden: how to live up
to the reputation for reform that its parent organization built
up over the years.
When its founder, the revered kyai (Muslim preacher) Achmad
Dahlan, set the organization up in 1912, he startled the public
by introducing Western education into the organization, then an
anathema to a nation struggling to free itself from Dutch
colonialism.
The third burden is the youth adjective, which suggests
vitality and vigor.
Today, these burdens seem to have multiplied as the reform
movement started in 1998 seems to have run aground. People are
wondering, where has Muhammadiyah's spirit of reform gone?
The four-day congress of the youth wing, which ended here on
Wednesday, failed to exude any spirit of reform, with its leaders
seemingly too preoccupied with power struggles.
Rizal Sukma, a young leader of the Jakarta-based Muhammadiyah
central board, said the reform spirit had long disappeared.
"Muhammadiyah is suffering from obesity. It is too
fat. It has difficulties moving," he said of the parent
organization.
Muhammadiyah has become a victim if its own success,
especially in building schools and hospitals, and so has the
youth wing, Rizal said at the congress venue, the Asrama Haji in
Sukolilo, Central Surabaya.
Participants were talking yesterday about regional leaders
going around the rooms of the chairmanship candidates every now
and then, apparently trying to influence the election. These kind
of activities continued throughout the night right up till dawn.
Abdul Mukti of Central Java won the election on Wednesday,
beating Suyoto of East Java by a slim margin.
Among the usual campaign handouts circulating at the congress
was a declarations signed by ten regional leaders, and an appeal
for candor from the Muhammadiyah Students' Association.
The declaration brought into the light of day questionable
past practices of Muhammadiyah Youth, including abuses of power.
It quoted a report from Gatra magazine about the suspended shrimp
plantation venture it was involved in with the Ansor youth
organization. Ansor is affiliated to the biggest Muslim socio-
religious organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama.
It says the case was only the tip of an iceberg of dubious
practices in the organization.
The regional leaders also criticized the congress for being
too remote from the common people's problems.
"The meager intellectual contribution given to remedying the
nation's ills at the congress is indicative of Muhammadiyah
Youth's surrender to the temptation of short-term political
goals," it says.
While refusing to say so in the open, senior leaders of
the youth wing quietly expressed their fears about the lack of
new ways of doing things in the organization and the
preoccupation of its leaders in jockeying for power.
With an eye on the 2004 election, the major political parties
are vying to win over younger voters.
A participant at the congress said Muhammadiyah Youth could
adopt a more reformist stance.
"I think our colleagues in NU are more reformist today," said
Masykur Ikhsan, referring to the biggest Islamic organization in
the country, Nahdlatul Ulama.
Part of the reason was the lack of cultural bonds among
Muhammadiyah members, he said.
The NU's youth wing members were known to be involved in a
variety of social and intellectual activities, including book
publishing and charitable work.
Rizal said that Muhammadiyah and the NU were reversing their
roles.
"In the past, Muhammadiyah was known as a reformist
organization while the NU was more traditionalist," he
said, "but now they are changing places."