Stay out presidential campaign: Amien Rais
JAKARTA (JP): The Moslem organization Muhammadiyah warned its members Saturday against campaigning for either Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates ahead of the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) next March.
Muhammadiyah Chairman Amien Rais told thousands of its members at a meeting in the East Java town of Tulungagung, that the organization would leave the selection of the nation's leaders to the assembly.
"We ask all Muhammadiyah members to be careful about the election of the President who will guide this nation into the 21st century," he said.
"We are not going to back any individual who will stand for the post, although we do have a lot of expectations for the candidate to fulfill," Amien was quoted by Antara saying.
The 25 million-strong Muhammadiyah is second in size only to Nahdlatul Ulama, which is led by the influential Abdurrahman Wahid.
The MPR convenes here next March to decide the broad guidelines of state policies and to elect the President and Vice President for the 1998-2003 period.
President Soeharto is favored to clinch his sixth five-year term. Several cabinet ministers have been tipped for the Vice Presidency.
Amien said that Muhammadiyah would never set specific criteria for presidential candidates, but expected that they could, among other things, maintain political stability, raise the welfare of society, be willing to dedicate themselves to the country and uphold the state ideology Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution.
"Muhammadiyah is looking for a president who always thinks of national benefits above personal and group interests and is eager to heed the people's aspirations," he said.
The President must be able to rise above all national problems and get along with people, Amien said.
He also warned organization members against possible provocation by certain groups ahead of the March assembly.
"I warn you not to fall in with any destructive movement provoked by other groups. It's not easy to rebuild once everything is wrecked," he said.
He reminded the crowd that the recent riots which claimed many lives, cause massive financial losses and destroyed many places of worship went against the teachings of Islam.
Amien praised the New Order under Soeharto for its development programs that increased literacy, health and living expectation rates and maintained commendable economic growth.
However he said socioeconomic disparity, corruption and inadequate law enforcement remained substantial problems that Indonesia had to solve.
"For those reasons, I score the government's performance in the past 25 years as 7.5 (out of10)," he said. (amd)