Two academics named for Muhammadiyah Youth top job

Edith Hartanto and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya, East Java

University rector Suyoto and university lecturer Abdul Mukti emerged Tuesday as the strongest candidates for the post of Muhammadiyah youth wing chief.

As of 11 p.m. on Tuesday, the election for the leader of the country's second largest Muslim organization's youth wing had yet to begin.

But Muhammadiyah officials said that should another candidate emerge, they would not be surprised.

"Elections are unpredictable. So, let's wait and see," one official said.

Suyoto is the rector of the Muhammadiyah University in the East Java town of Gresik, while Abdul Mu'ti, a graduate from Flinders University in South Australia, is a lecturer in the Walisongo Institute for Islamic Studies.

The new leader will likely be elected in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to the youth wing congress's organizing committee members.

A total of 13 candidates had earlier been selected out of 120 leadership hopefuls.

The majority of votes cast by Muhammadiyah members went to PAN in the 1999 election, a matter which earlier caused some friction at the congress venue, the Asrama Haji in Sukolilo, between candidates who were officials of other political parties, including the United Development Party (PPP).

PAN is led by former Muhammadiyah Youth leader and former Muhammadiyah chairman, Amien Rais, who is now the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Abdul Mu'ti himself does not belong to any political party. The congress decided on Monday that a candidate must first resign from any political party posts he held in order to be appointed youth wing leader.

According to Suyoto, social changes could be more effectively brought about if Muhammadiyah Youth were to transform itself and focus on spreading Islam.

"The core missions of Muhammadiyah need to be actualized," Suyoto said in his policy statement.

The former chief of Muhammadiyah Youth in Central Java said he dreamed that the organization would become a reference for other youth organizations.

The 70-year-old Muhammadiyah Youth's five functions include seeking out potential members, recruiting potential members, and sending them on peaceful religious missions to spread Islam. But the organization has yet to produce national oriented programs to help solve the nation's economic, social and political problems.

Muhammadiyah officials have said that Muhammadiyah Youth should have a charismatic leader who could help shift the organization's attention from internal affairs and political issues to focus more on secular issues like labor, the Indonesian judicial system, the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, health, the environment, gender, and the electoral bill.

"How can they produce national oriented programs when they have never discussed these issues in the first place?" a Muhammadiyah leader, Rizal Sukma, had earlier said.

"It is my hope that the new Muhammadiyah Youth leader will not be sucked into political power plays."